Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

Opening with a meet-not-very-cute at the airport, this sweet musical romcom squeezes in all the 'first visit to NYC' cliches and I am slightly embarrassed to note that I got nearly a full house, including the NYC snow globe.  This is a two hander with a couple of musicians and is a slight but highly enjoyable couple of hours as pretty much all of the romcom New York cliches are visited and lightly made fun of.   We had understudy Ellis Kirk playing Dougal as the wide eyed newbie who has seen far too many movies set in the city and assumes that NYC is just like in Home Alone.  Partnered with him is Robin (Duyonna Gift), the tired and hard bitten, cynical native.  During the 2 hours 15 minutes they do, unsurprisingly, carry a cake but have plenty of other adventures together and learn who and what really matters.   I enjoyed the very clever set made from piled up suitcases that turn into beds, wardrobes, fridges and any other props needed.  The song...

In the tiny Jerwood theatre in the loft of the Royal Court, and at an appropriate 90 minutes long, this was an entertaining evening spent with 16th century football.  Set in the reign of Edward VI we have Percy and Rowan, joined by a stranger as they are marking the outer boundary of the annual football match between villages, and it's probably going to go on for hours if not days.  They are far away from the action, barely pawns in the game but still heavily invested.  I had to think a bit to get my head in the right bit of history but of course this was the middle of the religious purges after the death of Henry VIII where to be on the wrong side or in the wrong group could mean being subjected to attack or even death.  The play takes all of the metaphors you have probably ever heard of applied to football and squeezes them in together, looking at the cultural, religious, territorial. gender divides, and pretty much every boundary you can think of.  The battle...

I read Our Mutual Friend far too many years ago and although I could remember the general plot it wasn't enough to have any idea of what to expect from this National Theatre collaboration between Ben Power and P.J. Harvey, directed by Ian Rickson.   Set in a murky, foggy, poverty-stricken London town, the stage is bare and black, apart from the musicians, with the lighting contorting to become the dark Thames and simple pieces of wood, chairs and tables being the only props.  This is a play with music, but definitely not a 'musical'.  The first half was pretty dark in all aspects, and despite a lot of plot to get through it felt pretty slow in places.   The music at this first stage was pretty downbeat too and wasn't really capturing me.  So, by the interval (at one hour and 30 minutes in!!) I wasn’t at all sure if I had the stamina for more of the same.  We were in the slips seats, but I was surprised to see that the circle was only about 25% ful...

A last minute returned ticket took me into London and to the Royal Court, fighting through the Championship League crowds to see Ben Whishaw, Emma D’Arcy and Kayla Meikle in Bluets which is pretty resolutely sold out.  A bit like a poetry reading, a bit like an art installation and, with live cinema as well, it also becomes a bit like an experimental film,  It was an intriguing 75 or so minutes.  The play itself doesn’t really have a narrative, instead being a kind of exploration of love, grief, pain, depression, desire,  all overlaid with the colour blue.  The premise is the narrator has lost a lover and has a friend who has had a terrible accident, and has also fallen in love, or maybe in desire, with the colour blue.  I can understand that, in that blue is surely the most desirable of colours but I was surprised that we didn’t get more of the actual colour on the screens.   All three actors stand at their own station with a desk with various pr...