The President's Husband's Drama Reviews

This review was written for Daily Information, and appears on their website . Western filmmakers have for decades plundered the works of Akira Kurosawa for new ideas. Most famously  Seven Samurai  provided the template for  The Magnificent Seven , and when Sergio Leone brazenly plagiarised  Yojimbo  for the first of his  Dollars  trilogy he ended up in court. Even  Star Wars  feels the force of Kurosawa, taking inspiration from  The Hidden Fortress  with its tale of a battling princess aided by two droid-like comedy lackeys. So it’s a relief to see that  Living  openly declares itself to be ‘based on’ Kurosawa’s  Ikiru  ( ‘To Live’ ). However, even that statement falls somewhat short of full disclosure, because  Living  is not just  based  on the Japanese original. It’s a  translation  of it – and a clever one too. Ikiru  is possibly Kurosawa’s most powerful film. It’s not an ep...

This review was written for  Daily Information  and appears on their  website . Following two years of covid-induced slumber, drama has reawakened in Oxford like a Blue Peter tortoise after a winter of enforced hibernation. The flowering I've witnessed this term has been beautiful, inspiring and triumphantly creative. Of the twelve shows I’ve seen in the last few weeks, nine have been original pieces of work. That in itself is impressive – but on top of that, the talent on display has been remarkable. And even when shows haven’t come off, at least they went down fighting. Dead Man’s Suitcase is an original musical, written and directed by Felix Westcott. It’s packed with toe-tapping tunes, its lyrics are genuinely witty, its story is instantly relatable but at the same time totally fantastical, and its company of just four performers carry the whole thing off with aplomb. In other words, it’s a treat. Our hero is John, an everyman in a literal dead-end job. He writes obi...

This review was written for Daily Information and appears on their website . 'The Skriker' had to cancel this week, raising the prospect of the Burton Taylor being briefly unoccupied. What to do to avert this tragedy? What play can be cast, rehearsed, learnt and mounted at three days' notice?  Cops & Robbers, the improv group, to the rescue. All this three-strong team have to work with is the basic idea that they're putting on a musical. Beyond that, at the outset of the show, they clearly have no idea where they're going. There's no script, no roadmap to follow. The only vehicle they have is their trust in each other. What more do you need? Answer: nothing. 'Spools' is fifty minutes of ephemeral joy built on nothing more than a genuine commitment to and confidence in improvisation. It was pretty sobering fighting through the queues shuffling into 'Mama Mia' at the New Theatre round the corner, on the way to the BT this evening. How much does...