The President's Husband's Drama Reviews

Theatre is filled with examples of the tortured, reclusive, and frankly weird persona of ‘the genius’ – both on and offstage. Good Work begins with one such genius in the form of a character, Felix (Eddie Jones). He sits at a table taking notes from a hefty stack of books, and his scholarly, hunched posture suggests that this is a regular pastime for him. As the play gets going, Felix is joined by his flatmate, Zach (Charlie Lewis). The two are best friends to the point of brotherhood, and together they anxiously anticipate the arrival of Felix’s sister, George (Orla Wyatt), who is visiting from London. George’s entry sparks a sheen of congeniality, which quickly gives way to awkwardness and resentment as George reveals the true purpose of her visit: she comes bearing their father’s will and a mission to make Felix come back home to London. Good Work , though just a three-hander, manages to crowd the small BT stage. The play is populated by three characters whose own confused iden...

King Lear is an odd choice of production for a student company. This is for a very simple reason: the play’s titular character is meant to be old to the point of senility, necessitating a performance that believably conveys mad rage, harmless confusion, and tender affection, sometimes all in the same scene. It follows that Lear is a hallowed role, reserved for the greatest actors who are still up for a challenge. How could a student ever hope to pull off such a feat? Director Alex Bridges’ attempt, the first in Oxford for over ten years (as the marketing professes), rises to the behemoth of Lear with some flair. The beating heart of the play is Scott Burke as Lear himself. Decked out with cosmetic wrinkles and baring suitably laboured expressions, Burke made for a believable, and therefore sympathetic Lear. As we watch the once powerful king succumb to his daughters and his own emotional instability, Burke mastered the sudden crescendos of madness and nailed Lear’s blossoming into ...

The votes are in, and the award for Scariest Theatrical Prop of the Year goes to... The Pillowman . I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say the prop in question is about seven feet tall, made of pillows, and features the deadest, most horrific smile you're ever likely to see. What's particularly chilling is that, out of all the characters in this inkily black comedy, the Pillowman himself is probably the kindest. Move over, Coraline. Those button eyes have been supplanted, and there's a new nightmare in town. And talking of Neil Gaiman creations, there's a tangible thematic link between Martin McDonagh's Pillowman and Gaiman's Sandman story, Calliope . Both of them squarely address the idea of cruelty and torture as the wellspring of creativity. But there's a vital difference. Where Gaiman's tale of a writer who enslaves a Greek Muse to gain artificially induced talent suggests that great art is built on shameful foundations (tal...

I had never heard of Flexicare before I was invited to review this concert. And, impressive as the music was, I came away even more impressed by the charity it was supporting. Flexicare provides a free, expert child-minding service for families in Oxfordshire who have children with disabilities. So that means, for example, if the parents have to go out to another child’s school concert or parents’ evening, then Flexicare will step in and look after their child with special needs until they get home. This is the sort of care that is often too specialised for grandparents or friends. And it allows families of children with complex needs simply to do things that other families can do without a second thought. It gives those families a few hours of assurance that their child is being well looked after, and it frees them to engage in activities that would otherwise be incredibly hard. They’re not a massive charity. But they make a massive impact. They support a total of 45 families. And wit...

 The Getaway Review At the heart of The Getaway is the worst couple you know. They hate each other, they hurt each other, but – somehow – they manage to channel that passionate hatred into frequent, intense, and loud love-making.  The play begins with the offstage noise that characterises this type of sexual frenzy. Suddenly, it stops, and our never-meant-to-be couple, Linda (Marianna Shullani) and Alec (Arun Ghosh), hurry onstage to greet their houseguests, Linda’s childhood friend Mary (Gabriella Bedford) and Alec’s fellow rugby lad Jamie (Ezana Betru). It is quite apparent that the get-together is farcical, and both Mary and Jamie frequently wonder aloud at why they were invited. We quite soon understand that they are being set up together as part of Linda’s ongoing project to fix everyone else’s lives.  As the controlling, unquellable Linda, Marianna Shullani thrived – shouting over everyone else, and stopping every so often to have a smoke. Her fiance, the insipid an...

The last time Rupert Goold directed Hamlet , in 2005, he took the audacious step of excising the avenging Norwegian prince Fortinbras entirely from the play, and creating a high-concept visual feast in which Denmark’s ruling dynasty played out their dysfunctional vendettas as a private family feud uncomplicated by national politics. Twenty years later he’s done the same thing. Again Fortinbras is nowhere to be seen, and this time all the action takes place aboard a private cruiser, the Good Ship Elsinore, on the 14 th of April 1912 (yes, the date the Titanic sank). Affairs of State are notably absent from this ruling court. Unlike David Icke and Andrew Scott’s Hamlet , which was oppressive with surveillance cameras and secret police, Luke Thallon and Goold’s is all heaving decks and vast receding horizons, a romantic, evocative and barren mindscape. When it comes to Shakespeare, Goold is the master of the ‘One Big Idea’ school of directing. His stunning Macbeth with Patrick Stewart w...