The irony of the rise of social media is that it’s making us increasingly anti-social. A quick survey of any bar, coffee shop or train carriage reveals people interacting with their phones and tablets rather than with each other. Is it because virtual relationships are easier to handle than real ones? Phil Porter’s ‘Blink’ takes an intriguing and thought-provoking look at that question. A two-hander, the play tells the story of Jonah and Sophie, two lonely young outcasts in London […]
Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton Review by Steve Williams Gaslight, albeit written in 1938, is the epitome of the Victorian melodrama. There is the evil villain, the downtrodden spouse, the interesting characters below stairs and the intriguing and slightly irascible stranger. When the curtain opened, we were presented with the archetypal Victorian drawing room, complete with a multitude of paintings and the obligatory chaise-longue. The set was brilliantly designed by Richard Gissing and gave us everything you would expect from a […]
‘The Silence of Snow’ was the latest instalment in BLT’s Sunday Night offerings. If you are not familiar with them, do take note of them as they provided a rich and diverse range of entertainment. This was an accomplished piece of dramatized story telling. At times, a ‘regular’ play yet, with frequent breaches of the fourth wall, the audience were drawn into the story telling. The play starts with a bone-chilling uncertainty – mist hangs, literally, in the auditorium (the […]
The theatre-goer off to see Pygmalion when it was first performed in London would probably have been surprised. Until George Bernard Shaw’s play, what an educated person would have known about Pygmalion, if they knew anything at all, was that it was the name of a Greek sculptor-king who fell in love with his statue when it came to life. It was a classical story then best known from translations of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and from the poetry of William Morris […]
By Peter Yolland Richard Everett’s bitter-sweet comedy set in a quintessentially English vicarage garden opened in 2006 to sell-out shows at the Chichester Festival. It follows Grace, a recently widowed vicar’s wife coming to terms with his passing, the loss of her family home to the potential new incumbent, the return of her missionary sister and a daughter with her own issues. It thus provides lots of scope for long hidden secrets to be unearthed and relationships examined. The play […]
By Patrick Neylan You’ve got to admire Alan Ayckbourn, even if you belong to the significant cadre of theatregoers who regard his work as hackneyed village-hall fodder. Back in 1979, Peter Hall described him as “one of the most talented … richest dramatists in the world”, but even then his plays were starting to be seen as too comfortable, complacent and predictable and much of his 80s work has dated badly. Yet 2001 saw a move away from the trivial […]
By Laura Ings-Self The talent present in BLT’s youth group is obvious from the appearances several members have made on the main stage and in the bar, but the true scope of the ability apparent in their number – and the high standards set by Jessica-Ann Jenner and Pauline Armour – was overwhelmingly showcased in the triple bill of one-act plays the group performed. We began with a two-hander featuring Josh Williams-Ward and Victor Poland. Staged as a rehearsed reading, […]
By Alan Nelson The main event in Rabbit Hole – pretty much the only one of any significance – has already happened when the play opens. Danny, the son of upwardly mobile middle-class parents, Becca and Howie, has been killed in a tragic accident, running into the road after his pet dog, Taz. But this play is not about the unfortunate boy; it is about the survivors. On the surface of it, that sounds like a pretty tough night out […]
By Roxana Graves What a treat. It was a bar show extraordinaire. There have been some great two-handers this past year or so, some fabulous performances and great scripts, and the latest bar offering did not disappoint. I hadn’t read the script by Morgan Lloyd Malcom. When I had asked to borrow a copy, it was suggested to me that I’d be better off waiting as surprises would be spoiled. I am very pleased I took that advice. The sheer thrill […]
by Arthur Rochester When the curtain rose on May’s production of Richard Bean’s Honeymoon Suite, the audience may have been a little bemused, wondering why the young couple enthusing over every detail of their Bridlington hotel room did not seem to notice the elderly man sitting quietly in a corner. The arrival of another couple, this time middle-aged, complicated the picture still further, until it gradually became clear that what we were witnessing was three representations of the same couple […]