Smaller Theatres

With such a busy London theatre scene, this page is of necessity no more than a sample of the best available in smaller theatres rather than a comprehensive summary.

On London’s outskirts at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, Sir Trevor Nunn ambitiously decided to revive Sir Peter Hall and John Barton’s epic The Wars of the Roses. The trilogy, compressing all three parts of Henry VI and Richard III, took a day out of viewers’ lives but rewarded them with rich entertainment and great acting from a committed and talented ensemble.

The Lyric Hammersmith reopened for business after a long period of refurbishment with a splendid new version of Bugsy Malone. The audience appeared to be having as much fun as the inevitably young but talented cast in a stage version of the cod gangster movie that launched the careers of a number of film stars.

Later in the year, another adaptation, this time of Sarah Waters’s novel of lesbian life in and around the variety halls, Tipping the Velvet tried its luck.

Somehow, while the evening had its moments it did not cohere into as good a whole as one might have desired.

Soho has done a good job of dividing its presentations between the main space and smaller studios. They also like to mix a significant comedy offering with their drama.

The theatre was lucky enough to welcome one of the most powerful, politically-charged plays of the year in Lampedusa by Anders Lustgarten.

The evening was divided into two sections, one investigated the topical plight of boat people desperately attempting to travel from Africa to the remote Italian island of the title. The other looked at a Leeds student moonlighting as a debt collector for a payday lender.

Philip Ridley’s Radiant Vermin was on the surface a typically hard-hitting in-yer-face drama but with a soft underbelly about a young couple, expertly played by Gemma Whelan and Sean Michael Verey, trying to make ends meet. When they are offered the chance of a lifetime to move into a dream home, it isn’t difficult to guess that there will be a catch.

Sabrina Mahfouz’s Chef had already been a Fringe First winner in Edinburgh. Its transfer to Soho gave Londoners an opportunity to enjoy a beautifully conceived solo show with a marvellous central performance from Jade Anouka.

OperaUpClose have long been Soho favourites and their modern version of Carmen provided the usual brand of talented young singers enjoying an imaginative staging.

The Park is establishing itself as a strong fringe venue. Kill Me Now by Canadian Brad Fraser was a deep but at times humorous piece that asked viewers to consider the difficulties suffered by those with serious physical disabilities. It benefitted from strong central performances by Oliver Gomm and Greg Wise.

The Mentalists is a relatively early play by Richard Bean that enters the realm of the absurd. Steffan Rhodri and Stephen Merchant starred in a two-hander that bears more than a passing resemblance to Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter.

Invisible by Rebecca Lenkiewicz at the Bush was ostensibly a comedy about a Legal Aid lawyer trying to save clients without compromising her own happiness.

Hidden beneath the surface light heartedness was a strong message about the value of this service, which is currently threatened by Government cuts.

The Gate is determinedly internationalist in its outlook, seeking politically-charged work from around the world.

Eclipsed by Danai Gurira was set in an African dictatorship embroiled in civil war. There, the four wives of a man, never seen, together build a portrait of the tin pot tyrant who treats them all almost as badly as the enemy.

Image of an Unknown Young Woman by Elinor Cook also looked at life in a totalitarian country, in this case from rather oblique angles.

Andrew Whaley’s The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco is set in a real country, Zimbabwe. It was presented by Elayce Ismail as his prize for winning the J P Morgan Award for Emerging Directors. The play views the terrors that country suffered from the perspective of a prison cell people by eccentrics.

The tiny Jermyn Street Theatre lies in the heart of the West End and has a reputation for good programming, which it did not dispel in 2015.

Boa by Clara Brennan brought together the married acting team of Dame Harriet Walter and Guy Paul. They portrayed an eccentric married couple. She was a retired ballerina, he a former war reporter.

The play covers the period from initial attraction to a time beyond the grave but its appeal rests almost wholly on one big surprise.

The Last of the De Mullins presented a rare opportunity to see a play by St John Hankin, popular in his heyday but now just about forgotten. This is a play very much of its time a century ago, when illegitimacy could leave the mother destitute.

However, Hankin shows a degree of compassion to Charlotte Powell’s Janet De Mullins, a strong personality from a weak family.

Minor plays by Eugene O’Neill have proved popular of late and The First Man was well worth a look. The piece combines sexual politics with anthropology in fine style, showing how rumour-mongering can both wreck a marriage and strengthen it.

Dry Land by 21-year-old Yale undergraduate Ruby Rae Spiegel shone a light on the hopes and desires of young women today. Despite being rather over-hyped, it features some good central performances from Milly Thomas and Aisha Fabienne Ross and moments of true drama.

The Arcola proved reliable. Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage by Robin Soans brought the world of Welsh rugby to North London. More particularly, it focused on the career of Gareth Thomas, a legend whose homosexuality set him apart even from the game’s greats. What was always likely to be an intriguing evening took on extra nuances thanks to ensemble casting allowing every member to play Thomas, as a rugby ball was passed, effectively carrying and transferring his identity.

Mark Jagasia’s Clarion was a rich satire on the newspaper industry, poking fun at politics at the same time. The casting of Clare Higgins and Greg Hicks guaranteed a good night out.

Barney Norris had made a lot of friends with his award-winning debut in the same small studio space, Visitors. The quirky Eventide focussed on a series of rural eccentrics but from younger generations. The drama was fuelled by the death of a mutual friend and showed the impact that a young man’s disappearance had on those that knew and loved him.

The Finborough is always a good bet. Amongst other plays, they presented Our American Cousin by Tom Taylor. This was the kind of pot boiler that would undoubtedly have been consigned to the ever-growing list of works that are of their time and need never trouble future generations. However, because John Wilkes Booth chose the occasion of a performance to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, it carries a certain cachet.

The highlight was Treasure, a play first produced in Yiddish and belatedly translated. The ambience was all rather Fiddler on the Roof. However, the play did allow visitors to get a glimpse of life long ago and far away, with laughs to boot.

One Arm was originally written as a screenplay by Tennessee Williams. A new version for the stage was adapted by Moisés Kaufman and shown at Southwark Playhouse.

An atmospheric, expressionistic production by Alistair Turner told the tale of a New Orleans murderer and those with whom he mixed.

Juliet Gilkes Romero’s Upper Cut was a play about politics and race. Running largely backwards in time, it showed how a man who might have been the Labour Party’s first black Prime Minister is defeated by his own past and lashings of conspiracy.

The Orange Tree in Richmond is beginning to take on its own new character following Paul Miller’s accession to an artistic directorship that Sam Walters had held for a generations.

Play Mas by Mustapha Matura is something of a rarity in the UK, a play about the West Indies. Combining a Caribbean carnival atmosphere with local concerns, it does a nice job of showing Londoners what Trinidadian life was like in the 1950s.

French Without Tears by Terence Rattigan received a welcome revival, once again reminding viewers that despite his unfashionable status for much of the last half-century, Rattigan really was an excellent playwright who new how to create a well-made play and shine a light on the relatively affluent classes.

To add to the attractions on this occasion, the production was extremely funny, assisted by two excellent performances from the leading females, Genevieve Gaunt in flighty mode and Sarah Winter, innocent.

When We Were Women by Sharman MacDonald took on the topic of working-class Scottish life in wartime.

The Muse by Palimpsest, which investigated the lives of pre-Raphaelite artist Frederick Lord Leighton and his model Dorothy Dene helped viewers to get under the skins of a temperamental artist and his equally temperamental muse. The production benefitted greatly from its location, the sumptuous Leighton House Museum.

Walking the Tightrope from Theatre Uncut presented a series of very short pieces by well-known writers and proved highly controversial. The best of the work was really special and the controversy a marketing storm in a teacup.