Reviews

Arena Theatre are presenting a duo of one-act plays to celebrate their Sisters season, at the Shelley on 7 April, Bournemouth Little Theatre on 20 and 21 April, and Hanger Farm Arts Centre, Totton, on 12 May. Fleabag, in the manner of so many contemporary plays, seeks to be humorous, to shock and eventually to try and be profound, and at the same time it doesn’t seek to offer any grand solutions to the problems that it brings out into the open. Set around a single female character who is the centre of attention throughout the play, it leaves no

‘Life is a cabaret, old chum….’ This was the opening line from the Chairperson’s welcome as he introduced Waterside Musical Society’s 1968 Connections. With 50 years behind them, this concert celebrates the society’s highlights across the years as well as some interesting items from the year of 1968. There is a sense of community spirit from the moment you walk into the venue and this is such a reassurance in today’s climate. Sometimes in the amateur dramatic world there is no need for lavish sets, costume changes or even special lighting effects and last night was a good example of

Wayne Ings should be so pleased with this show: his young cast fully embrace every comedic notion, nuance and musical lilt in a buzzing score and bonkers story and script that just works  fantastically well on this stage at Eastleigh. He has clearly worked hard on all aspects of this show to bring an entertaining and new look to this classic while retaining all the elements that make it one. The band under the wonderful direction of Nigel Finch are so good that the notoriously arch Mr Porter would have found little to complain of, if anything: the sound beautifully

Whether BBLOC’s reputation had gone before them or whether it was the opportunity to see half a dozen men whipping off their clothes I know not, but a capacity audience at Wednesday night’s opening performance whooped and cheered their way through what proved to be a fantastic evening’s entertainment, performed in this company’s ever-excellent style. Although the film version of the show was set in Sheffield, this Broadway musical version by Terrence McNally and David Yazbek has the setting as Buffalo, New York State, where a group of unemployed steel workers discover a new, if emotionally challenging, way of making

The greatest compliment that can be paid to this production is that it does justice to one of the most popular plays in the canon. It allows all the brilliance of Wilde’s 1895 work to scintillate for the entertainment of the audience as epigram follows epigram and the familiar story unfolds of two likeable upper-class rogues who evade their social obligations and two wilful young women who have a clear idea of what they want. The sub-title, ‘A Trivial Comedy for Serious People’, is right: it is essentially a trivial piece and any attempt to find darker aspects, a link

When we are young, we believe that old age is something that happens to other people, erroneously assuming that we ourselves will remain the same for ever. Eventually, of course, we realise that there is no escape from the ageing process, and I speak from experience when I say that it’s a hard fact to deal with. For a performer who has spent his or her life being adored by many, the trauma must be even greater – and it is this that is at the core of Ronald Harwood’s play, set in a home for retired singers and musicians.