Edinburgh Fringe Reviews 2026 – Baby Everything, Jitters, A Cat in a Box, Copycat, We Had Fun, The Joker and the Thief, and Table for Two

Posted on August 8, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

Baby Everything, Summerhall.

Meet Baby. It’s her day off and she’s not going to waste it. Coffee with a friend, a visit to the art museum and an inspirational talk to attend. She has everything – including hypochondria, but best not think about that. That’s the framework for Lee Minora’s simply brilliant Baby Everything, a show that has so much to say about the state of the world (and especially the USA) that you wonder how she can cram it all into one hour without frustratingly just scraping the surface of each issue – but she achieves it, because of the show’s incredible structure, her comic inventiveness and an extraordinary performance that just knocks your socks off. I’ve rarely laughed so hard at 10:10am and the show’s truly positive and optimistic message means you come away from the show truly grateful for everything you have. Lee Minora is a powerhouse of fun, a tremendous communicator and surely a star in the making; and Baby Everything is one of the most accomplished shows I’ve ever seen at the Fringe – the perfect reason to set your Fringe alarm off early!

Jitters, Summerhall.

Everyone’s nervous on their wedding day, but maybe Charlotte has a bigger reason than most people. After all, she has Elle to contend with, her husband-to-be’s daughter; will she give them her blessing? Ellen Robertson’s Jitters pits two very different people with very different backgrounds against each other – will they find a common ground, or will they both have something to hide as the questions become trickier to answer? Beautifully, wittily written with a terrific feel for the comic awkwardness of conversation, and with two superb performances from Charly Clive as Charlotte, hilariously insensitive and delightfully shallow, and Ellen Robertson as Elle, struggling to come to terms with her preconceptions and jealousies. Simply directed by Emily Burns, letting the words and performances do all the magic. Very funny, very thoughtful – all in all, a stunning piece of work.

A Cat in a Box, TheSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall.
Tom Nemec tells his own story of his childhood and young adult years, from the olive drab house he always hated, to his older siblings with whom he had little in common, his mother whose only disciplinary tool was to hit you (with or without implements) and his drunkard father. Tom saw his life as though he were a cat in a box, tightly confined, prevented from running free and unable to find his own identity. Forty years after his father’s death, he’s finally ready to face his demons publicly and let it all out. Many Edinburgh Fringe shows consist of someone telling their own private story, and sometimes they can be a little on the dull side as the narrator falsely believes their story is more interesting than it is. But this is not the case with Tom Nemec, who speaks with such passion and conviction that you could almost be there every step of the way. An emotional, relatable, powerful tale beautifully told. Recommended!

Copycat, Pleasance Dome.

Joe Sellman-Leava was always a bit of an impressionist at school, doing his best to nail the voices and mannerisms of the teachers. Today he is a writer and creator, but he’s never forgotten the advice of Mr Swift – always remember to make eye contact: you can say a lot with your eyes without ever having to use your voice. Joe extends his observations to take in the growing developments in technology, specifically the rise of AI – should we be worried about it? We’ll all have our own opinions about that, and Joe can see his work opportunities being gobbled up by those greedy machines, giving us many alarming nuggets to take to heart and advice for fighting back against the dreaded AI. His trademark style with which he presented the excellent It’s The Economy Stupid continues here in Copycat, with this informal piece, which is part theatre, part lecture, part warning. A very engaging, fluid delivery, this is a very intense show with a whole lot of information coming at you, only some of which will stick. No matter what you take out of this show, you’ll come out of it feeling a whole lot more uneasy about AI.

We Had Fun, Summerhall.

Consent is such an important issue and any addition to the debate is always welcome. We Had Fun takes the on-off dating of Ela and Oscar and focuses on one significant evening when Ela needed an alcohol-fuelled escape from the bad news of being made redundant. But at the end of the evening, things went further between Oscar and Ela than she had intended – but had she given consent to Oscar’s actions, did he misinterpret them, or did he totally ignore her wishes just to satisfy himself? It’s a thought-provoking play; it’s gratifying that you get to see what actually happened between the two and can compare it with what both of them said had happened. It also very effectively shows how consent, which ought to be a very straightforward issue (no, after all, means no) is actually more complicated than one might think. Unfortunately it’s quite a messy production that gets sidetracked with a lot of unnecessary action as well as two largely unnecessary characters. It also feels about fifteen minutes too long. That said, the main performances by actors and writers Emmeline Hartley and Jack Mullings are very good and you’ll be discussing it for hours afterwards.

The Joker and the Thief, TheSpace Triplex.

Dylan and Will Theatre return to the Fringe after their remarkable Cody and Beau last year with The Joker and the Thief, the story of Sid and Larry, a comedy double-act who split up, one (Larry) to go on to superstar success, one (Sid) to end up playing a 20-seat cellar at the Fringe. It examines enduring friendship, despite intervening years of resentment and misunderstanding, and asks questions of trust, the nature of comedy and the definition of success. This year Dylan and Will are joined by Rufus Goodman as Larry’s wisecracking agent Howard, who seizes every opportunity in a nicely sleazy, villainous role. Will Grice’s Sid is a very believable characterisation of an old-school comic, showbizzily smarmy whilst deep down being pretty sad and desperate, and Dylan Kaeuper gives a smart turn as namedropping Larry, luxuriating in the fripperies of wealth. Unlike Cody and Beau, which was a play of delicate subtlety, this is more of a thigh-slapping rip-roarer of a show, as befits its larger-than-life characters. Watch out for an excellent comic three-way fight scene on a tiny carpet, choreographed and executed beautifully! Great fun, smartly written and with a satisfying conclusion.

Table for Two, TheSpace @ Surgeons’Hall.

One lucky member of the audience is going on a date with magician Jack Kenyon – could it be you? Some magic shows are packed with showbiz pizzazz, but others, like Table for Two, are a much more refined, gentler affair, where Jack tries to iron out where he’s going wrong with relationships by practising a few tricks with his new date for the evening. The date is chosen at random – it could be any member of the audience! A sequence of baffling card tricks and other games had me scratching my head in wonderment as to how Jack does it, and if you like your magic with a quieter, subtler edge, this show is for you!

Edinburgh Fringe Reviews 2026 – An Audience with Virginia Woolf: Writing One’s Mind, The Longer My Mother is Dead the More I Like Her, The Problem, Gareth Waugh: Is Pepsi OK?, Two Halves and SpinQueen

Posted on August 7, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

An Audience with Virginia Woolf: Writing One’s Mind, Assembly Rooms.

You too can have A Room of One’s Own – one where you decide the rules and what goes on there. That’s at least part of the message of Lucy Stevens’ intricate and engrossing play, an intelligent digest of Virginia Woolf’s work and life. Undoubtedly one of the great voices of 20th-century literature, Woolf has fascinated readers and academics over decades and Lucy Stevens gives a quietly authoritative performance as Virginia herself, constantly popping in and out of books as a kind of comfort blanket, reflecting on what motivated her and taking us through the most significant stages and mind-opening awakenings of her life. We learn about how she was sexually assaulted as a child, the achievement of “killing the Angel”, and how the move to Bloomsbury contributed to Woolf’s constant search for truth and identity. As a student, I desperately wanted to like Virginia Woolf’s works, but I always found them annoyingly difficult to read. However, this play made me not only want to revisit her works but also to find out more about her. Ms Stevens easily makes you believe Virginia Woolf is in the room with us! An elegant and literary start to the day.

The Longer My Mother is Dead the More I Like Her, Greenside @ George Street.
There’s an art to mother-management; most of us learn it the hard way. Deborah Unger’s relationship with her mum veers from the tetchy to the impossible, an atmosphere created from her earliest memories when she realised Mom wasn’t the cookie-baking, warm-hugging type of mother but the kind who keeps secrets and deliberately files away information as ammunition for the future. But Debbie doesn’t get it all her own way in this show, as dead Mom also gets to butt in with some observations and home truths. Structurally, it’s a confessional narrative, with daughter Debbie setting the pace, but Ms Unger really comes to life when giving us some of her mum’s unwelcome interruptions. There are some entertaining characterisations of the people in Debbie and Mum’s lives, and the only prop is a sequence of changing photo cards, confirming the time and place of the story’s progress – not that they lend much to the proceedings. Although she likes her mum more now that she is dead – the clue is in the title – we never really see the transformation from irritated, put-upon daughter to loving, mentally at ease daughter. Nevertheless, it’s a smart, engaging hour from Deborah Unger, based on her own experience, and there will be something here that everyone will recognise from their own childhood.

The Problem, Assembly Rooms.

We’ve all been there. A perfect system works perfectly until somehow, unpredictably, a problem emerges. But how to solve it? Hopefully we’d all do better than Slater, Manning and Wilson, who display increasingly bizarre coping and solving strategies which descend into paranoia, chaos and general ludicrousness. Very slickly performed by Matthew Boston, Brian Dykstra and Patrick Frederic, who give their all in a three-way fencing tournament of wits where only the bravest gain attention and only the strongest survive. If you like an ensemble piece of wordplay, this may well be your cup of tea. It’s the kind of show that divides an audience; for me, the absurdity of it all stretched my credulity and, I’m afraid, patience beyond breaking point, but their commitment and skill are never in doubt.

Gareth Waugh: Is Pepsi OK? Monkey Barrel Comedy.

Fans of stand-up comedy are familiar with the concept of comedy as therapy, where a comic relates a tragic sequence of events to help them come to terms with what’s happened to them – frequently sacrificing laughs for the sake of their mental health. In Is Pepsi OK? Gareth Waugh has already come to terms with the hurt and damage caused by a very proficient conman, but there is still an element of healing therapy as he relates the extraordinary events of the summer of 2023. En route, there’s some great material about performing stand-up on cruise ships and at a darts tournament, but it’s the story of his work with Coca-Cola that dominates the hour. Gareth is a terrific storyteller and his tale is engrossing – indeed, frequently anguish-inducing – even if it isn’t always laugh-out-loud funny, and he works hard to spin it into the most positive experience he can. So many morals to this tale: I’d recommend checking the veracity of email addresses first.

Two Halves, TheSpace Triplex.

A thought-provoking two-hander where rising woman’s football star Sophie and fading Welsh rugby player Sean start a relationship following a chance meeting at an American sports awards ceremony. A series of intensely written and tightly performed scenes reveal pivotal moments in their relationship over the coming years, when both sides show the strain of facing scrutiny under the spotlight of social media and the physical demands of their chosen professions. The pressures of both being at very different stages of their careers, and even the importance of superstition rituals provide an additional level of tension. A combination of romcom, sports docudrama and psychological breaking points, it’s riveting to watch, and unusual and original subject matter for this very promising first play by Sam Rowlands and direction by Zoe Lerman, who also appear as Sean and Sophie. Recommended!

SpinQueen, Greenside @ George Street.

Feeling insecure, unfit, or generally worthless? No problem, leave it to Meg to put you through your paces in a 45-minute spin class, where good posture reveals emotional brittleness and measurable numbers count for everything. Our wannabe theatre kid trainer must have a golden existence with that toned body and her inexorable drive. But we’re only human and sometimes the miseries of real life perform mission creep on your daily workout… Megan Tomei gives an outstanding performance as the irrepressible but surprisingly fragile Meg for whom not even exercise is the answer to everything, Three-quarters hilarious and one-quarter absorbingly tragic, it’s simply staged with just a spin bike, a very clever stage make-up effect (I’ll say no more) and one of those hearty musical workout tracks. SpinQueen gives us a heartfelt and horrifying peek into the real life of someone truly on the edge.

The Real Chrisparkle meets Alex Hill (starring in The Jolly Fisherman at the Edinburgh Fringe 2026)

Posted on August 4, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

©Finlay Bourke

The Edinburgh Fringe is almost upon us for another year, and one of the most hotly anticipated shows for 2026 is The Jolly Fisherman, a new play by John Dinneen starring Alex Hill and Jonny Khan. It’s about two childhood best friends, Alan and Amir, and how their worlds try to pull them apart as they get older. Alex, of course, had huge personal success recently with Why I Stuck a Flare up my Arse for England. In between rehearsals, I was lucky to get a few minutes with Alex to ask him some questions about his new show – and life as an actor. Hope you enjoy our chat!

Real Chris Sparkle: Hi Alex, great to have the opportunity to ask you some questions! First, I must ask you about Why I Stuck a Flare… Three years ago, you brought Billy’s story to the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time – could you ever have imagined it would become the success that it did?

Alex Hill

Alex Hill: Thank you Chris for the thoughtful questions! Yeah, those three years have flown by. That first Edinburgh was such a scary period of time for me. The show was on at half 10 at night (not a traditional theatre slot), it had a ridiculous title, and it was the first thing I’d ever done out of drama school. It was a bit of a lottery really, in many ways I had so much to lose but also, it was kind of a free hit. Thankfully people responded positively and I was lucky enough to keep getting asked to do it. But no, when I started that play, it was just about getting to the end of that initial Fringe! What came next was a bit of a dream really.

RCS: You’re playing Alan in The Jolly Fisherman – what was it about the role that attracted you? Are there similarities to Billy?

AH: I was ready for a year off the Fringe after doing it for three years. But then John Dinneen put this amazing script in front of me and I knew instantly that I wanted to do it. It has all the makings of a brilliant play and whilst it has similarities to the work I’ve done previously, it feels fresh and like a totally new challenge. Alan and Billy are similar in that they are both young men trying to put their best foot forward in an ever-changing world, but their journeys and personalities are totally different. I think it’s cool to see a character like Alan on stage, who feels completely realistic and like someone you’d definitely meet down the pub.

©Finlay Bourke

RCS: Theatre has the power to change the way people think. Is Alan going to change our thoughts and preconceptions – and can you sense it as an actor when an audience is confronted with uncomfortable truths?

AH: I mean, I hope so! The play is full of conflict and definitely challenges Alan and Amir’s world views. I’m hoping that by watching these two young men on stage trying to figure it all out, people will also be able to confront and challenge some of their own opinions and ideas.

RCS: Taking you back to your early days, was there a moment as a teenager, or as a child, when you knew you wanted to become an actor? And if you weren’t an actor, what would you like to be?

AH: I had an amazing drama teacher at school that made me believe it could be a possibility. Although, I don’t think I was brave enough to admit that I wanted to give it a go until I was forced to make a decision of what I wanted to do next. All my mates were finalising their UCAS applications and I sheepishly walked into her office and said I think I wanted to give drama school a go. There was never any pressure from her, but she laughed as if to say ‘you took your time!’ I’d missed the application windows so I took a year out and went for it the following year but I’m so glad I did.

RCS: You’re coming back to Edinburgh again for the Fringe – what are you looking forward to on your return to the city? Will you have time to see other shows, or do some exploring?

Jonny Khan, Layla Madanat (director) and Alex Hill
©Finlay Bourke

AH: Yeah definitely! Because we have an early slot at 12:45, it means we’ll have the rest of the day for exploring and seeing shows. As always, lots of amazing artists are up there. Just some of the shows I’m looking forward to seeing are ‘You and Me (and Whoever Come’s Next)’ at Summerhall, Philip Stokes’ new play ‘This is Not America’ at Pleasance and ‘An Ode to the Casting Director’ by Sophie Fisher at Gilded Balloon.

RCS: And after the Fringe, what’s next for Alex?

AH: Nothing in the diary at the moment… hopefully something though!

RCS: Thanks for giving me your time Alex and I wish you all the best for this year’s Fringe!

AH: Thanks Chris!

The Jolly Fisherman plays at the Buttercup venue at Edinburgh’s Underbelly George Square from 5^th to 31^st August (except 17^th) Some dates are already sold out so don’t hesitate to book via Underbelly or at the Edinburgh Fringe website here.

Review – Midnight at the Never Get, Menier Chocolate Factory, London, 2nd August 2026

Posted on August 3, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

The programme notes for this remarkable production of Midnight at the Never Get at the Menier feature a conversation between its writer, Mark Sonnenblick and its director, David Cromer, where they discuss whether there has ever been a musical show before that takes its content from the imaginary back catalogue of a fictional songwriter. Whether or not they know it, I’m not sure, but I was about ten minutes into the show when I was forcefully reminded of that great, but now largely forgotten 1970s musical Songbook by Monty Norman, which charted the career of the legendary (and entirely made up) composer Mooney Shapiro.

Songbook followed on the success of Side by Side by Sondheim, at the time the go-to production for a musical rundown of a legendary writer’s songs. But Midnight at the Never Get serves an entirely different purpose. Not a mere celebration of a fictional songwriter but using his output as a vehicle for capturing a time in the 1960s when homosexuality was still illegal; recreating the atmosphere of a Greenwich Village nightclub where the performers were pushing the envelope to express the love that dare not speak its name.

Cromer’s brilliant production takes you off the streets of 21^st century London and plunges you into a brave old world where a man might just sing about love for a he rather than a she. As soon as you enter the Menier auditorium – always a voyage of discovery as you never know how they are going to have configured it this time – you’re swept into a world of cabaret tables and plush upholstered seating, surrounding a pocket handkerchief of a performance space, dominated by a grand piano with just a mic stand at the front. Scott Pask’s immaculate design works with Heather Gilbert’s terrific lighting to suggest every mood that accompanies every song written (and performed) by the late great Arthur Brightman and sung by his friend, lover, and creative inspiration, Trevor Copeland.

At just over 90 minutes without an interval, Copeland and Brightman take us on a journey of how they met, how they wrote and performed together and what they felt for each other. To give you any further details would be to spoil the many surprises that Mark Sonnenblick has constructed in this exquisite chamber piece of a show. The 90 minutes fly by, due to the excellence of the material and the performances.

Sonnenblick’s songs are both delicate in their honesty and robust in their pastiche of jolly 60s musical theatre showtunes and the performances, primarily by Ben Platt as Trevor Copeland, are outstanding. The majority of the show consists of Platt exposing his heart, through narrative and song, and the audience hangs on his every word. The purity of his voice is perfect for Sonnenblick’s heartfelt torch songs, but he can instantly switch on the razzmatazz for the upbeat numbers. It’s a riveting performance.

Gregor Milne is also excellent as Arthur Brightman, sitting at the piano and knocking out the notes, taking us through his creative process for constructing his masterpieces, occasionally also venturing onto the stage at the front to demonstrate that Brightman and Copeland truly were a team. It’s highly emotional throughout, but it’s not until the final ten minutes, which includes the appearance of veteran musical theatre star Barry James – on absolutely cracking form, you long to see more of him – that your heartstrings are well and truly tugged.

The rest of the run is now pretty much sold out – it cries out for a transfer, but it would have to be somewhere truly intimate. An amazing experience, and a privilege to be there.

Five Alive Let Theatre Thrive!

Review – The Cherry Orchard, Royal Shakespeare Company at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 29th July 2026

Posted on July 30, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

©Johan Persson

Usually, the person who knows a play best is its writer; however, sometimes it takes an insightful actor or director to point the play in a different direction from how the writer imagined it and bring the truth out of the text. That old cove Chekhov insisted that The Cherry Orchard was a comedy – indeed with farcical elements. Sixty odd years after he wrote it, Edward Bond also described his notorious play Saved, which included the torture and murder of a baby, as a comedy. Birds of a feather, I reckon.

©Johan Persson

Laura Wade’s new adaptation of The Cherry Orchard works hard to accentuate all the comic elements and the quirkier characterisations. Yepikhodov is a clumsy oaf who pratfalls his way through the play. Gaev is dressed like he’s wearing last year’s Christmas jumper. Pishchik gets drunk easily and wobbles his way around the stage. And Lopakhin speaks in a Northern Irish accent. Why? Good question. Probably for the same reason that Yasha sees fit to administer cunnilingus to Dunyasha beneath her dress (not sure the Wednesday matinee audience was ready for that) or that Yepikhodov decides to play Elvis Presley’s Wooden Heart on the guitar. Maybe it’s to create some kind of Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt? Whilst we’re on the subject of music, Royal Shakespeare Company productions normally nail the incidental musical accompaniments; but this production has, for some reason, a loud extended piano piece that completely drowns out important conversations in the third Act – again, why?

©Johan Persson

Balancing all these tricksy, light-hearted elements the production faces an uphill battle to reveal the tragedies beneath the surface; and it very much relies on individual performances to do the best they can. Esther Smith is excellent as Mme Ranyevskaya’s adopted daughter Varya, busily fretting with household matters and enabling others to do what they want, to the extent that she allows herself to ignore her own position and future; and, in arguably the best scene of the play, her reaction to not receiving a proposal from Lopakhin, where she gives in and breaks down in floods of tears, gives us a genuine insight into what Varya’s future will look like.

©Johan Persson

Michael Elwyn as the old manservant Firs also allows us to look behind the façade and see the past crumbling away as time marches inexorably forwards. Delightfully doddery and bewildered, his occasional flashes of true insight show us another character who has given up their life in the service of others; but he sees it as a life well-lived, a privilege to have been pivotal in such a prominent family.

©Johan Persson

For me, the best performance in the production comes from Alfred Enoch as Trofimov; he’s the only major character in the play who speaks with genuine conviction, and indeed, his is the one character who has faith that there will be a bright future ahead for the country. Robust, assertive and intelligent, he certainly gives the production a boost of energy every time he comes on stage.

©Johan Persson

There are those, of course, who remain unaffected by the tragedies or the societal changes that Chekhov so successfully foresaw. Mme Ranyevskaya, and her brother Gaev, are vacuous aristocrats who spend money – that they don’t have – like water and fritter away their lives on bland pursuits. It’s definitely a challenge to make these two characters interesting; and I fear that neither Helen Hunt nor Bill Pullman succeeds in that quest. Ms Hunt underplays Ranyevskaya so much that you feel she never really features in the play at all. When she’s told endless times by Lopakhin that the cherry orchard will be put up for auction, it’s not that she buries her head in the sand, simply nothing registers, there’s no reaction at all. When she finally gets agitated that, as predicted, it’s been sold, her sudden reaction stretches the audience’s credulity. But – to be fair – why should Madame bother? Her solution is just to go back to Paris and continue to spend other people’s money.

©Johan Persson

This is the second RSC production this year to star Kenneth Branagh. Fresh from a superb performance as Prospero in The Tempest, here he is Lopakhin, getting off to an amusingly entertaining start as he was onstage all the while the audience were entering the auditorium and we hadn’t a clue. Desperate for attention in the first scene, where he is the nouveau-riche upstart trying to impress the old money aristos, he hops about, trying to ingratiate himself, like a vulture awaiting an imminent feast. When it is revealed that he has bought the cherry orchard, he is so cock-a-hoop yet immensely surprised at his own success, that he can barely break it to Madame that her estate is now his – squirming his way through his speech in a mixture of delight and embarrassment. And his non-proposal to Varya is a moment of theatrical brilliance that produced exasperated gasps from the audience. It’s a confident and highly individual performance – definitely shifty, and in many ways eccentric, especially with that accent.

©Johan Persson

Despite Sir Kenneth’s shenanigans, overall, and some good supporting performances – Julian Moore-Cook’s Yasha is believably flaky and Amber Gadd’s Dunyasha is a natural for the comedy – the production feels disappointing. There’s an almost total lack of emotion, rendering this remarkable play cold and – dare I say it – largely dull. Laura Wade’s updatings feel at odds with the traditional costumes and Anna Fleischle’s set, which emphasise the faded glory of the old house and the encroaching, unmanaged orchard outside. Despite what Chekhov might have thought, this isn’t a funny enough play to concentrate on the comedy and let the tragedy look after itself. I came away from it agreeing with Lopakhin – chop down those trees, build some dachas and move on. It’s what the place needs.

Two Disappointing for More!

Review – My Fair Lady, Festival Theatre, Chichester, 23rd July 2026

Posted on July 25, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

Having hosted more than its fair share of disappointing productions over the last few years, Chichester desperately needed to get back on track with a big, crowd pleasing summer show to help restore its reputation; and the decision to mount its first ever production of that remarkable musical, My Fair Lady, was a winner. Without doubt this is Chichester’s best production since Oliver! and possibly for years before that too. No one could have turned their hand to delivering a big successful musical production for Chichester like director Rachel Kavanaugh, ten years on from her sensational Half a Sixpence. And who would have thought this old warhorse of a show could pack a Thursday matinee in July so that the huge Festival Theatre was officially sold out?

Kavanaugh’s amazing gift is to create a show that’s familiar to 90% of its audience and make us feel as though this is the first time we’ve ever seen it. This My Fair Lady is fresh, funny, exciting; full of unexpected treats and insightful characterisations, spectacular choreography, glorious harmonies, and song after song that will keep you singing this outstanding score for days to come. Peter McKintosh’s creative set makes great use of the revolving stage, combined with Howard Harrison’s superb lighting design; take the Embassy Ball, for example, so cleverly and concisely conjured up by just some chairs positioned around the edge of the stage with some well-placed lighting.

McKintosh’s costume design is also outstanding, with immaculately created Edwardian gowns and evening wear contrasting with the drab flower sellers and dustmen. The Ascot racegoers outfits are inspired by the classic Cecil Beaton designs but with an eye to this production’s specific colour motifs that crop up again and again; the use of purple in this show, for the flowers, the lighting, the confetti and Eliza’s dress is both beautiful and strangely emotional.

Lerner and Loewe pulled out all the stops when they wrote My Fair Lady; every single one of its sixteen or so songs is a classic, and the trick, which this production nails absolutely, is to perform them so that they both tickle our nostalgia with something comfortably recognisable but also give us insights so that they reveal something new. This is thanks to both the brilliance of the individual performers and the intelligence of the direction. In Wouldn’t It Be Loverly you genuinely envision poor deprived Eliza experiencing unlimited chocolate and warmth because in Keziah Ibe’s fantastic performance it’s her imagination that drives her singing. When Ms Ibe performs Show Me with her infatuated Freddy, he tries to answer back to all her musical demands but she won’t allow him a word in edgeways in a gloriously choreographed “battle of the sexes” routine. And when Higgins concludes the show with I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face the insights into his character are so profound that there is scarcely a dry eye in the house. That’s just three examples of how you can push the boundaries of understanding whilst remaining completely faithful and respectful of the original.

The cast are outstanding throughout. The ensemble are magnificent with both their singing and dancing; Joe Henry, Kody Mortimer, Jonathan Bourne and Nic Cain set the bar very high from the opening moments with their funny, sensitive and beautifully sung accompaniment to Wouldn’t It Be Loverly, and Nicholas Duncan and TJ Lloyd lead the dustmen’s ensemble in Doolittle’s two big numbers with terrific energy and musicality. Belinda Lang is a hilariously disapproving Mrs Higgins, caustically withering with her every pronouncement, and Finty Williams makes a marvellously sensible Mrs Pearce, whom you sense is just one sentence away from giving Higgins a well-deserved telling-off.

Ben Culleton makes the most of On the Street Where You Live as a totally entranced Freddy, delightfully hapless and hopeless but so incredibly good-natured about it. The always marvellous Tony Jayawardena gives a sprightly and not too eccentric performance as Pickering, luxuriating in his elegant housecoat and unexpectedly knowledgeable about ladies’ couture. I always think one of the most challenging problems of My Fair Lady is how to make the character of Alfred P Doolittle credible and funny without careering into pantomime, and Gary Milner is simply brilliant in the role, delivering a spot-on level of cheek, occasionally breaking the fourth wall. He’s like the engaging uncle who used to make you laugh as a kid with his little winks and playful approach. Stephen Mear’s choreography for Mr Milner is so well judged, giving the ensemble two full-blown big routines whilst allowing Mr M to concentrate on his jaunty walks and character-led reactions. Choreographically, the outstanding moment of the show is With a Little Bit of Luck, an immaculate showpiece crammed with humour. I’ve never seen pewter tankardography before, and it’s something we need more of.

The show does, of course, rely heavily on its two leads and here we have some truly inspired casting. Higgins is played by Hadley Fraser, whom I have never seen in musical theatre before, and he’s extraordinary. There’s no doubting that this Higgins is a wretched, grown-up spoilt brat, totally lacking any social graces, and an embarrassment to everyone around him. This is played to full comic effect in I’m an Ordinary Man, where he literally cavorts around the stage, reliving all the aspects of womanhood that deeply disturb him. In fact, he’s profoundly damaged by his own personality. I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face is not mere regret for the way he has behaved towards Eliza, but it shows us how he lacks the mental resources to go on without her. I loved the final, deliciously inconclusive tableau of the production, with Eliza in the driver’s seat and Higgins a blubbering mess lower down the pecking order. If she does stay with him (and that’s no foregone conclusion) there’s no doubt who’ll be wearing the trousers in that household.

Rachel Kavanaugh had the courage and foresight to cast the unknown Charlie Stemp in Half a Sixpence ten years ago and look what a brilliantly brave decision that was. In My Fair Lady she has cast Keziah Ibe as Eliza in her professional stage debut, a massive responsibility on young shoulders, but once again under Ms Kavanaugh’s tutelage, a star is born. Ms Ibe has a great voice – that’s a given; but she is so expressive in her singing, and her facial expressions have such eloquence that she delivers a performance of constant surprises and delights. A great feel for both the comedy and the pathos of the role, she truly is the most remarkable find; and she brings the house down with her conversation and behaviour at Ascot. You’re always on her side, and I can’t wait to see her career develop.

Two years after Oliver! Chichester is properly back on form with this remarkable revival. Surely a West End transfer must come its way?

Five Alive, Let Theatre Thrive!

Review – Sweeney Todd, Birmingham Rep, 14th July 2026

Posted on July 15, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

©Manuel Harlan

Dominating the giant Birmingham Rep stage for this triumphant production of Sweeney Todd is a looming statue of blind Justice, hovering like an avenging angel atop Elin Steele’s magnificent, simple, austere set, not quite within touching distance of the mortals below, as a constant reminder of the central theme of Sondheim’s remarkable musical. A barber sentenced to deportation to Botany Bay for life for a crime he hadn’t committed; a corrupt judge who engineered it so he could steal the barber’s wife and – eventually – his daughter. And the barber who returns to London to take vengeance against one man, only to conclude that they all deserve to die.

©Manuel Harlan

In one of the most hotly anticipated musical revivals of the year, Birmingham Rep Artistic Director Joe Murphy has assembled a stunning cast to deliver a powerful, intelligent and delightfully gimmick-free production of what he describes as Sondheim’s masterpiece. Personally, I think there are several contenders for that honour, but this is certainly one of them! But from the moment the curtain rises to reveal the opening chorus of starkly lit, dirty white-dressed Londoners imploring us to attend the tale of Sweeney Todd, you instantly get that adrenaline hit that tells you that you’re in for something truly special.

©Manuel Harlan

Paring back on the visuals, with just intimidating Georgian marble architecture, a seemingly subterranean pie shop, and a descending grille in which to cage Johanna at the judge’s house, or in the lunatic asylum, the whole appearance of this production provides a vivid contrast with the colour of the music, the characters and indeed their costumes, which are admirable in their creativity and authenticity. By removing extraneous embellishments, this assists the fluency of the storytelling, whilst still offering us a feast for the eyes and ears.

©Manuel Harlan

And, of course, it is a great show! A gripping narrative that makes us empathise with the wronged Benjamin Barker (a.k.a. Sweeney Todd), and his honourable, decent companion Anthony, who you just know will make a good husband for the equally wronged Johanna, who is terrified at the prospect of marriage to her vicious, lascivious guardian Judge Turpin. And it’s a fortuitous meeting between Sweeney and Mrs Lovett, who has kept his cut-throat razors for the last fifteen years, enabling him to return to his previous trade. If only Signor Pirelli hadn’t recognised his razors too, things might have turned out very differently.

©Manuel Harlan

Musically, Sondheim is on sensational form with this score, blending the romantic sweetness of Ah Miss and Johanna, with the black comedy of A Little Priest and By the Sea, the eerie ominousness of Not While I’m Around, the character-defining Epiphany, and my personal favourite, the song that combines almost every aspect of the show, Pretty Women.

©Manuel Harlan

The production is jam-packed with stand-out performances that truly make this a must-see show. Heading the cast is the outstanding Ramin Karimloo, who doth bestride the stage like a Colossus, as someone once said. We’ve only seen Mr Karimloo on stage once before, as Jean Valjean on Broadway, where his emotional delivery made Mrs Chrisparkle and me cry during the show, cry walking back to the hotel after the show, and then cry again when we got to our hotel room, the swine. Here he is a powerhouse of repressed fury, nailing every number with his innate integrity, bizarrely getting the audience on his side and making us want him to continue his murderous quest. This isn’t in any way an unhinged Mr Todd; he is perfectly sane, meticulously planning and calculating his way to his final revenge. And when he realises at the end what – and who – he has had to sacrifice to achieve his goal, he has no hesitation in doing the honourable thing, and offering himself up to his own, deserved, fate. I knew he’d be remarkable in the role; he sure is.

©Manuel Harlan

Australian cabaret artist Meow Meow portrays Mrs Lovett as a very larger-than-life, outrageous comic creation, going for every eccentric tic, both vocal and physical, she can recreate to get across the Hogarthian caricature on which the character is based. At times this feels at such odds with the rest of the production, where most of the characters have their ability to express themselves repressed, and even those who don’t – like the Beadle or Pirelli – follow a recognisable foppish standard. This Mrs Lovett is an unpredictable whirlwind by comparison. Ms Meow’s singing is of extraordinary quality with trills, embellishments, accents and funny voices integrated into every part of her vocal delivery. It’s a remarkable feat and she does it with amazing conviction and accuracy. For me, there were occasions when it felt just too much – however, gauging from the audience responses to her performance, I was in the minority.

©Manuel Harlan

David Bedella, however, performs the role of the judge in exactly the manner that I had hoped he would. If I were a musical theatre performer (lucky for the rest of the world that I’m not) this would be my dream role; possibly the most villainous baddie in all of musical theatre, perfect for Mr Bedella’s incredibly deep, exquisitely enunciating voice, mining all the cruelty and perversion out of every line. He doesn’t hold back from revealing quite how squalid the judge is in his disturbing performance of Mea Culpa, but it’s in that riveting duet with Sweeney, Pretty Women, an 18^th century equivalent to laddish banter, where you revel that his smug sordidness finally gets its come-uppance.

©Manuel Harlan

His sidekick, the decadent and ruthless Beadle, is given an entertainingly pompous portrayal by Julius D’Silva, all pomade and pontification, channelling his self-seeking interests as much as he wants. Silas Wyatt-Barke is excellent as Pirelli, the street mountebank, amusingly wasting time on fripperies in his shaving duel with Todd, and then blithely issuing his blackmailing threats in his own accent. Florence Andrews delivers a surprisingly emotional performance as the Beggar Woman, with hints of the real person she once was, before cruelty and anguish got the better of her mental health.

©Manuel Harlan

Jack Gibson is superb as Tobias; he has a terrific singing voice and an endearing stage presence, perfect in the assistant roles, first to Pirelli then to Mrs Lovett, and coming into his own with the harrowingly moving Not While I’m Around. There’s fine ensemble support from Emily Ivana Hawkins and Hadrian Delacey; in fact, one of the most impressive aspects to this production is how a relatively small cast create a sense of a busy, highly populated London town.

©Manuel Harlan

And what of Justice, looming over us till the bitter end, will she win the day? The innocents live on, having fought hard to defeat the evil. Shem Omari James as Anthony is a beacon of decency in a filthy world, with a fantastic singing voice

©Manuel Harlan

which buoys up the only sense of optimism for the future in the whole show – no wonder the character’s surname is Hope. And Jo Stephenson – also gifted with an extraordinary voice – beautifully conveys Johanna’s contempt and loathing for the despicable Judge Turpin and her instant attraction to Anthony, despite the latter’s occasional lapses in strong will. There’s a delightfully underplayed moment when, having been given a firearm by

©Manuel Harlan

Todd to help Johanna escape Bedlam, Anthony can’t bring himself to use it on the Master of the Asylum. You can almost hear the muttered oh for f***’s sake from Johanna as she grabs the gun and shoots him. It’s a lovely moment that says so much about how their future life together will be.

A riveting production, musically sensational, visually stunning and full of great performances. It’s scheduled to run at the Birmingham Rep until August 15^th but surely – SURELY – that can’t be the end for this Sweeney Todd. See it while you can!

Five Alive, Let Theatre Thrive!

Review – Jesus Christ Superstar, London Palladium, 9th July 2026

Posted on July 10, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

It’s always a joy to visit the London Palladium with its lush, plush auditorium, so it’s quite a shock when you arrive for Jesus Christ Superstar to see the stage bedecked in scaffolding, curling around the side and obscuring the boxes. It looks for all the world like they haven’t quite finished fixing the set. But theatre is all about being unsettled, right? Especially when you’re going to see a show that – if you’re like me and grew up with it as a teenager – you know backwards. The original rock opera (don’t give me any of that Tommy nonsense) still electrifies (musically at least) from the first few guitar chords played by the band to its final bars. This Palladium production – lifted from its successful Regent’s Park run from a few years ago – always ensures that the music is centre stage; exactly where it should be.

Advance sales for this show have been described as unprecedented for a Palladium summer run; so much so that a transfer to Drury Lane and a subsequent UK tour were announced long before its first preview. The reason for this is simple; the inspired casting of national treasure in the making, Sam Ryder. Everyone loves Sam. In fact, it’s the law that you can’t not love Sam; he resurrected (carefully chosen word) the UK’s Eurovision reputation and his personal positivity guides everything he does, something badly needed in these bitter days of hatred and feuds. More on Sam’s performance later.

However, despite the title and the star billing, this is, has, and always will be The Judas Show. Judas gets all the opportunities to take control of proceedings, has the widest range of emotions, and constantly drives the narrative. This is deftly conveyed in the first few moments of the show, when a crowd gathers around Jesus, waiting for his words, but before he can speak, Judas whips the mic stand away from him and launches straight into the arresting and exciting Heaven on their Minds, setting out his critical standpoint and distancing himself from the other apostles and the following mob. Even though we know the story inside out, it’s riveting from the start.

Tim Sheader’s production has chosen to offer some plucky theatregoers the chance to get really close to the action by having them standing onstage, separated from the cast only by some confining scaffolding. At £25 per person, it looks like an amazing opportunity to see the show from a different perspective. For the rest of us, they suggest the constant crowds that follow Jesus everywhere; and they do create a very atmospheric tableau when silhouetted against stark lighting effects. It’s a clever idea, and on the whole it works.

Perhaps the most outstanding contribution to the show is Drew McOnie’s choreography. Intense, exhilarating, conveying joy and excitement, the ensemble throw themselves into it all, telling their own individual stories as part of their movement. It’s stunningly effective within the confines of the relatively small performance space that Tom Scutt’s creative but inhibiting set design has created. The Palladium stage is enormous, but it’s a constant surprise how much of the action is required to take place in much smaller pockets of space. No wonder there has to be some creative use of the aisles as well as the stage.

When it comes to the performances, there’s no questioning the commitment and hard work that everyone puts in to make the show a success. Billy Nevers seizes control of the wonderful Simon Zealotes’ song, giving a dynamic, powerful and genuinely joyous performance that is a highlight of the first Act. David Thaxton’s Pilate blows you away, from his quietly disturbed rendition of Pilate’s Dream, through to his ridiculing of Christ before he sends him to Herod, and his masterful performance of the trial scene and the 39 lashes. The staging of the lashes is perhaps the most effective but also least brutal representation of that very difficult scene that I’ve ever watched.

Matty J and Bob Harms create a terrific double act as Annas and Caiaphas, with Mr J’s deceptively sweet vocals scarcely hiding the cruel punch of his words, and Mr Harms’ extraordinary bass tones enunciating Caiaphas’ deadly message. And Tyrone Huntley’s Judas is extraordinary in every department: always powerful vocally, even when he delivers his tenderest and most delicate moments, and with an amazing stage presence. Mr Huntley’s ability to combine musicality with humour was brilliant in the Palladium’s Hello Dolly two years ago, but I had no idea he had this level of performance in his repertoire. However, I was really surprised how the portrayal of Judas’ death came across as such a damp squib, unless there was some kind of technical problem of which I wasn’t aware; he just walks off.

The role of Herod in this production is shared between five high-profile and much-loved performers; for our performance, and until July 11^th, he was played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson. If you don’t know the show, and there’s always at least one person at every performance who doesn’t know what to expect, the unexpected portrayal of Herod as a sexually ambivalent hedonist, as camp as the traditional row of tents, singing a jaunty showbizzy song that sticks two fingers up to the accepted view of Herod as a gloomy and intimidating old tyrant, really ought to take your breath away. However, for me, Mr Ferguson presented Herod in a strangely non-flamboyant fashion, allowing his glamorous costume and intricate make-up to do the work instead. The lyrics say he is “overjoyed to meet you face to face”, but this Herod isn’t remotely overjoyed, rather annoyed that his daily routine has been disturbed. Sorry, but this didn’t work for me.

Desmonda Cathabel plays Mary, and with her fantastic voice she completely gets the characterisation for Everything’s Alright and Could We Start Again Please, but her I Don’t Know How to Love Him, potentially the most recognised song of the entire show, doesn’t really hit the mark. Rather like Man of La Mancha’s The Impossible Dream, a dream that by its very description tells you it is impossible to achieve, but which X-Factor style wannabes sing as if it was A Very Big Ask but I’m going to nail it 110%, I Don’t Know How to Love Him conveys Mary’s anguished inability to get her head around what she feels for Jesus. It should only be when she finally sings I love him so at the end of the song that she has completed her journey of understanding. But I fear Ms Cathabel’s Mary delivers it as a simple love song. She knows very well how to love him; she’s known it from the start. It’s a performance that somehow doesn’t connect with the audience.

Which brings us to the object of her love, Sam Ryder’s Jesus. If ever there was a visual embodiment of how we think of Christ, Mr Ryder is it. Known for his ability to perform striking vocal ornaments he is an extraordinary force to be reckoned with. His first few words (Why should you want to know…) in response to the incessant pestering of What’s the buzz? ring out clear as a bell, mellifluous, meaningful and beautiful. However, when it comes to the softer, lower register moments, the power deserts him, and his delivery appears tentative and uncertain. In fact, at times one wonders whether he’s demanding too much of his voice. His performance highlight is Gethsemane, which triggers a standing ovation during the show, and it’s a five-minute showcase for his skills but, in our performance, I felt he toned down the embellishments, which no doubt helps preserve his voice but also makes the piece much more understandable – so that worked well for me.

There has been much difference of opinion as to how well Sam Ryder acts the part as well as singing it, but, overall, I was impressed with his ability to convey emotion, frequently through a silent stare or an unexpectedly delivered turn of phrase. And his stage presence is immense; it is, indeed, dream casting. He’s a star without question; I just hope that his voice can stay the course. So, whilst there are a few ways in which this production disappoints a little, despite those elements I truly loved it. Jesus Christ Superstar runs at the Palladium until 5^th September, then resumes its run at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in October.

Four They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – Something Rotten! Opera House, Manchester, 2nd July 2026

Posted on July 3, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell’s Something Rotten! has taken eleven years from opening on Broadway to receiving its UK premiere. In that time, it’s enjoyed a two-year US tour, and had productions in Sweden, Austria, South Korea, Canada, and the Czech Republic. Why has it taken so long to hit Britain? Could it be because it is, in fact, a bit rotten?

No! Not a bit of it. Something Rotten! is one of the funniest, freshest, catchiest, most uplifting new musicals I’ve seen in ages. For a brand new show (new to the UK anyway) it feels surprisingly traditional – but for all the best reasons. Instantly captivating, it reminded me whilst watching the opening sequence of so many of those memorable, ambitious musicals of the 60s and 70s; big set, big cast, big band and big on entertainment. For the first time in years, I left the theatre after seeing a new musical with the songs still in my head – that’s such a rarity nowadays.

It’s 1595 and Shakespeare is ruling London’s theatrical roost. Meanwhile brothers and wannabe playwrights Nick and Nigel Bottom are down on their uppers, disappointing their patron, Lady Croydon, and coming up with ideas that Shakespeare always seems to have got to first. Using what little household savings he and his wife Bea have amassed, Nick employs the services of a soothsayer, Nostradamus – not the Nostradamus, but his nephew Thomas – who looks into the future and predicts that the theatre of tomorrow will be… musicals. Trouble is, no one has heard of them yet, so Nick has a job ahead of him convincing his players and Lady Croydon of this bizarre mix of plot and song. Nostradamus also predicts what will be Shakespeare’s biggest success, so that Nick can nick it first; and he’s so close to getting the title right – but not quite.

On one level, Something Rotten! tells this merry tale of the Bottoms and their struggle to out-Shakespeare Shakespeare. On another, it’s quite the most inventive love letter to theatre in general, and musicals in particular. It makes you wonder who the first person was to think of trying out this new stage format – and to admire and thank them for their innovation. There is a song in the show simply called A Musical, which doffs its cap to so many well-known musical shows, with dozens of hilarious references that make a musical theatre fan guffaw with pleasure.

But Something Rotten! is no mere parody. Nearly all the songs are individual works of genius that either move the story on or enhance our understanding of the characters, and there isn’t a wasted moment in the entire two and a half hours. This is a show that’s determined to give its audience a good time, and it delivers it in spades. The characterisations are hilarious, from the theatre fan Shylock to the secretly theatrical puritan Brother Jeremiah. from the over-the-top Nostradamus to the nauseatingly vain Shakespeare, there’s so much on stage that keeps you laughing and engaged all the way through.

Colin Richmond’s set gives an authentic sense of rickety old London and Rebecca Brower’s costumes are perfectly in keeping with the Elizabeth age, both the rich dandies and the poor downtrodden. Danny Belton’s eight-piece band produce a full, rich, showbizzy accompaniment to the witty songs, and the cast are uniformly excellent, with a hard-working and super-talented troupe and ensemble giving tremendous support throughout.

Gareth Davies gives a surprisingly upbeat portrayal of Shylock, who hopes he might play the happy good-natured Jew in Bottom’s next play. Elliotte Williams-N’Dure plays the delightfully larger-than-life Lady Croydon, hard to please but besotted, like everyone, with Bottom’s big rival. Cory English gives a fantastically energetic and madcap portrayal of Nostradamus, prancing athletically around the stage in the big musical numbers. Cassius Hackforth makes a wonderful contrast with the other characters with his thoughtful characterisation of Nigel, uncertain of his own skills, and hardly daring to fall in love with the excellent Portia, played by Carla Dixon-Hernandez, the poetry-mad daughter of Paul Ryan’s hypocrite Brother Jeremiah, portentously warning against the pleasures of the flesh whilst making endless Freudian slips revealing his true nature.

Marisha Wallace continues to knock every role she takes out of the park, with her lively, endearing and spirited performance as Bea, Nick’s long-suffering but immensely practical and forgiving wife. Her rendition of Right Hand Man is one of the true highlights of the first Act, and she lights up the stage whenever she is on. Equally powerful and impressive is a tour de force by Richard Fleeshman as the big-headed Shakespeare, portraying him as a celebrity superstar, tossing out bon-mots for all his devoted fans to gobble up. Imagine Blackadder’s Lord Flashheart as the bard and you’re part-way there. And of course, one of Manchester’s favourite sons, Jason Manford, appears as Nick Bottom, anchoring the show in his inimitable style, delivering the comedy and music with sure-footed aplomb.

It isn’t a show that makes any serious points about the human condition, but it does celebrate everything that makes us happy. And in these difficult days that’s definitely something worth making a song and dance about. Something Rotten! continues at the Manchester Opera House until 19^th July – but surely it must have a life hereafter.

Five Alive, Let Theatre Thrive!

Review – 45 Years, Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 17th June 2026

Posted on June 20, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

We can’t change what happened in our previous relationships, before we met our current partners, can we? Provided we’re honest about them? That’s one of the questions that is touched on, although not fully explored, in Hannah Patterson’s adaptation of Andrew Haigh’s film 45 Years, presently at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester.

Before Geoff met and married Kate, he was holidaying in Switzerland with his previous girlfriend, Katja, who came to an untimely death by falling into a glacier. Her body was never found or recovered – until, in a bolt from the blue 45 years later, Geoff receives a letter from the Swiss authorities informing him that her body has been found, still trapped in the ice. Obviously, this would be upsetting news to anyone, bringing back those awful days at the time of her death. But what now? Should he do anything about it? Travel to Switzerland to view the body? After all, he’s no spring chicken. And why did the authorities contact him, 45 years later, at an address that they wouldn’t have known about – unless he’d been keeping them updated?

Perhaps the ultimate question is, can Geoff and Kate’s solid, if unexciting, marriage withstand going over old emotions and allegiances without breaking, glacier-like, under the pressure? The play attempts to analyse the family unit without ever making anything too obvious, or overstated. Obsessions are suggested and secrets are suspected without being fully exposed. As Geoff tries to balance his feelings today with 45 years ago, Kate makes tiny discoveries which suggest that Geoff and Katja were perhaps more established as a couple than she realised. When Kate asks Geoff if, had she not died, would he and Katja have married, and he concludes that they would have done, you can feel the knife silently piercing her heart. Of course, that was before they had met, and all’s fair in love and war. But how come he had never told her before? How come she had never asked?

Let’s look at the facts: Geoff’s first girlfriend was Katja; she died in mysterious circumstances. He then married Kate. If she discovers that Katja’s death was anything other than a tragic accident, will he bump her off before he next marries, say, Katarina? As Johnny Nash once said, there are more questions than answers. The problem with 45 Years is that it offers us an immensely intriguing set-up but deprives us of any real resolutions. Maybe Geoff and Kate survived 45 years by simply not talking to each other. Prasanna Puwanarajah’s direction certainly suggests they live as separately as possible even when in the same room – there’s no sofa here in James Cotterill’s anodyne set, their separate chairs are always placed at a distance from each other. 45 Years is a delicate, repressed little play, more of an intellectual challenge than an emotional one. Any passion is firmly controlled – voices are rarely raised and tempers are rarely frayed. It’s all very artfully done but it doesn’t feel like real life.

Whilst the cream carpeted set reflects absolutely the blandness of Geoff and Kate’s marriage, Guy Hoare’s lighting design nicely accentuates critical plot development moments (such as they are). The device of having occasional dripping water from the ceiling could be construed as suggesting potential cracks in their relationship; or, as Mrs Chrisparkle more cynically suggested, it merely indicated that their roof was leaking.

Certainly, the powerhouse pairing of Gabriel Byrne and Geraldine James as Geoff and Kate provides the impetus that the play needs to see it through its full 80 minutes. Ms James is especially watchable, conveying Kate’s thought processes with tremendous clarity, including those moments when she decides she doesn’t want to think anymore. After all, she’s discovering that, just maybe, she has played second fiddle in Geoff’s affections for all these years. Gabriel Byrne’s Geoff is more eloquent in the things he doesn’t say, or perhaps those things he’s forced to say but he’d sooner keep hidden. Between them they do their best to bring to life the text’s intricate cross-shading of various hues of grey, frustrating an audience desperate for answers, but being true to the characters. Gillian Bevan plays their friend Lena, primarily there to add a little variety to the grey, but in every practical sense creating even more vacuum between Geoff and Kate.

This is a Marmite production. I came out of it a little frustrated by the storyline but very impressed with the acting and the fascinating premise. My three theatre companions all sported various levels of unimpressed, including the always damning that’s 80 minutes of my life I’m never getting back. The truth, as ever, is probably somewhere between the two. However, there are elements to the play that stretch the imagination thinner than the surface of a glacier. If that slide projector’s been up in the attic for 45 years, Kate is immensely incurious!

Three-sy Does it!