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Tag: Harold Pinter Theatre

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Ian McKellen On Stage, London

    THEATRE REVIEW | Ian McKellen On Stage, London

    ★★★★★ | Ian McKellen On Stage, Harold Pinter Theatre, London

    “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

    This is a famous quote from Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, and it can also be applied to Sir Ian McKellen, and his performance in his one-man show ‘Ian McKellen On Stage,’ a show that is both very entertaining, engaging, brilliant and great!

    McKellen has been touring this solo show all over the UK – 80 theatres for his 80th birthday, and now 80 performances at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London.

    And I strongly encourage you to go – do whatever you can to get a ticket. It is a tour de force performance, so unlike anything I’ve ever seen in live theatre. And it’s rare to see someone of his calibre, celebrity, candor, wit and knowledge on a West End Stage.

    McKellen takes us through his life during this show, which includes his work in both film (especially Lord of The Rings where he famously played Gandalf) and theatre, working with legends any actor can only dream of working with (Laurence Olivier). There is also a huge suitcase on stage, a suitcase littered with stickers of theatres where he has performed this very same show (The Space in the Isle of Dogs, the Young Vic, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Leicester Curve Studio… the list goes on and on). But in this suitcase are books by William Shakespeare, and McKellen gets the audience involved by asking them to call out the names of any Shakespeare book, which McKellen plucks out of the suitcase and proceeds to tell a story about said book, until all the books have been talked about – pure genius.

    Ian McKellen on Stage is what I suspect is the real Ian Mckellen off stage; genuinely warm, friendly, self-assured and confident and making you feel this way too, and by the end of the night he makes the audience feel that they were let in on his life, with some secrets told, and some gossip about other famous people, and opening up his life to us in a way no other performer (that I know of) has ever done. And we feel that we want to share our lives with him at some point as well. Ian (yes I feel comfortable enough to call him Ian) collects money in the lobby after the show for theatre charities (proceeds from this show also goes to theatre charities).

    Taking this show to 80 theatres around the country was an 80th birthday present to himself – it is also a birthday gift to us and is a once in a lifetime experience for us as well.

    Ian McKellen On Stage, is at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 5th January 2020, Book now

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Betrayal, Harold Pinter Theatre, London

    THEATRE REVIEW | Betrayal, Harold Pinter Theatre, London

    ★★★★★| Betrayal, London

    Heartthrob Tom Hiddleston shines in Jamie Lloyd’s new production of Betrayal, now playing at the Pinter Theatre in London’s West End.
    Betrayal is one of the late Harold Pinter’s more well-known works (from 1978), and it also clocks in at a snip 90 minutes, but it’s 90 minutes that’s full of drama, tension, and in this new stage version, very well acted.
    In a play that goes backwards and forward in time but is never confusing, Hiddleston plays Robert, a successful book publisher who is married to the beautiful Emma (Zawe Ashton, from television’s Fresh Meat and who more than holds her own on stage). Emma, you see, has been having, for several years, an affair with Jerry (a very good and very good looking and sexy Charlie Cox – best known for television’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and ‘Daredevil’), who also happens to be Roberts’ best friend. But there is more to it than this. Jerry and Emma have had a flat for their not so secret trysts for years, and Robert has known, because Emma told him, about the affair.
    Meanwhile, Jerry also has a wife and child. But as the plot goes back three years, to a time when Emma and Robert were very happy, to the beginning of the play when Emma announces to Jerry that she and Robert are splitting up, its one betrayal after another in a show that cleverly uses a chronology to tell the story in reverse. ‘Betrayal’ is also about a clandestine love affair, and lies told, in a show portrayed on stage by actors who are at the top of their game. And the three main cast members are always on stage, with one hovering in the background creating an eavesdropping like mood. 
    Hiddleston displays a very vulnerable side of him as the spurned husband who seems to be the innocent one amongst all the betrayal. And as Robert Hiddleston, near the end of the show which is actually near the end of the middle of the show, breaks down as he learns from Emma about the affair. It’s powerful stuff by a master of the stage (Hiddleston was also very superb in 2013’s ‘Coriolanus’). Ashton is good as the woman at the centre of two men who really really want her, while Cox brings a lure of sex appeal and confidence where we can see why Robert keeps him as his best friend and why Emma is having an affair with him even though she has her own family. All in all, Betrayal, with a set that is stripped to the bone, is very dramatic, and theatre at its best.
    Betrayal must end on June 1st, 2019
    For tickets, please go to:
    https://www.pinteratthepinter.com
  • THEATRE REVIEW | Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

    THEATRE REVIEW | Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

    Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

    Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf review
    Credit : Johan Persson 

    There are plays that are legendary and roles that have become iconic, making them feel impossible to reinterpret.

    The lacerating portrayal of George and his brash alcoholic wife Martha in Mike Nichols’ 1966 film by real life hard drinking, on/off couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton was a work of perfect genius.

    Surely this is impossible to equal? Watch and learn though. James Macdonald’s version is as close to perfection as can be and the assembly of a sublime script, a clutch of multi-award actors and a notable director have created something breath taking and rare.

    Have you ever had one of those nights where you’ve had too much to drink and end up holed up with one of those bickering couples who are determined to emotionally swipe at each other? Meet George and Martha: a middle-aged failed author, college lecturer and his drunken wife, daughter of the head of the college. New to the campus are Nick and Honey. He’s a prime piece of beef, a precocious high achiever in his late twenties with a mousy wife who can’t handle her drink. It’s way after midnight and the drinks are flowing. Let the games commence.

    Openly gay playwright Edward Albee was often asked about theories that the two couples in the play are based on gay men. He rubbished these claims and stated that had he wished to write about gay men then he would have done so. Whatever his intention this is a funny, painful play. Whether taken at face value as a play about relationships or as something deeper about the state of America or humanity, it’s a marathon at three hours long, but that’s worth taking part in in one and is as joyful as it is visceral. As the couples take bites out of each other the one-liners flow and the comedy morphs into something more painful and ultimately illustrates something touching and tender.

    Macdonald has captured more of the comedy in the piece than in some versions and Imelda Staunton and Conleth Hill are pitch perfect actors. Luke Treadway manages a fine depiction of cocky male confidence and it would be remiss of me not to mention his equally fine buttocks that he moves to strong effect. Imogen Poots is endearing as Honey. Their iconic roles and hard for an actor to make his or her own but the team manage this with aplomb.

    This is theatre at its finest. Go and see it now. It’s not often something this hot comes to town.

    Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf plays at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 27th May 2017

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Relative Values, Harold Pinter Theatre, London

    ★★★ | Relative Values, Harold Pinter Theatre, London

    In 1951 at Marchwood House in East Kent, Felicity the Countess (Patricia Hodge) is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her son with his new fiancée.

    More distressed by the news of his impending marriage is her loyal maid, Moxie (Caroline Quentin). Realising that the soon to be new Countess of Marchwood is not just the glittering Hollywood star she portrays herself as, but her long lost and bitterly resented sister from Sidcup, Moxie decides she has to pack her cases and leave. Felicity can’t bear to lose Moxie and along with her decidedly camp nephew and butler Crestwell (Rory Bremner), hatches a plot to dress Moxie up and palm her off as a family friend.

    Trevor Nunn’s revival of Noel Coward’s Relative Values contains some great performances, a beautiful set and great staging, yet somehow fails to fully deliver. In spite of Hodge, Bremner and Quentin showing impeccable timing and great comedic talent, the play feels rusty and out of touch and apart from the occasional glimpse of Coward’s usual waspish humour, felt humdrum and like a weak farce with a nonsensical plot. When the humour shines through it works well and there are some brief moments of high camp humour.

    Mostly, however, the play feels decidedly antiquated and hasn’t stood the test of time well. Coward’s glittering set pieces of Hay Fever, Private Lives and The Vortex aren’t reflected well here with the play lacking the rapidly paced repartee and razor sharp wit that Coward is well known for. Coward’s output was prolific so it’s to be expected that there is likely to be a weak link or two in his catalogue of plays and this lacklustre farce has to be a low point.

    It’s definitely a privilege to see two great actresses, like Quentin and Hodge, with such talent for comedy together on one stage. It’s just a shame that the piece doesn’t consistently offer them the material they need to work with.

    Relative values runs at the Pinter Theatre until 21st of June 2014

    Buy tickets here: http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/relative-values/harold-pinter-theatre/