Cognitive Strategies for Analysing & Evaluating Theatre Performances
Josey De Rossi 
Director Aaron Paterson’s decision to keep to the integrity of Peake’s story, rather than coat it with the spectacle-making stage technologies of flashy lights, projections and other paraphernalia which the digital age makes accessible testifies to a highly disciplined approach.
The story around the Prospect boys shows the everyday happenings in their lives: it begins with Matthew, a professional footballer, in a rehab clinic. As the family assemble in the hospital reception area to pick him up and bring him home, where they’ve organised a ‘welcome home’ party, the story moves between the present and the past to reveal to the audience the events which lead to this point.
Jon Hartmere’s and Damon Intraboloto’s bare: the rock musical puts sexuality front and centre in the hazardous terrain of young people claiming their adult identity. As a result, the story of youths in their final year of high school at a Catholic boarding school is naturally full of teenage angst.
Firstly, Enoch’s adaptation of the play’s original setting of the “landscape of a fjord” to Scotland’s Orkney Islands, seems to allow director, Anna Fox, to retain Ibsen’s highly dramatic intention to create the effect of a misty backdrop out of which the actors step onto stage: either into the main setting of the conservatory in the Alving house or in what appear to be shadowy, secretive places around it.
The choice to stage Oedipus seems obvious… it’s a great play. Ricky Duke’s carefully choreographed and nuanced realisation of the play enlivens a sense of the heroic. He does this by setting Oedipus on his calamitous path in a political maelstrom.
Petersham Playhouse was established in 2011 by Anna Boglione and Louis Waymouth. Using the backdrop of Petersham House, the Playhouse showcases works from some of our most deft contemporary writers, performers, musicians and dancers – blending theatre, dance and music.
Molly Freeman, Matt Lloyd and Hattie Thomas’s aka the Smoking Apples’s participation in Kingston’s International Youth Arts Festival holds a double honour for them: the premiere of a new work Wordcatcher and their status as one of the Festivals ‘Creative Talent’ companies. Smoking Apples along with six others, are promising artists identified and supported by Creative Youth, the charity formed in 2008 to showcase youth arts of the highest quality through IYAF
Genre: Physical Theatre Venue: Blue Elephant Theatre 59a Bethwin Rd, Camberwell, London, SE5 0XT Low Down Blue Elephant Theatre does it again in its theatrical quest to bring provocatively interesting work before its audience. Its latest production by writer/ director Justen Bennett of Fantastical Adventures of [Not] Being With You presents a very imaginative piece about finding … Read more
SPECIAL REPORT – UK’s Premiere Musical Production of Little Women Many achievements surround the staging of Little Women as a musical at the Lost Theatre from 12 December to 7 January. This report summarises the production’s critical reception and draws together what theatre reviewers suggest are the strengths and weakness of Little Women: The Musical. … Read more
A Lady of Substance Genre: Drama Venue: Tristan Bates Theatre 1a Tower St, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9NP Low Down Jon Cooper’s play straight from Manchester’s 24:7 Theatre Festival sets up a collision of cultures: classical European sensibilities of art and poetry versus contemporary hip hop African and Caribbean language and … Read more