Reviews

After the tremendous success of last year’s Priscilla Queen of the Desert, BBLOC have returned this year to delight both young and old, with family favourite Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This musical masterpiece takes its audience on a ‘fantasmagorical’ adventure when the eccentric Caractacus Potts is asked by his adorable children, Jeremy and Jemima, to save an old race car from the scrap heap – a race car which they later discover possesses magical powers! BBLOC are well-known for delivering performances of high standards, and this year was no exception. During a very well deserved standing ovation, the lady next

Following a critically acclaimed run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Southampton-based Curious Pheasant brought their innovative production of Romeo And Juliet to the NTC Studio, in what can only be described as a triumphant return to the City. With an elegant piece of timing, this abridged version of the text proved to be a perfect addition to this year’s Southampton Pride celebrations, on the same day. Here, both Romeo and Juliet are young men, on  opposing sides of two fiercely competitive rugby teams – Montague and Capulet, naturally – and this added a deeply intense frisson to their passionate and

Quite often, sitting down to write a review can require a fair degree of careful forethought, a judicious choice of wording and an amalgam of being entirely honest while trying to ensure that every word is constructive and, above all, fair. This is not such a task. The production, direction and performances are excellent. Richard Harris’s four-hander, described in the programme as “A tense psychological study of guilt and obsession”, fairly soon becomes a question not of who did what but one of how swiftly and by what route we are going to get from initially establishing characters, situation and

It is the night of Michael and Roma’s house-warming, complete with its reverse fancy dress theme. The evening should be lively and entertaining; however, a string of hilarious disasters ensues, complete with non-appearing guests, a rampant BBQ, a rather mobile Zimmer frame and the probability of a furious, estranged husband making an unwelcome appearance – all set against the ongoing feuds between neighbours and families! This is a wonderful example of comic farce at its very best, with highly skilled direction from Nick Longland (assisted by Lyn Butcher) bringing out every nuance of verbal and visual comedy from an equally

Theatre, of course, can do all sorts of things; provoke, explore, enlighten, expose, attack, celebrate, challenge … and so much more. Sometimes, as in this, the third play in London Repertory Players’ Summer 2018 season, it is content to entertain, as valuable a function as any. All are important functions; all need to be done well. This production succeeds. Francis Durbridge is probably best-known for his radio drama series based around fictional crime novelist and amateur sleuth, Paul Temple, which originated in the 1930s, ran until the 1950s and have been revived in recent years. Durbridge also wrote novels, for

Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy, How The Other Half Loves, follows three married couples whose lives are inextricably intertwined: Bob Philips and William Featherstone work for Frank Foster and Frank is considering bringing William onto his team; Bob constantly argues with his wife, Teresa, who suspects him of having an affair with an unknown woman; Bob tells her that William’s wife, Mary, thinks that he is also having an affair; on the other hand, Frank and Fiona appear to have a courteous but emotionally aloof marriage. Both the Fosters and the Philips invite the Featherstones to dinner, where both wives intend to