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The High Table, Bush Theatre
Review by Melida Haunton First things first: get a ticket for this. It’s a wonderful, wonderful show. But I guess you want a bit more of a review than that, so here goes: Temi Wilkey has written a brilliant first play, which grabs you even though you’ve probably seen many of the components of The…
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Up the Bunty, Fantastic Garlands at the Lion and Unicorn
Review by Melinda Haunton Full disclosure: I’ve been in a foul mood lately, and I badly, badly needed cheering up. Somewhat softened by the wine, and loveliness of the Lion and Unicorn pub’s actual pub bit, I was still the toughest of audiences for Up The Bunty. The setup has potential – good and bad.…
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A Christmas Carol, Chickenshed
Review by Melinda Haunton I’m going to warn you right away: I have absolutely no reviewer chill about this show. I spent my (first) time at Chickenshed getting into the spirit of a huge, diverse, inclusive production from this completely admirable social educational endeavor. I bought raffle tickets. I had interval ice cream for the…
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Exodus, Finborough Theatre
Review by Melinda Haunton Fifteen minutes before the end of Exodus, I wrote “Is this a tragedy?” in my notes. I’m still not certain. But I am certain it’s worth seeing. Motherlode has been touring this short four-hander, written and directed by Rachael Boulton, round venues in Wales for its premiere. It’s London’s luck that…
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Love, Genius and a Walk, Bringing Up the House, at Ye Olde Rose and Crown/Rosemary Branch Theatre
Review by Melinda Haunton There’s a tantalising idea at the heart of this play. What did Sigmund Freud and Gustav Mahler discuss on their only meeting, a walk in Leiden in 1910, fairly shortly before Mahler died? Both were hugely famous, and controversial. Mahler’s marriage was flawed, gossip-worthy, with his frustrated much-younger wife Alma having…
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Mirrors, Leicester Square Theatre
Review by Melinda Haunton Okay, look. I’m old, I’m grumpy, it’s been winter for six months. I accidentally ordered duck with cold, sour quinoa as a pre-theatre dinner. The word vlogger makes me retch a bit. In mid-show, I swallowed a weirdly non-evanescent bubble from the bubble machine I turned out to be sat under,…
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After the Ball, Upstairs at the Gatehouse
Review by Melinda Haunton Ian Grant’s new play is on an old theme: the impact of war(s) on families. Or is it the impact of love on relationships? Either way, After the Ball goes out of its way to show impact echoing down the generations. The play’s fluid time-shifting moves back and forth through the…
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The Moor, Old Red Lion Theatre
Review by Melinda Haunton Some thrillers go straight for the throat. Some follow a relentless thread to the denouement. The Moor takes another, more interesting route, circling around mystery and truth, revisiting one incident, or one night, swirling the audience in deeper to the answer to the mystery. Catherine Lucie’s’s new play pulls off the…
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Curtain Call, White Bear Theatre
Review by Melinda Haunton There’s something awfully familiar about Curtain Call. A boozed-up washed-up actor burning through his old relationships… isn’t that Simon Brett’s Charles Paris? A misanthropic artiste, full of high-flown language and infuriated by his too-successful old friend… isn’t that Ed Reardon? A winking in-joke of theatrical secrets…isn’t that too many productions to…
View from the Cheap Seat 