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The summer is always weird for telly as there’s a lot more to do outside. But I did watch a couple of things. Ride or Die: Another women led action adventure, with cast, production and writing all covered, and I’m here for it.. With the magnificent Hannah Waddingham as an assassin and Octavia Spencer as her best friend, this is a lot of fun as the duo run rings around the Albanian mob with the…
Well, this was a white knuckle ride! Based on a 2018 Danish film, this is a tense thriller with Russell Tovey holding the stage for the full 65 minutes of the play. Joe (Tovey) is working alone in a police emergency response control room. Bored, and with a monotone voice as he deals with time wasters, he is also making judgements about every call, and the people who call in, and deciding whether…
I always enjoy this play, although it’s been a while since I last saw it. But this is a fantastic revival. Modern but keeping the spirit of the original, there’s verve from the very start in making sure the audience know they are part of the action. The first half leans heavily into the rom-com-iness of it all, whilst the second half takes us off to a bleak war before back home again. I have never…
First thing to say is that Sandra Oh is fantastic, and she is surrounded by an excellent cast for this reworking of Moliere’s classic about the hypocrisy of aristocratic society. Oh plays Alice, a straight talking writer who is being pursued to apologise for things she has said. Paul Chahidi plays her friend John, and Tom Misan as Stephan her younger lover, both doing a fantastic job in providing…
A day out in London took me first to see the new Marilyn Monroe exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, followed by a brief wander through Tate Modern before ending the day at the Globe for a glorious production of Much Ado About Nothing. First, the Monroe exhibition which was extensive, organised by her life story and relationships with different photographers over the years including Philip…
As it's been Pride month I have been rewatching a few old favourites - so starting this month’s roundup with some suggestions: Heated Rivalry - award winning, classy, complex romance set in a toxic environment. Crafted as if it was a 6 hour movie, with fabulous writing, cinematography, soundtrack and performances which absolutely deliver on its carefully structured story arc. It chucks the…
Big Mistakes . Dan Levy has a free pass from me for the rest of his life for giving us Schitts Creek but he doesn’t need it for his new black comedy. Nicky (Levy) and Morgan (Taylor Ortega) are a squabbling brother and sister who need to buy a gift for their dying Nonna but things quickly spiral out of control when Morgan makes an impulsive mistake. It’s both silly and fast moving with one of…
Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner play the charismatic dissolute and scheming villains who toy with love and lust in their struggle for power in this gorgeous adaptation by Marianne Elliott Marquise de Merteuil (Lesley Manville), and society rake, Vicomte de Valmont (Aidan Turner) set up a scheme to seduce an innocent girl just out of convent school, and an upright and an honourable young wife. As…
This is a complete updating of Ibsen’s classic early feminist creation at the Almeida, and I really wanted to like it. Romola Garai is Nora, who, in this iteration, is married to a financier with a city boy made good vibe, (including the recovery from addiction). He is just about to make it big by selling his company. Nora is an over-excited trophy wife when we first meet her, spending money that…
An Episcopalian church in the US is preparing for the arrival of some special visitors who will need privacy in one of their rooms. Life is going on in the rest of the building but Brandon (Ameri Bacchus) and Judy (Susie Trayling) as they are setting up, decide to stop the music lessons and other activities until after the meeting is over so that there are no distractions. The visitors are two…
