Reviews

When the lights fall dark at the end of a rehearsal (or during!) how different are the actors in real life? What are their relationships? How do actors interact with each other and the director? What would push you into murdering the leading actress? These were all the questions that Lyndhurst Drama and Musical Society are asking in their latest offering, Murder in Play, a murder mystery comedy by Simon Brett. Without wanting to give too much away, the play focuses on the murder of the leading actress, Renee Savage (Hilary Causey) in Boris Smolensky (Richard Barnett), a budding Director’s,

Nora Helmer is devoted to her husband, Torvald, and their children, so much so that when she sees the opportunity to secure a loan to pay for a restorative trip to ‘save my husband’s life’, she thinks nothing of forging her father’s signature to ensure that it happens. When her fraudulent activities are used against her, she is shocked by the turn of events and the reactions of those around her…. As director Bruce Macintosh observes in his programme notes, the socio-political background to Nora and Torvald’s marriage is less obvious today (and some aspects are no longer present at

Like most of Ayckbourn’s later work, Life of Riley is darker, more contemplative and less overtly comical than the plays with which he originally made his name. There are plenty of flashes of his ironic wit, though, in this story of the dying George Riley (who never appears) and the effect he has on his ex-wife, her new partner and four of his friends, while the familiar themes of family relationships and the disconnect between men and women are never far away. The play takes place in four gardens, each of which occupies a corner of the set, with downstage

The fact that this production is completely sold out for each of its performances is not only proof of the esteem in which this company is held, but also indicates how very popular the original TV series was. This, of course, is a double-edged sword because audiences expect to see the characters looking and sounding like the original cast. It seems that Dawn French et al were not available – and in any case I understand that Dawn is now a mere shadow of her former self – so director Peter Ansell had his work cut out to find eight

It is always a pleasure to attend a performance at the delightful Bournemouth Little Theatre in Jameson Road, Winton,with its quaint ambience, cosy interior and nostalgic appearance, and what better reason to turn out on a cold, wet evening than to watch an excellent production of Talking Heads. Alan Bennett, leading English-language dramatist since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s, wrote Talking Heads, which became a television series and modern-day classic, as have many of his works. In A Bed Among the Lentils, Susan is a vicar’s wife who, suffocated by the expectations forced upon her by her

Formed by John King and Eliot Walker in 2008, Regent Rep is the production company of the Regent Centre, creating an opportunity for the very best talent in the thriving local amateur theatre scene to get involved with a range of productions. It has fulfilled its objectives wholly in this production of the famous Agatha Christie novel. An excellent set, superb lighting effects and timely sounds ensure that the audience is captivated with the plot from the very opening line and although many of us will have read the book and watched both theatre and film adaptations, along with many