The Easter holidays are very nearly over. We haven’t exactly made the most of the time off school, as both kids were poorly at different times but we’ve managed to squeeze some fun in along the way. Today, in the dying hours of the holidays, we revisited the Twist Museum which we last went to in 2023 and happy to report back that the kids enjoyed it just as much as last time.
First tho, I had to get there. Being the kind of person who likes to fit a lot into a bank holiday, I’d gone on a walk around Chingford Plain with church people and was still in the middle of nowhere 1 hour 15 before we were due to be at Twist. Somehow I managed to get back to Chingford station, meet Nathan and the kids on the train and get to Oxford Circus right on time. Looking somewhat dishevelled and forest-strewn but I was there.
After putting out stuff in the lockers, we went through the gateway to the museum, which has had something of a facelift since our last visit:
The first room was the yellow room, where you could see the effect of light on how we perceive colour…these umbrellas went from greyscale to multi-coloured as the light changed:
That’s not one of my kids in the foreground by the way – if only they were still that wee. No, my kid was trying to work out the physics of how it all worked:
The Twist Museum is a mix of big set pieces, like this yellow room, and smaller illusions on the wall. We looked at pretty much everything, even though there were some that the kids were familiar with already, like the parallel lines:
And the bunny/bird illusion:
There are also lots of things which aren’t illusions as such, but more like pretty photo opportunities. Eva christened this one “The Schuyler Sisters” as it was pink, yellow and blue:
There were some new bits in the next room I think – the human kaleidoscope was still there:
But I don’t remember the smaller kaleidoscopes that you put your face into, which creates this world of a thousand Evas:
More Evas is exactly what we need in this family. There were also the kind of video screens that follow your movements and overlay cool effects but I did not get a great photo of these, probably because we were in motion all the time:
By the way, if you’re wondering what Eva’s look is, it’s “business whimsy”. Ask no more questions. Tho this illusion shows you what meetings would look like if everyone in the team followed the business-whimsy dress code:
Oh, and had sinister brothers creeping up to attack them. I also got an insight into how Nathan would look as a Cerberus:
Kinda spaniel-y tbh.
The most popular rooms were the height illusions, which I probably shared last time but the kids have grown since then so here’s the 2025 version:
And all three takes of the chair illusion:
There was also a “skull-illusion” painting by Holbein which made Eva burst into a song from “Six”:
Honestly, any excuse to bring musical theatre into a day out. Earlier, she’d tested the acoustics of the Falling Up Room by singing Les Mis in there:
There were two things which were definitely new since our last visit. The first was the hollow mask illusion booth. You sat in a chair and tried not to blink as your face was scanned (a fail on Reuben’s part, which is shocking as he was wearing the Dr Who t-shirt) and then the booth produced a 3D hologram of you with a hollow face:
The actual illusion is hard to explain and also hard to capture on camera but even just the holographic selves are pretty cool. They first appear on the screen, where you get the option to have the illusion sent to you via e-mail:
And then appear in these little prisms, in true “help me Obi Wan Kenobi” style:
If you’re wondering, I did try to share my own holo-hollow face video directly into this post but I probably need to run an WordPress upgrade to make it work. I apologise for the usual LWAT levels of techfail.
The other bit that was definitely new was the last thing we came to – the Colour Flip room. Would you buy a monochrome latte from this barista?:
There were a few ways to capture the surreality of this room but hopefully this angle gives you a good idea:
So I’ve really just skimmed the surface of what there was to do in this space – there were so many more illusions that I haven’t shared pictures of so as not to spoil the surprise for when you go there. We were in the exhibition for an hour or so and only left because Eva was overheating in all those business layers. We probably could have spent longer. Afterwards, the boys headed home and Eva and I went for fries but not before posing herself on a tiny plinth on the corner of Oxford Circus:
It was hammering it down when by the time we’d finished eating, so we ducked into a shop where Oasis used to be. It’s called Sostrene Grenes and, as Eva said, it’s the most cozy little place. It’s not actually little at all but it is cozy and has some very reasonably priced pretty stuff:
Also, Eva’s flower crown fit right in with the decor:
Before anyone starts on “the yoof of today, always on their phones”, let me tell you that she was texting her BFF with a list of the loose leaf teas available in the shop to see which ones to buy them. Her BFF didn’t respond in time so we had to leave and come back once I’d sent the same list to BFF’s mum but still…
Yes, that is a loose leaf tea pick n mix. It truly is a charming place. It also had a colouring table and a sensory room, so we were there for ages and I was lucky to only have to spend £20 or so on beads, the tea, elastic, strawberry-flavoured dried apple slices and some watercolours. Eva ideally wanted to buy the whole shop.
So yes, school tomorrow but I like to think we’ve given the holidays a good send off. Bring on the summer, hey?
Twist Museum is on Oxford Street and the nearest tube is Oxford Circus. Click here for tickets and more info.
Disclaimer: I received free tickets in exchange for a review. All opinions remain honest and my own.
This is an odd one to review because, for once, I’m getting in early on a play that pretty much no one else has seen yet. I always try to avoid reading reviews before I write mine but with things like “Les Misérables” it’s pretty easy to be influenced by what everyone else has ever said about it. So this is a rare opportunity to write something almost completely unbiased.
Except it’s not unbiased, is it? Cause I love Ewan McGregor and everyone knows it. When Nathan got pouty about me declaring my love for him publicly (Ewan that is, not Nathan) I pointed out that he’s brought it on himself by booking tickets to “Life Less Ordinary” on our very first date back in 1997. Ewan has been part of our relationship from the start and latterly, the kids have grown to love him too, through the Star Wars films and “Moulin Rouge”. So it would have to be a complete car crash of a show for me to say anything remotely negative about the divine Mr McG.
(If you’re getting a sense of deja-vu then yes, you’re right. I did write similar about our visit to see David Tennant’s “Macbeth” in October. I have a bit of a tasty for the scruffy Scottish types, OK? And Nathan can’t complain cause he got to see Sigourney Weaver in return.)
Luckily, this show was not at all a car crash. It’s the second night of previews so I sensed there were some times when the rhythm of the lines still needed to settle down but overall it was a tightly plotted, well-acted and intense piece of theatre. Not a musical, much to Eva’s disappointment, but we coped.
I will say off the bat that it was more adult than I expected and we were the only ones to have brought kids with us. The age recommendation is 12+ and I’ll take this opportunity to re-iterate that this is no longer a toddler-focused blog. There’s a fair bit of swearing, including some C-bombs, and some quite explicit scenes. The content warning says “adult themes” but that might be understating it. Having said that, my kids were fine with it all and it’s probably nothing worse than they hear on YouTube all the time but they are nearly 13 and nearly 16 so if you’re tempted to try it with a kid that’s scraping in under the 12-year-old age then I would urge some caution. It’s definitely more of a secondary school production than anything that primary school kids could handle. However much they love Obi Wan Kenobi.
That over, let’s get to the actual play. As you’d expect for a play about architecture, the set is sleekly built and stylish. The main room set has a brick floor which surely couldn’t have been made with real brick but certainly looked convincing. The “cathedral” set that is on stage before the opening is a “lopsided pyramid” of aggressive modernity. Obviously I don’t have any pictures of the production itself but I can share the pre-show set with you:
And then there’s the cast – an interwoven ensemble of five main characters, with some extras for the party scene. Ewan McGregor was the eponymous Master Builder – Henry Solness – and Kate Fleetwood was his wife Elena Solness. Elizabeth Debicki was Mathilde, David Ajala as Ragnar and Mirren Mack as Kaia. They all had a lot of stage time and a lot of emotional moments so it must be exhausting going through this every night. They were all excellent though.
David Ajala threatened to steal the show several times as the “influencer architect” – Henry’s protégé, who was now starting to outshine him. Although the play was largely dark and intense, Ragnar was a beam of sunshine for most of it, dazzling in a small pair of speedos or his party slacks. He certainly provided some lighter moments to break up the drama and delivered his witty dialogue brilliantly.
His comedy foil for most of these scenes was Elena, who Eva described as “iconic”. She was certainly a flawed character with a twisted take on feminism but she was both sympathetic and chilling…you felt for her but also felt sure you wouldn’t want to cross her. Kate Fleetwood balances all these things as well as looking stunning in every stylish outfit (and she has the most amazing cheekbones). Her despair, taut politeness and raw vulnerability all make for a complex female character, the likes of which we don’t see enough of. She loves Henry but she can’t forgive him and it’s this depth which really gives the play its heart. Yet she also has the deft comedy touch to pull off her scenes with Ragnar that break through some of that tension. Masterful.
Elizabeth Debicki as Mathilde was another complex character. She appears to be very vulnerable at first but it soon emerges that she wields far more power than she lets on. Her relationship with Kaia is complicated by a revelation late on in the play and you’re left with the impression that this is a soul alone in the world with no real idea of what she wants. It would be easy to make Mathilde a bland kind of “Mia from Love Actually” temptress but in Debicki’s hands, she is sympathetic while also being very flawed.
While we mention Kaia, JUSTICE FOR KAIA. She’s the only character in this play who did nothing wrong but she seems to get dumped on from all sides and is the undeserved target of Elena’s wrath, which really should have been pointed towards her husband. Mirren Mack plays Kaia with a youthful innocence which turns to weariness as she realises that these “grown ups” she’s been looking to as role models have royally messed their own lives up. She’s the most clearcut of the characters yet the one who gets treated the worst. I say again, JUSTICE FOR KAIA.
(And potentially a new job….I’m not sure she has a future working for Elena after all of this tbh)
All of which brings us to the central performance by Ewan McGregor. I wanted to dislike his character and thought from the synopsis that I would but it’s so very hard to dislike a character played by Ewan McGregor. He makes a multitude of bad decisions, both during the play, and in his backstory but he’s still so sympathetic and you kinda want things to work out for him, even as it becomes very clear that they will not. He plays the role with his natural Scottish accent, which definitely helps the character to feel more likeable – I imagined he would do an American accent for the role but I’m so glad he didn’t. His interactions with Mathilde are genuinely tender and even though you know it’s a problematic power dynamic, you still almost root for them as a couple. But then you see what he has with Elena and feel like you should root for them instead. At times, he reminded me of his “Moulin Rouge” character – choking back tears as he tries to figure out the nature of love – but this is a more mature character than Christian ever got to be and with maturity comes baggage. To mix my metaphors slightly, he wears his heart on his sleeve but it’s weighed down by all that emotional baggage. It’s another complex performance and it blends so well with the others.
Just a quick word on the visuals – the sets, as I mentioned earlier, as impressively detailed and I loved the seascape in the background. The costumes are gorgeous, especially the dresses in the second half, and there are some great visual effects when the fireworks are going off. For a play about rich people, there really is a feeling of understated wealth in the set dressing. At one point, a glass is thrown and the sound it makes is quite obviously not that of glass breaking but I guess that’s done for health and safety issues. Health and safety gets heavily promoted as a concern in the play (exposed wiring in a wooden building, anyone?) so no wonder the production team are hot on it.
So visually pleasing, great performances and a twisty plot that keeps you on edge. What’s not to like? It’s a thought-provoking piece, heavy in places and comedic in others, but well worth watching. The runtime is 2 hours 20 mins including an interval but it went by really quickly. We did, of course, get the usual interval ice cream and we’re developing quite a connoisseur’s knowledge of the Delfont Mackintosh ice cream range, which includes at least two dairy free options. It was warm in there (not quite as warm as “The Tempest” but almost) so I would highly recommend getting a cup of water from the dispenser at the bar before it starts.
I would also recommend trying for the stage door. Reuben was at the end of the row and very close to exit so he shot off the minute the curtain call was done (and we have told the kids never to go before the bows as that’s poor etiquette). He got a prime spot on the barrier and was rewarded by signatures from Kate Fleetwood, Elizabeth Debicki and Obi Wan himself. Honestly, I’ve never seen this boy happier:
All three were super nice – we were warned that they would only sign play merchandise, which is fair enough, and would not be posing for selfies. Roo got to exchange a few words with Ewan and it made him even happier than it made me. Of course, Kate Fleetwood and Elizabeth Debicki have their own geek credentials as they’ve appeared in the “Harry Potter” ‘verse and the MCU respectively. This wasn’t lost on Roo. In fact, he watched “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” a few days ago in preparation for potentially meeting the golden-faced star. When she came out to the crowd of people though, she gave a startled look which looked less Ayesha and more like her Princess Di character from “The Crown”
And Eva was so pleased that she got to tell Kate Fleetwood how brilliant she’d been:
Happy, happy stagey kids.
We didn’t dress on theme for this one (tho Nathan had Darth Maul socks on) but I was quite pleased I’d worn my Bowie t-shirt as there’s a Bowie reference and a snippet of music right at the start of the show:
I realise I haven’t said too much about the plot and the dialogue or any of the technical bits apart from the performances but that’s because I’m aware it’s brand new and I don’t do spoilers. It’s OK to tell you that Éponine dies but I wouldn’t be OK with the same level of detail about something that only a handful of people have seen so far. I will say though, if intense family drama is your thing, then you should give this a try. And if you’re just a Ewan McGregor fangirl, then you should also give this a try. Tho to answer a question raised in a Facebook post – no, he does not get his kit off.
But don’t let that put you off. Click here for tickets and more info.
No disclaimer needed as I paid for this one but all opinions remain honest and my own.
How to review “Les Mis”? Surely it’s such a classic that everyone who might want to see it has already seen it so what could I possibly say? Well, I’ll do my best and start off by wishing the original Les Mis – the novel – a very happy 163rd birthday for last Monday (31st March). Eva naturally made the book a tiny party hat to celebrate:
So that gives you an idea of the kind of obsessiveness we’re dealing with here. She’s been planning this outing for a long time and I put off booking for almost as long because I’d read reviews that said that some of the cheapest seats had very restricted views. Eventually I stopped dithering – with some help from seatplan.com – and booked £40 tickets in the Grand Circle. Not super cheap it could have been a lot worse. The view was fine, as it turned out, but first we had to find the theatre. It’s on what I like to call “Orphan’s Row”, right next to “Oliver!”:
It sparked quite some discussion as to which one came first as there are a few similarities. If you’re ever wondered the same, I can confirm that “Oliver Twist” was published in 1838 and, if you paid attention to the first paragraph, you’ll know that “Les Misérables” was published in 1862, three years after Dickens had published his own French revolutionary novel, “A Tale of Two Cities”. The two authors met in 1846 and around 130 years later Alain Boublil would be watching a production of “Oliver!” when the inspiration for the musical version of Les Mis hit. I’ve learnt most of this in the last 24 hours since seeing the show (with research credits to Eva) and only mention it because it seems very fitting that these two productions have run parallel courses to each other and are now neighbours. Also because Victorian novelists really liked writing about urchins and dead prostitutes.
If all that is too cerebral for a blog post, please enjoy my sloppily painted, French flag-coloured nails which happily matched the tube lines we took to get to the theatre (Weaver, Victoria, Piccadilly). Eva’s nails were red and black, for what will be obvious reasons to some.
If you’re wondering what the rest of her outfit was like, wonder no more. I might have mentioned before that she often dresses like an extra from Les Mis, so I assume this is just what she might have been wearing on a Saturday anyway:
All of which gets us to our seats in the Grand Circle. And look, the view was just fine:
So, on with the show! While I knew some of the songs very well, there were huge chunks of the show I only vaguely knew from having watched the film or heard the soundtrack blaring out of Eva’s room. The whole thing is sung-through, which makes for an interesting mix of songs that are actual songs (with a beginning, middle and end) and other bits which are more like conversational interludes. The latter is where most of the exposition tends to happen, so some of it is skipped out which leaves a lot of questions. Mainly around Valjean’s ability to escape Javert by just putting a suit on and moving to the other side of France. I think it’s probably explained a bit more in the book but there are certainly times when you can tell that a sprawling, epic novel has been condensed to a play that lasts just under three hours.
I’ve mentioned Valjean and Javert already and it would be remiss of me not to tell you what absolute powerhouse vocalists these two actors (Ian McIntosh and Stewart Clarke) are. It’s a lazy comparison to point out that one particular Javert was not such a powerhouse but comparisons are a bit pointless when you’re watching the kind of vocalists that can hold on a notes for seemingly hours or can sing a song almost entirely in falsetto. These are superb singers in their own right. It’s a very male dominated show, character-wise but really makes use of all the possible notes in the male voice, from the bass notes in the opening song to the high notes of “Bring Him Home”. The women are all amazing singers too, but it’s notable that there are some real vocal challenges for the male roles and they are managed amazingly. Maybe it’s just because I’m still learning about men – in a choir sense – so I was intrigued by the range on show.
But yes, let’s talk about the women because they were some of my favourite characters. Fantine (Katie Hall) is something of an angel character in the second half, all blond hair and white flowing dress, and she sings likes an angel too. Of course, in the first half, she’s very much a fallen angel as she has to sell herself and everything she owns in order to send money to her daughter. But then she dies of mother’s disease and thereafter only appears as a hallucination, where she takes on a heavenly glow. I wish the show gave her time to have more character development as she goes from respectable factory worker to dead prostitute over the course of around five songs. Eva often points out how there’s a very jarring contrast between “I Dreamed a Dream” and “Lovely Ladies” and she is not wrong. I guess it’s meant to be a bit of light relief after the epic drama of “Dream” but it does seem like a bit of a leap. “Dream” is rightly one of the most famous songs of the show and Katie Hall does an amazing job of bringing it to life. Again, I’m going to lazily compare it to the film but Anne Hathaway’s tearing of her vocal chords to try and add pathos just doesn’t hit in the same way that this ever-so-pure stage version does. If only we’d had more time to applaud before the sailors rocked up. No disrespect to the actors playing the sailors – it’s just an odd piece of direction.
Talking of odd, something happened just after Fantine died and Valjean and Javert had one of their rumbles. That might be why I couldn’t quite fathom how Valjean got out of the whole turning up at court and declaring his true identity thing…..I missed a bit of the show as there was a commotion towards the front of the circle. I have no idea what it was but I’m assuming it was either a medical emergency or someone filming the show. Lots of people were standing up and pointing and eventually it all settled down but it meant that Valjean escaping and the iconic moment of Cosette appearing were both somewhat overriden by what was going on. The staff seemed to handle it efficiently though, and all was calm by halfway through “Castle on a Cloud”. I’m not entirely sure which Little Cosette we saw but she was very good and her voice carried all the way back to us in the cheap seats.
Then another abrupt change of mood as it shifted again from pathos to comedy with the appearance of the Thénardiers. I didn’t realise it at the time but Madame Thénardier was played by Claire Machin, who I met when she played Cora in The Girls. I cried a LOT at that show and – spoiler alert – I cried at this show too. I won’t blame Claire Machin for either of those as she’s a great comedy actress, ably matched by Luke Kempner as her husband. I hadn’t realised quite how much comedy there was in this show as I’d assumed it was all quite dark and dramatic. I know I watched the film but that was a decade ago and I can’t remember what the balance was like then. I also didn’t realise how many saucy gags there were but that’s not a problem with these worldly adolescents. The age rating is 8 plus so just be aware that some of the humour gets a bit bawdy…but it might well go over their heads anyway. The show is also nearly three hours in total (including interval) so it might be a bit long for the younger ones.
It’s also worth everyone familiarising themselves with the plot before you go as well. There are two time jumps in the first half and it’s not immediately obvious if you don’t know what to look out for (though the programme has a handy guide, which helps). Valjean’s life as a prisoner takes place in 1815, his life as Mayor in 1823 and then the main bulk of the action – around the revolution – takes place in 1832. I won’t say which member of the family was confused by this last jump but it wasn’t Eva. Éponine appears briefly as a child in 1823 and it’s her appearance as a grown woman (played by Amena El-kindy) that signals that we have definitely moved on. I’m skipping forward a little to the second half but I must say that Éponine is probably my favourite character of all. I mortally offended Eva later by saying that I thought Marius should have ended up with her instead of Cosette but yknow, there was chemistry there. Plus I’ve been using a line from “On My Own” as a warm up for choir for a few weeks now because I just love the drama of “I have ne-ver knooooowwwwwwwnnnnnnnnn”. Wanna see how long I can make the choir hold that note on for? How long dya have?
So with the time jump, we’re into full-on revolutionary mode and my top tip would be to not get too attached to any of those idealistic young students. I hope that’s not a spoiler, given that this show has been running for almost as long as I’ve been alive. Eva gripped my hand ever so tightly in excitement as they sang “Red and Black” and “Do You Hear the People Sing” back-to-back and in the interval made sure to pull the red and black theme through to her ice cream:
But I’m once again getting ahead of myself because what comes before the storm – I mean interval? That’s right, the epic pulling together of all these threads in the form of “One Day More”. Now I’ve seen the show, I can really appreciate how all the different musical themes are previewed through the first half and then they all fit together so beautifully. It was the first time I had a little cry because it is so stirring…but it would not be the last. I’m glad Eva had the interval to calm down afterwards because she was almost bouncing out of her seat by this point. After all, this is the girl who set a “One Day More” calendar reminder for bedtime the day before the show….and yes, we did sing the whole thing through. It gets tricky with two people when it gets into five parts.
Anyway, it did not disappoint. I think the live version is a little different to the recorded version as the different themes are sung at different times to really bring each theme out. It was, as I say, beautiful.
I took some time to look through the programme during the interval as I was thinking that – just like “The Sound of Music” the first half was a bit heavily loaded with all the best songs. I stand by that opinion but the second half makes up for the lack of big hitters with the sheer amount of drama and excitement as the students take to the barricade. No more spoilers here but keep those tissues close by.
And the aforementioned “On My Own” is in the second half so it’s not entirely devoid of mega-bangers. Again, it was wonderfully sung and the audience hung on her every note. You might think I’m being harsh by not including “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” or “Bring Him Home” as mega-bangers but you know what I mean…they’re both lovely and poignant songs but not as stirring as something like “Do You Hear the People Sing?”. I did have a few more nitpicks here about what exactly the students’ plan was as it seemed to have a few pitfalls and Marius changes his mind about the whole thing after spending literally five minutes with Cosette. But that’s young people for you, hey?
I haven’t mentioned Marius and Cosette’s actors yet (Jacob Dachtler and Annabelle Aquino) yet but they were compelling as the young lovers and Cosette’s high notes were incredible. Neither of them get much in the way of character development before the action moves on to the barricade but they’re sweet together and when they’re harmonising, it’s one of the highlights, especially when Éponine and Valjean are also singing in “In My Life”. It’s nothing against Cosette when I said he should choose Éponine, honestly. It’s just that their relationship is a bit rushed. As I said earlier, you can sometimes tell that it’s an epic tale condensed down to the length of a show.
Robson Broad as Enjolras was another highlight. Although his time on the stage is relatively short (darn, am I spoilering again??) he has a great energy and you can see why his followers were prepared to die for their cause (still no spoilers, I promise). Lack of planning aside, who wouldn’t want to join this revolution? Eva certainly did.
There is a certain amount of being overdramatic in this story – Valjean, planning to flee the country because he thought someone knew something that they didn’t know, Enjolras risking his life just to showily fly a flag and as for Javert….well, that’s quite an overreaction. Maybe he was jealous of Valjean’s disguise skills, given he got outed as a spy almost instantly. Takes more than a hat to fool those students. But accusing Les Mis of being overdramatic is the very definition of futile – of course it’s overdramatic. Being overdramatic is its very raison d’être. And that’s probably why my very dramatic child loves it so much.
If you’re wondering what the slightly-less dramatic kid thought – well, he enjoyed it too. He said it was “amazing” and has been humming the songs ever since. I think we may have spawned not one but two theatre kids. I would say it’s my fault but Nathan’s a bit flamboyant too so I think they were always doomed.
The crying-at-the-theatre gene is also strong in Eva as well, which I might well have mentioned before. So I wasn’t surprised to see that both of us were sniffling together during the final reprise. Oh and during “Empty Chairs” a bit as well. And probably when Fantine died and kinda during “Bring Him Home” as well. Did I mention you should bring tissues?
A third strong gene is the ability to lose our possessions everywhere we go. So after we’d stood and cheered the performers and headed down the stairs, wiping the tears away, I went back up all those stairs to find Eva’s jacket. It was a red velvet jacket on red velvet seats so the ushers hadn’t picked it up and I managed to retrieve it. It was also my red velvet jacket from the 90s so I was pretty determined to get it back.
I’d left the family hanging out conveniently next to the stage door and by the time I got back to the street, Katie Hall and Amena El-kindy were out signing. We weren’t super prepared but Roo found a pen and we got to say hello to them both and thank them for being so amazing. It was a lovely way to end the day and they were both super sweet. Then we headed home via the chip shop. This is pretty much Eva’s perfect day. Now to manage her expectations for the rest of the Easter holidays….
No disclaimer needed as I paid for this one but opinions remain honest and my own. If you want to go and see it yourself, I’m sure there are plenty of ways to book the most famous musical in the country but still…handy link here
In some ways, it feels that the Chickenshed shows have grown up as my kids have. Bear in mind that I first visited the Shed with a 4-year-old Eva to watch a show about monkeys having a Sports Day and here I am in 2025, taking a nearly-16-year-old Reuben to review a show about the most infamous cult in modern history. It’s hard to know whether subject matter as sensitive as this will be handled well but don’t worry…you’re in safe hands at Chickenshed. The shows we’ve seen recently, such as “Love From Carmen” , have certainly taken a darker turn but there’s normally been a lighter side as well. This seemed like it would be the darkest show yet.
It’s been a bit of a theme this week. I went to see “Opus” on Wednesday, not really knowing much about it but turns out that was about a cult as well. I imagine I’m going to be having some disturbing dreams this weekend. It’s all a bit close to home, given that so many people from my childhood church got sucked into a cult in Nigeria and during the interval I tried to explain to Reuben the thin line between evangelical Christianity and a cult….but I failed. I’ll unpack that a little more later.
We’ve seen many impactful shows at Chickenshed but this was on another level. It was an immersive experience, with the traverse seating meaning that the audience are extremely close to the performers. There are a few things I don’t want to tell you because of spoilers – the impact of some of the moments would be diminished if you knew what to expect and those moments really are powerful.
So what can I tell you? It’s a 2 hour show, with a 20 minute interval, but the time flies by. The scenes in Jonestown, where the story unfolds, are intercut with flash forwards to the investigators surveying the post-massacre scene and survivors 20 years on, telling their story. There are 200 performers, which is around a quarter of the numbers that died in the actual Jonestown, but it certainly gives you a sense of the scale of the tragedy and the lives that existed before 1978. Having the performers so close up makes it all seem very real, along with the steam of the jungle and the sound of buzzing flies. It was so immersive that the audience didn’t seem sure where the interval break was or when the show had ended….there was a stunned silence at both points, followed by heartfelt applause. Reuben and I spent the whole interval talking about what we’d seen so far and I think he’s still mulling it over this morning. Plenty to think about for both his drama GCSE course and the Philosophy A Level he’s planning to start next year….
On that note, I should emphasise the age rating here, which is 13+ and includes a lot of content warnings. I chose Reuben as my companion for this one as Eva’s not quite 13 and still very sensitive. I don’t think she would have coped with it whereas Roo could have a bit more detachment…although detachment is hard when it feels like you’re almost part of the action.
Although there are lighter moments in the play, this is a tragedy from start to finish. Knowing that it was all real and that everyone who’s singing and dancing will soon die means you can never quite relax, even in the more uplifting moments. This is no ordinary production but it’s a powerful one and very timely. The sequence that ends the first half, about the inequality and unrest of 1970s America, seems like it could be describing the events of today. The Jonestown residents may have seemed naive but they were escaping a life back home that they saw no hope in.
Copyright Chickenshed
It’s almost surreal to see the Chickenshed regulars tackling such dark material. Ashley Driver is one of the first to speak in this show and he usually takes on the more comedic roles but here was tasked with the post-massacre clean up, which is a grim concept idea. I wasn’t surprised to see Jonny Morton as Jim Jones- he’s taken the villain role in the last few shows we’ve seen here and takes on the difficult role of cult leader here. He’s charismatic but also unhinged, which is a hard balance to pull off. Sarah Driver is sweetly sinister as his wife Marceline. I don’t know if I’ve seen Anna Listo-Rees and Alex Brennan in lead roles before but here they play Jessie and Vernon, a young couple pulled apart by the spiralling events in Jonestown. As I mentioned before, there is a cast of hundreds and this is used to great effect in the crowd scenes as well as powerfully portraying the massacre itself.
There are songs throughout, most notably in the “choir” scene at the start of the second half. But this is no lighthearted musical. The songs, like “Walk a Mile in My Shoes”, are ones that were genuinely sung at Jonestown and although the choir are singing joyfully, it is clear that they are praising something dark and deadly. I mentioned earlier how being a Christian makes this an uncomfortable watch and I must admit I didn’t realise what a Christian-type culture Jonestown had. I’ve done some reading since last night and Jim Jones was a full-on Christian minister before he started his own cult. In the play, he preaches in a pseudo-Christian way although he himself takes the role of God. Having seen friends swept up in something similar, it really was striking how easily this could happen. Evangelical Christian worship encourages you to lose yourself in the music and have a corporate experience but this play shows just what happens if you let yourself go too much. It’s another way in which this serves as a very important warning, to both Christians and idealists. Escaping the world we live in is rarely the answer, no matter how difficult that world seems.
As I said, it’s a play that really does make you think. And being an uncomfortable watch is by no means a bad thing….we need to be made uncomfortable sometimes in order to remember not to be won over by charming rhetoric and promises. The world isn’t perfect by any means but anyone who thinks they can single handedly change it is probably not to be trusted.
So a challenging production but a vital one. Reuben said he enjoyed it, even if he found it disturbing and I would say the same. A play that’s named after someone’s view of dead bodies is never going to be a fluffy romp but this was so powerful that I’d encourage you to go along and see it while you can. Everything I’ve heard about Jonestown over the years has never brought it to life in the way that this play did…the 900 who died were real people with relationships and talents and it is so visceral seeing it up close. The choir were so close to our seats that I could feel the movement of air as they danced and it was almost like the ghosts of Jonestown had come back to show us that they were not just corpses. It was so moving that the audience were visibly shaken at the end. But, as I keep saying, this is an important piece of art. You should take the opportunity to see it when you can but just remember, it’s not for children. A thoughtful teen will be fine but for your tots, best to stick to the shows about bunnies and things.
“The Washing Line” is on until 5th April. Click here for tickets and more info.
Disclaimer: I received free tickets in exchange for a review. All opinions remain honest and my own
It’s going to be tricky to write an entirely original review for this show as I’ve done reviews for both “Much Ado About Nothing” and a Jamie Lloyd production at the Theatre Royal in the past year. So anything I say about either the venue or the plot is going to be largely repeating myself. Which is why I sent a screenshot of my last review to the family during the interval when Nathan was questioning the logic of this plot. I maintain it makes no sense, even by Shakespeare’s standards.
But you know what makes sense? Casting Tom Hiddleston as Benedick. He is perfect in the role…sarcastic but tender and delivering the lines in a way that feels entirely natural to him. Hayley Atwell more than matches him when it comes to their battles of wit and the supporting cast are superb too. But let’s zoom out a bit first.
I had a few criticisms of “The Tempest” and I don’t think I was alone in that. The set was dreary, the pace was slow and there was a strange droning music throughout the whole thing. The shining light of that production was Mason Alexander Park as Ariel and again, I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that.
Happily, Much Ado was almost the polar opposite of the grey Tempest set. The set was filled with pink petals, the dialogue was sharp and quick and the music….well, the music was a collection of 90s party tunes and power ballads. You can decide for yourself whether that’s something you like in your Shakespeare or not.
And Jamie Lloyd had obviously picked up on the “Mason-is-a-star” thing because the production both started and ended with them in a spotlight belting out one of the aforementioned tunes. I was reminded of Hedwig (and her Angry Inch) but only realised afterwards that Mason had indeed played that part before. I am not even a little surprised. Blonde hair, golden mic and diva moves…Hedwig could have walked straight out of that production into this.
Mason will indeed be a star and deserves all the recognition they get. I wonder if they are leant on a bit too heavily in this show, which already has star power in both its leads. Mason redeemed “The Tempest” but did this show need redeeming?
Because, quite honestly, that audience would have paid to see Tom Hiddleston just wandering around the stage winking at people for two hours. We were in the palm of his hand. He’s obviously most famous for his MCU role and Loki is a very Shakespearean kind of villain. So he slides naturally into this role, dispelling with one carefully placed hand all the mutterings around “stunt casting”. He deserves to be a West End leading man.
And Hayley Atwell fully deserves her place too. Beatrice must be a fun role to play, with all the snappy banter at the start and she punches every line out in a way that had Eva doing the theatre-appropriate version of “you go girl!”. The audience were an appreciative one, cheering every quip and laughing heartily. She makes the shift into lovelorn heroine well too and there’s real chemistry between the two leads.
The best bit of Much Ado is always the hiding sequence, where Benedict and then Beatrice “accidentally” overhear their friends talking about them. Both proved to be excellent at physical comedy in this sequence, with Tom rolling in the petals from the front of the stage to the back. There was much LOLing from Reuben and possibly even some thigh slapping from Eva.
There was also some great delivery of the lines in an unexpected way. Eva’s doing Much Ado at her Shakespeare class this term so she knows it well and her favourite bit was when he rephrased “love me! Why, it must be requited” to “love me! Why?” followed by a long pause before the next phrase. It was this kind of nimble handling of the text that made it just bounce along playfully and and engage even those who struggle with Shakespeare’s language.
So some of the changes were for pace and comedy. Others were for economy of casting, like the character of Ursula being absorbed into Mason’s character Margaret. There was no nightwatch or Dogberry, which some might miss, and one of the very last lines was given to Beatrice instead of Benedick so it is she who advises the Prince to “get a wife”. Mainly tho, it’s a fairly faithful rendering of the original.
The supporting cast all seemed very familiar from “The Tempest”, not just facially but also in terms of their characters. James Phoon and Mara Huf reprise their “young lovers making impulse decisions” roles, transposing from Miranda and Ferdinand to Hero and Claudio. Tim Steed is equally villainous here as “Bastard John” as he was as Antonio. However Forbes Masson is almost recognisable as Leonato, having been Caliban in the last production. He looks different with all his clothes on.
So far, so positive. Now for a few moans on the direction and staging. We were in balcony seats and had a great view of the stage, except the very front but that’s where some of the pivotal moments took place. You could tell that no one around us could see any of it because they were all leaning forward and stretching to try and see. On such a massive stage, I’m not sure why the action moved to the front edge so often. I don’t know whether the tier below us could see any better but literally hundreds of us couldn’t. Conversely, there were also moments when the lights illuminated the very back of the stage so you could see the fuse boxes and things like that, which took you out of the mood. I think this might have been a deliberate comment on the artifice of it all but it was a bit jarring.
There were also some odd shifts in mood in the sound and lighting, with the horns blaring to signify when lovers were reunited or other moments we were obviously meant to clap at. It was presumably to tie in with the 90s rave feel but felt like a heavy-handed cue for audiences to keep up with the plot. I also didn’t love the way that actors stood or sat silently when not in use, as if they were puppets waiting to re-enter the action. Again, there is probably something hugely symbolic in it but the use of school chairs made them look like they were just waiting in a corridor at parents’ evening.
On the whole though, this was hugely enjoyable and both the Marvel fanboy and the Shakespeare fangirl had a great time. We loitered around the stage door afterwards and caught a few glimpses of the stars but didn’t get to talk to them. Having been on the balcony, we were pretty much last out so joined a futile queue that security warned us would never get us in front of the Hidd’. So we made do with taking photos from across the road. Look, here’s Reuben and Tom pretty much together:
We weren’t expecting anything different, with movie-famous stars in the cast. So we were more than happy with just glimpses here and there of not only Tom but also Hayley Attwell, Mason Alexander Park and Tim Steed. I also explained to the kids the differences between this socially acceptable form of stalking celebrities and….other forms. So we’re all clear.
Nitpicks aside, this was a great night out for nerdy teens and their parents. It’s on till 5th April so get thee a ticket!
Today I’ve been reflecting on the 5th anniversary of the start of lockdown. I know the official “Day of Reflection” was on 9th March but that didn’t feel like the anniversary to me. I was still commuting that day, had just had an IRL IWD and even as late as 12th March I wrote: “It sometimes feels like we’re definitely living through a crisis and other times it doesn’t. I’m just eating my sweet potato gnocchi and chorizo jam that I procured in Walthamstow this afternoon….but this morning Boots at Liverpool Street had been stripped bare of Calpol and kids’ vitamins and Tesco ran out of pasta and loo roll last week. Surreal times.”
Friday 13th, on the other hand, felt like the start of the end of the world. It’s the day we left work and never went back to the way that things were before. We still had a very sparse D2K that weekend and an uncertain church and schools would be open for another few days….but Friday 13th was the start of my Life on the Inside that would carry on for years.
I should say at this point that I know there were horrific losses during the pandemic and I understood that lockdown was a necessity. I know that some families had much more tragic times than we did and so anything I have to say on the Covid period is going to be whiney and self-indulgent but feel free to stop reading if you know that’s going to annoy you. This post is less a reflection on the horrors of the pandemic than it is a dwelling on lingering effects of lockdown.
Again, self-indulgence ahead. In the words of Kathy and Stella, consider this your trigger warning.
OK, let’s start then. 13th March was everything properly changed and it’s hard to put a finger on when it felt like we were almost normal again. I think I’d probably say March 2022 – that’s when we had a church weekend away, Eva was performing in her Shakespeare for Schools production and we were back to in-person choir rehearsals. But it really was only just back. We’d been sent home from work in December 2021 because of Omicron and although Christmas was “normal” it was again very uncertain. As a family, we had our first bout of the sickness itself in Jan 2022, along with literally half of Eva’s class. So Spring 2022 was the emergence from all that although far from our last stint of quarantine. Still, that is a full two years of pandemic life and that changes a person.
It isn’t hard to see how the kids changed in that time. They went into lockdown in Year 3 and 6 and emerged in Year 5 and 8. The doll-like 8 year-old of Spring 2020 was a much more robust 10-year-old in 2022. The boychild became a boy adolescent. They changed irreversibly, which is always bittersweet but more so when they miss out on precious childhood moments. Eva never really engaged with primary school again after lockdown and her previous friendship group fell away accordingly. Reuben started secondary school masked and distanced, which he bore stoically but it made me feel so sad for him.
And then there was me. I changed too. It felt like life went wonky on that March Friday and it’s never really un-wonkyed itself. Eva wasn’t the only one to lose a friendship group – relationships I had before lockdown were damaged by those tense social media times and I don’t think any of them went back to how they were before. The primary school parent life of end-of-term drinks and Mothers’ Day breakfasts may have restarted but I wasn’t really part of it. Some of that was because I’d started working full-time during the pandemic and never went back to that school-day work schedule I’d had before. Part of it was that one child had graduated from primary school and the other had detached herself so I detached too. Part of it was just life and people moving on.
But part of it was definitely me. Those long months at home changed me in a way I still can’t really describe. I’m more paranoid now, more edgy, less able to relax but also less able to cope with the physical demands of life that I used to pre-pandemic. It’s like when you go ice skating and everything is going fine but then you fall over. After that, you never quite skate with the same confidence again. You’re always anticipating the next fall. Even five years on, it feels like nothing is as steady as it once was. It all disappeared then, so could it happen again?
I don’t usually dwell on it though. Most of the time, I just busy myself with life and try to be grateful that we have our freedom back. I wrote some unimaginably self-indulgent stuff back in 2020 – about choir leading, home parenting, worship leading, my own sense of self – and I’m really glad I can go back to stalking MCU actors around London for blog content instead of that pap.
If you’re interested in all that pap, though, here are the links (which WordPress is not letting me embed properly today. It’s almost like it’s trying to save me from myself) A Grim Old Time for Community Choirs (A Reblog)
And I am truly grateful that we didn’t suffer the tragedies that so many did. I know there was so much death and so many lives ruined forever in ways that were far more tangible than some whiney middle-class girl who couldn’t get an online shopping delivery slot. So feel free to roll your eyes out of the back of your head but you don’t need to tell me how lucky I am to have survived with only psychological scars. I do know. But if you’re feeling similar – like nothing ever really clicked back into place in these last five years – then know you’re not alone.
It’s hard to know how to end this post, especially when I’m trying to be deep in thought but Eva’s watching YouTube and Nathan’s repeatedly playing (with no apparent irony) “What Kind of Noise Annoys an Oyster?”. March 2020 vibes, tbf. So I’ll just end it there and promise to go back to fries-and-stalking posts very soon.
It’s always a challenge to review an escape room because the whole point is to find things out for yourself….but I was intrigued by the Street Hunt concept and so I am going to do my very best to review it for you without any spoilers. To that end, some of the photos in this post are edited to try and keep the locations secret….so they’re either cropped in super close or have their backgrounds scrubbed out in a slightly uncanny fashion. They aren’t AI-generated but they kinda look like they might be. I promise Reuben is a genuine child and not a bot. Honest.
The concept is StreetHunt is that it’s an outdoor escape room – you solve clues from your phone in locations around Central London. So a bit like a treasure hunt but with orienteering and brainteasers at every stage. Each player is sent a unique invite link so everyone can play on their own device, which makes it easier but isn’t essential – it will work just by following one person’s phone. In the interests of speed though, having multiple devices definitely helps in cracking those riddles. The game we were playing was “Will Breaker” where our Uncle had died and left us an inheritance but only if we solved his clues. It’s recommended for age 10+
It’s all virtual, so clues, maps and messages are all shared online but hints are available as well as realtime help I believe. I will smugly say that we didn’t need any of the help but we did go slightly over the time limit so yknow, I’m not that smug. The time limit is an hour – with a break built in – but if you go over, there is 30 minutes extra time that won’t cause you to fail the mission but might affect your score. So it’s pressured but not quite as pressured as a traditional escape room. Which is good because we had Eva’s walking pace to contend with as well as a host of other unexpected obstacles. I don’t think these were part of the game but you never know.
We managed to get to the starting point at the exact starting time, which was unlikely given Nathan and I had had a busy morning and a quick turnaround at home to get back out. But we were somehow all lunched and on the train by 1:15.
As we were at the starting point, reading the opening note from our sadly missed Uncle, distraction#1 appeared in the form of a walking tour. I was trying to read aloud to the kids as someone set up shop right next to us, also declaiming loudly. So we moved to one side and had just started again when distraction#2 came past – the Hari Krishnas, singing and trying to engage us in conversation. Not ideal when we were against the clock. Eventually though, we understood what we were meant to be doing and cracked the first part of the clue so were off to our next destination.
It definitely helps to have a working knowledge of London when you’re doing this hunt because you can just look at the map and have an idea of where you’re supposed to go next without following it too closely. But don’t be put off if you’re new to the city – there are interactive maps to help you know exactly where to go. As we got to our second clue, we also bumped up against distraction#3 – an ice cream seller having a loud and dramatic argument with a caramalised nut seller, with a third party trying to break up the fight. I mean, all these incidents are kinda part of London life but they were so comically obstructive that I did start to suspect they were all part of the entertainment.
Luckily, the next few stops were smoother and we aced clue after clue. Reuben was finding the pun names hilarious and laughed out loud at every one. Eva was slightly more eye-rolly at the puns but that’s what you get for playing with someone who’s very nearly a teenage girl. She enjoyed the intrigue and the mystery though.
Also, we don’t think this was one of the clues but again, it could be:
Slightly more than halfway through, the game directed us to lie low for a while which suited us as we needed a bit of an energy boost. The game was paused for us so we went to that coffee shop that I used to be super loyal to and then boycotted and now have kinda gone back to. Don’t start with me about it. They do a good vegan cookie, OK?
The coffee shop did not have a toilet so we later used another pause to go and find a public convenience nearby. Happily there was one not too far off our course and it was one I’d stumbled upon on a walk last year and was very pleased to find I hadn’t hallucinated it. If we’d been smart we would have used the first pause to find the loos as well, because every additional pause detracts from your score….but we were not that smart.
What we were was extremely lucky with the weather. After a week full of rain, we were blessed with sunshine right into the late afternoon. Look at this shadow making! Haven’t seen that for a while.
We got to the end point with very little time yet and there was still a clue left to crack so we did go over time a little. I’m not sure there’s much we could have done better tho – we didn’t get distracted, despite London’s best efforts, and we solved the clues quite speedily. Where we lost loads of time was waiting at pedestrian crossings. I can imagine the time constraints might be easier if you don’t wait for the green man but with the young people in tow, we were trying to set a good impression. But towards the end we lost a full three minutes waiting, which was painful.
Oh, and I forgot to mention distraction#4, which happened a few minutes before that crossing. As we were walking down a side road, someone was wheeling out a full trolley of blood from a blood donation centre and so had roped off the pavement. We crossed to the other side but I was wondering how we managed to encounter quite so many distractions in a short space of time. I swear this never normally happens to us when we’re walking around London.
Anyway, despite going over time slightly we still got a Gold award, which made us very happy. And we cracked the code and got the inheritance so we did very well. It’s nice to do things as a family and this is pitched well to be challenging enough for teens to engage with while being simple enough to avoid family arguments. It’s my birthday weekend so the kids pretty much have to do anything I tell them to but they were actually quite up for the wholesome family fun for once. And they both enjoyed it, puns and all.
So I would definitely recommend it for families like ours who have older kids and want to do something engaging. It took us about two hours including the break and spending some time at the final destination looking at some interesting things that we found there (without saying too much). Good weather definitely helps and comfortable shoes are a must as I think we walked about two miles all together. But do check it out for yourselves and see if you too can solve the mystery…!
I may have mentioned before that Eva is a bit obsessed with musicals at the moment and “Hadestown” is one of her particular faves. So when we were on the bus to school, she looked at my phone over my shoulder and noticed an extremely well-targeted Facebook ad that told me I could not miss Melanie La Barrie’s last performance as Hermes.
Eva concurred. We could not. So right there, on the top deck of the bus, I went on to the Lyric Theatre website and managed to nab the last two £25 tickets in the whole theatre. They weren’t in the same row but one was just in front of the other. They were sold as restricted view but Eva assured me that they were the same ones she’d sat in before and the view was just fine. This was not her first “Hadestown” experience, you see, but it would be mine. I had seen the snippets at Musical Con but this would be the first time I watched the show all the way through.
She also insisted that she would be dressing as Hermes for the occasion. It took a little bit of charity shopping and eBaying but we got something together that I think looked pretty authentic:
I didn’t know that much about the show, compared to Eva, but I looked at some pictures on Sunday morning and thought I could cobble together a reasonable approximation of a Fates costume:
We were heading to the show from church – in fact, I was really meant to be at a partners’ meeting instead of at the theatre but I passed it off as spending the afternoon ruminating on the nature of Hell and the afterlife. We so rarely discuss that in partners’ meetings.
We spent a long time on the 38 but it did go pretty much door to door and dropped us right outside the theatre with an hour to go before curtain up. There was a queue formed already and a number of people who’d joined Eva in cosplaying, which she was very excited about. We needed food before we went in so we nipped to the Trocadero branch of That Fries Emporium to carb up for a lengthy show.
Still, we had plenty of time to climb up those hundreds of stairs before the show started and time to buy a programme as well. Our seats were steeply banked and my plan of climbing from Eva’s row to mine almost cost me a thigh muscle but I made it. Just. The view was indeed a little restricted but we could see nearly everything that we needed to.
I’m aware that this performance was a bit of a superfan event so I was probably a bit out of place as a first-timer. I was wrangling a legitimate La Barrie fangirl though and she was dressed to prove it. So I feel like we justified our seats on this most special afternoon.
And it was indeed special. As soon as the cast walked out, the applause was so thunderous that I thought the whole thing might never get started. Everyone – on stage and off – was emotional already and it hadn’t even kicked off yet. It was going to be totes emosh. Sorry, I did promise Eva I’d never use that phrase again but hey, she’s at Shakespeare while I’m writing this so she will never know.
If you don’t live with a “Hadestown” fangirl, you might not be familiar with the plot but I’ll explain it. It’s basically a Deep South jazz setting of two Greek myths – Orpheus and Eurydice mixed with Hades and Persephone. There are a few Greek myth shows on the “to-see” list at the moment so this could be a bit of a theme for 2025. And for those of you not familiar with Greek myths, heed my warning….they don’t often have a happy ending.
There isn’t a huge amount of plot, especially over a 2.5 hour show. Orpheus sees Eurydice and falls in love with her, only to lose her while he’s busy writing a song. Anyone who’s ever dated a musician will understand how that happens. Then he needs to go to the underworld to bring her back only to be offered a very specific deal by Hades – he can lead her out of Hell as long as he never looks backwards to check that she’s following him. You know, that ropey kind of deal that Greek gods are always trying to make with mortals. Hades’ wife is Persephone, who is trapped in an equally ropey deal – she has to spend half the year in the underworld in order to be free to enjoy the sunshine in the other six months of the year. When we meet Persephone in the show, she’s not enjoying the arrangement and Hades, quite frankly, does not seem like a good husband.
Hermes, messenger to the gods, acts as narrator to the whole tale and the Fates intervene to bend the characters to their own will. Just for transparency, Eva has now returned from Shakespeare and is reading this over my shoulder so she knows about the totes emosh thing. Totes awks.
The show is almost pretty much sung through, with dialogue usually mid-song rather than between songs. The style is quite jazzy but some of the slower songs have a different feel. “Wait for Me” sounds like a Celtic ballad – possibly because the last two Orpheuses (Orpheusi?) have been Scottish and Irish respectively. My favourite songs were all from the Fates. I’m an absolute sucker for three-part harmony, which I blame on being brought up listening to the Supremes. I even had a plan to go and live on ZingZilla Island as a Beach Byrd one day when the London winter was a bit too much. So I loved the way they sang together and songs like “When the Chips are Down” had a different feel to the full-on ensemble numbers. I have heard reviews of the show that complain about the band being too loud for the vocals but I can’t say we had that issue – we could hear everything that was sung or said. It might be different closer to the stage but up in the extreme gods (not Hades) we could hear just fine.
We’d had a preview of Dylan Wood (Orpheus) and Madeline Charlemagne (Eurydice) singing their duet at MusicalCon but it was lovely to see them a few months on, being so much more confident in their roles. Dylan will be returning as Orpheus after the OBC have their stint and I think Madeline is currently reprising her old role as a Fate but it was the last time they were going to be singing together in this way and so it did feel extra special, like Eva and I had been there at the start and end of their journey. Similarly, Rachel Tucker (Persephone) and Trevor Dion Nicholas (Hades) were playing out their toxic but passionate relationship for the last time and that too we’d seen the start of back in October. When “Wicked” came out and my entire social media feed was nothing but Oz-related content, Rachel Tucker was often cited as one of the great Elphabas. So it’s been a real privilege seeing her sing live not once but twice now.
But the undoubted star of Sunday’s show was Melanie La Barrie. That was what many people were there for, after all. She’s widely regarded as one of the great Hermeses (Hermesii?) and even André de Shields himself said as much at Musical Con. She has such a calm assurance to her performance and is a fabulous storyteller, which is what the role needs. At the curtain call, everyone was crying and saying what a matriarch she was to the cast and I can well believe that.
I’m getting ahead of myself, though. There was much more to talk about before we get to the curtain call. Like the remarkable staging that allowed actors to literally descend into the underworld. I was slightly perturbed by the way the giant hole in the stage remained after the actors had descended – maybe it’s just because of how clumsy I am but I was so sure someone was about to fall into it. Also, a more obsessive person than me would have been irritated by the way the revolving stage meant that the lines of the floorboards almost never lined up. But I’m not obsessive in that way, thankfully. Given how simple the set was initially though, it was remarkable how much they did with it.
The band onstage were also remarkable – so in synch and full of energy through a lengthy show. It does make a difference having the band integrated into the action and I might be wrong but I believe Orpheus is actually playing the guitar onstage as well, rather than just miming like some other shows would have him do. I wish he’d invest in a guitar case though – if the road to hell is a hard road then he shouldn’t just sling his “lyre” over his shoulder like that. If he breaks a tuning peg, he’ll have to replace the whole machine head. I know he’s a poor boy but if he can afford a nice guitar, he can afford a case too.
Health and Safety and instrument care aside, I have no real criticisms of this show. The runtime goes quickly considering it’s full length and doesn’t have much of a plot. Persephone is a delightful drunk, skipping around in her green in the world above and sulking in black down below. Hades is suitably menacing and, as Eva tells me, the only Bass in the whole of musical theatre. I’m not sure she’s correct on that but he certain had some impressively low notes. As does Eurydice, which is interesting considering that Orpehus sings in falsetto a lot of the time. So when they’re duetting they’re tonally a lot closer together than you’d normally hear in a male-female duet. If I was going to nitpick the plot, I’d say that they make some very rash decisions based on only knowing each other for a few minutes but aren’t young people just impulsive like that? And characters in Greek myths rarely make good decisions.
The ensemble also worked together well, especially in the underworld where they moved in perfect unison as Hades’ maltreated employees. It’s not a massive cast but the stage feels full most of the time and there always seems to be something to look at. I loved the variety of actors in the cast…it really felt diverse and inclusive, both in terms of age and race. The setting is Deep South but the exact setting and era are kept deliberately vague in order to make this a story that could happen to anyone, anywhere. I mean it couldn’t literally happen but the themes of love and hopefulness and wanting a see a better world than the one you see are pretty universal.
It’s also worth saying that they have character-themed cocktails and mocktails in the bar at the interval. We stuck to the traditional ice cream (mango sorbet for her, vegan salted caramel for me) and I managed to just about get to the toilets and back to my seat in time tho it was tight. There are only two ladies’ cubicles at the balcony level, which is better than Macbeth but worse than The Tempest. Some thoughtful ushers escorted a few ladies at the back of the queue to the gents’ just to ensure we all got a chance to go before the second half….I know these details are important to my fellow middle aged women so note well…go early or use the gents’ when invited to.
I’ve skipped all over the show, chronology-wise so I might as well go straight from interval to ending and it was notable that, although everyone in the auditorium had probably seen the show before, they was still a gasp when Eurydice had to descend for the final time. I could hear Eva sobbing in front of me and she was too far away to hug so I just kind of patted her shoulder with the tips of my fingers. “We Raise Our Cups” is always an emotional song, I feel, but probably more so tonight as some of the cast were openly crying through it.
Then there were speeches to each of the departing cast members which I can’t possibly do justice to here but you should look them up on Instagram because they were absolutely beautiful. And together we chorused “story end” to wish Mel La Barrie on her way to her next stop (which was an awards ceremony where she won an award so clearly our good wishes worked). Then I lost Eva briefly.
It’s fine – I knew I could find her at the stage door and so I headed that way and found her in the rain, both sad and elated at the same time. It was always going to be a scrum at the stage door but one we were up for joining so we stood in the cold rain for a while and eventually, out popped…a hand. From these windows up here:
It was hard to tell who the hand belonged to but it was later followed by a face and then another at a different window. We had stumbled upon the West End’s most exciting Advent calendar.
I had guessed we wouldn’t be seeing any cast for a while as they were probably saying their own private goodbyes as well as the public ones. But soon enough. the charming Simon Oskarsson came out to brave the rain and sign our programme. He was followed by a few more hardy souls, including Dylan Wood. It was hard to match faces to names as Eva had the paper copy of the programme and my phone wasn’t loving the rain but I think we met Tiago Dhondt Bamberger, Christopher Short and Winny Herbert. If I’ve got anyone’s names wrong, I sincerely apologise but dang, it was extreme conditions for stage dooring. Anyway, there were all totally lovely and were very complimentary about Eva’s outfit, which made her little theatre kid heart full to bursting.
I had heard on MickeyJo Theatre that Mel herself didn’t do stage door anymore, after an unpleasant encounter with some overly physical fans. But we still glimpsed her and Madeline as they left, which is the point that Eva finally agreed to let me stop standing in the rain and go warm up in the tube. I’m glad we went round to the stage door though, as the actors we met were really very sweet and the fans were all friendly as well. From the looks of the OBC opening night stage door, I think we were lucky and it could have been a lot rowdier than it was. But no, just stagey good vibes and a lot of cold rain.
Of course, now Eva wants to go back and see the new cast when they start. So it’s a sad tale but I might well sing it again and again…..
Akil Young, Immanuel Yeboa, Tré Medley, Pig Heart Boy Production Photo by Ali Wright
It’s been a while since our last visit to Unicorn Theatre, so when I heard about this production of the 1997 Malorie Blackman novel, I jumped at the chance. Of course, the last time we went it was from church not home so I hadn’t actually done the route before, which I kinda forgot about till we were at Liverpool Street. Google Maps told me to get the 47 bus and, as we were grabbing a quick coffee, I blithely waved at one going past and said there would be another soon.
Reader, there was not. A 47 was due on the board but never materialised and, having ignored several London Bridge-bound options, we found ourselves slightly out of time and eventually jumped on the 149. Luckily it was Reuben with me today, not Eva, so power-walking down Tooley Street wasn’t as challenging as it could have been. I don’t regret getting coffee either – I don’t think I could have power walked without it or done the four flights of steps from the toilets in the basement of the Unicorn to the stalls. But both were achieved and we slipped into our seats exactly as the show was meant to start. Phew!
The main reason I brought Reuben with me was because Eva wanted a pyjama day but I’m happy with the reviewing buddy I ended up with. He has a Biology test on the heart on Monday, so this was ideal revision and all theatre trips help towards the GCSE Drama study. He’s also interested in philosophy and this show posed a few ethical questions that made for some interesting conversations on the way home. The age guidance said 9-13 but I would say the content is fairly mature…the characters are in their early teens and the teenager felt like it wasn’t too young for him. An emotionally-robust 9-year-old would probably be fine with the show but Eva at 9 would probably have been a sobbing mess by the end. It does evoke some big feelings.
Akil Young, Immanuel Yeboah, Christine During and Christina Ngoyi Pig Heart Boy, credit to Ali Wright
For those not familiar with the book, the basis is that 13-year-old Cameron has a heart condition and is offered a revolutionary new procedure to replace his failing heart with one from a specially-bred pig. You can see where the ethnical dilemmas come in and they were amplified by the lurking presence of the animal rights’ group “LEPAR” throughout the show. Cameron and his parents wrestle with both the morality of breeding animals as replacement human kits and the practicalities of whether this would even work. I won’t spoiler the end but these questions are never entirely resolved, which is probably for the best as wrapping everything up neatly would feel very artificial.
I don’t know whether the play was intended to be set in the 90s as that’s when the book was written. The clothes worn by Cameron’s mum would certainly suggest it was, along with the glimpses of 90s video games on the TV screens and a 90s song while he’s under sedation (I think it might be “Sweet Love” by Fierce but I might have remembered this wrong). Given the media circus around Dolly the Sheep in the 90s, it would have been a very topical book at the time so it makes sense to pull the era through to the stage production.
So already a setting that’s close to my heart and having two secondary school age children made the whole set up very familiar. The uniforms even looked a bit like Eva’s although they also had a bit of a Gryffindor feel.
Immanuel Yeboah, Pig Heart Boy, credit to Ali Wright
The cast was small and frantically multi-roleing, with lighting-fast costume changes. The only person to stay in the same role throughout was Immanuel Yeboah as Cameron and that’s because he was on stage almost constantly. He even did one of his costume changes in front of the audience. He carries the whole show and has to go through a full emotional range every performance, which is impressive for a relatively young actor (I’m aware that he’s not actually 13 but he’s certainly closer to Roo’s age than mine.) Immanuel effectively combines the self-centredness and arrogance of a teenage boy with the vulnerability of someone who’s been chronically ill for as long as he can remember. Teenagers tend to think they’re indestructible but he gave Cameron that edge of uncertainty. A really assured performance in the central role, which is ably backed up by the rest of the cast.
It’s very much an ensemble piece, with the entire cast appearing in the first scene as Cameron’s fellow students and their teacher. The scene is full of youthful energy and Reuben assures me that it’s true to life – when the teacher leaves the room, no work is getting done. The lighting is especially effective in this scene as it shifts colour according to the mood.
Olivia Williams Freeman, Akil Young, Christine During, Christina Ngoyi, Tré Medley, Pig Heart Boy, credit to Ali Wright
Before the show, the light tubes on the set were all red, pulsating out from a central heart. Reuben did point out that you’d die if you only ever had blood moving away from the heart and not back towards it but I should say, he is unusually pedantic. Throughout the show, the red returned whenever the action was focussed on the medical aspects of the plot but changed to blue for the swimming pool scenes as well as various other colours. It’s a simple trick but done really well.
Immanuel Yeboah, Pig Heart Boy, credit to Ali Wright
The action calms downs when the play shifts to Cameron’s family. Which is fine because those teenagers were pretty loud and those energy levels would be hard to sustain throughout. Christine During and Akil Young age up rapidly to play Cameron’s parents and it’s an impressive shift to go from rowdy teens to careworn middle aged parents so quickly. There’s a very touching scene as they say goodbye to Cameron before his surgery and I think I heard someone near me sob a little as Cameron is hugging his Dad. That definitely would have been Eva if she’d been there.
Immanuel Yeboah, Akil Young, Pig Heart Boy, credit to Ali Wright
The doctor who performs the procedure was played by Tré Medley, who oozed confidence as he swaggered about the stage. This was in contrast to his nervy schoolboy role of Andrew, who was shaking on the diving board. Reuben later described the doctor character as “sketchy” and he certainly had that charismatic but sus vibe going on. The kind of character to sell you a monorail as well as a pig’s heart.
Tré Medley, Akil Young, Immanuel Yeboa and Christine During, Pig Heart Boy, credit to Ali Wright
Christina Ngoyi played a multitude of roles from Cameron’s best friend Marilyn to a German doctor to a TV presenter to a journalist a few seconds later. I told you these cast members were good at multi-roleing. She had a lot of energy in every role and provided the heart of another ethical dilemma…what if you were trusted with a secret but you were too worried about your friend to keep it? What if sharing the secret could save your family from eviction? There are layers of complexity to Marilyn and Christina expressed all of these layers well.
Immanuel Yeboah and Christina Ngoyi, Pig Heart Boy, credit to Ali Wright
The main cast was rounded off by Chia Phoenix who, as the much-quoted Nan, was central to one of the most poignant scenes in the show. There was near-silence in the auditorium as she walked off the stage and that’s pretty hard to achieve when the audience is packed with children. Chia also plays a number of other roles, including a surreal turn as the personification of the pig that is providing Cameron’s new heart. The cast list has Olivia Williams Freeman and Rhys Lanahan as understudies but I believe we saw both on stage today as I definitely counted eight people at the curtain call. This is a complex set of characters that demands a lot from each of its actors so I’m not surprised that every available actor is involved onstage.
Immanuel Yeboah, Pig Heart Boy, credit to Ali Wright
The play tackles the issues of fractured families, as well as fractured hearts with Cameron’s parents arguing constantly about him and Marilyn’s parents arguing about money. The themes of risk and consequence also loom large, with Cameron and his family making difficult decisions, especially towards the end, about whether it’s worth the pain of going through treatment in order to secure a chance at life. The scene I mentioned earlier with Nan really drives home the idea that you have to take every chance you have at life and enjoy it as much as you can. That’s a powerful message for tween audiences who might be starting to struggle with the prospect of growing up and need some reassurance that life is, pretty much, worth the effort of living it.
I realise I’ve been making this play sound quite heavy by majoring on the poignancy and the ethical questions but there is a lot of fun moments. From the schoolkids dancing about their classroom to the comedy use of the health scanner (“Dutty”), there are plenty of lighter moments and there is a good balance between the fun and the drama. I just mentioned the darker moments because this is what sets this production apart from other kids’ theatre shows – it very much feels like it has the depth to pull in the slightly older audience. As a nearly 16-year-old, Roo enjoyed it and had his own thoughts about the medical ethics of it all. We were talking about the whole length of the walk from Tower Bridge to London Bridge. Which is very pretty at night, in case you didn’t know:
We also passed Hays Galleria, which is equally pretty:
Our destination was the Nando’s at Clink Street for dinner, which has become something of a habit on outings that are just me and Reuben. Eva is a Nando’s refuser and as for Nathan…well, sucks to be him. Along the way, we passed through the tunnel underneath London Bridge where Cynthia’s used to be in the early 2000s.
There was a tinny little song playing that I didn’t recognise at first but then I clocked that it was “London Bridge is Falling Down”. Not exactly what you want to hear when the full weight of London Bridge and all its buses is just above your head. Fortunately we made it to Nando’s unscathed.
On the way back, we spotted the Shakespeare mural which has now been partially covered by a portaloo:
And did I mention the sinister giant rooster earlier? No, I might leave you with this terrifying image then:
I mean, that rooster is genuinely mansize.
Anyway, enough of the found art….let me tell you once more to go and see “Pig Heart Boy” while you can. It’s challenging in parts but heartfelt (no pun intended) and will stay with you well after the final bows. It was around 105 minutes without an interval but it zips by and leaves you wanting more of Cameron’s story. Definitely worth crossing the river for.
“Pig Heart Boy” is at the Unicorn Theatre until 22/02/25. For tickets and more info, click here.
Disclaimer: I received tickets in exchange for a review. All opinions remain honest and my own.
Now, I need to say that I am very precious when it comes to “Ballet Shoes” and early trailers and posters for this show made me reluctant to see it. Any kind of re-imagining, any kind of modernising…..these things were not going to land well with me. It’s a book I’ve read so many times, both as a child and as a parent, that I can spot the smallest deviation from the plot and some will definitely bother me more than others. But in many ways, this was a great piece of standalone theatre and I imagine someone who isn’t like me and isn’t overly familiar with the book would enjoy it more than yours pedantically. Who is now worrying about whether I’ve spelt “pedantically” right or whether it’s even a word. Should that be “spelled”? I’m clearly not cut out for pedant life.
With that in mind, I’m going to just list out all of my gripes upfront and then I can write the review of the show in a way that’s more balanced. So here we go:
Pauline’s character seemed all wrong. Book Pauline is restrained and polite until she suffers a case of over-inflated ego during “Alice”. This Pauline seemed just…..stroppy. Some of the bits given to her (like not wanting to dance in Theo Dane’s room) were far more Petrova than Pauline
Winifred was far too pretty and confident. Her defining characteristic in the book is being plain and mousy although she is also talented. This Winifred seemed like cookie-cutter Mean Girl/Alpha Female
Dr Jakes was far too grumpy. In the book, she and Dr Smith (MIA) are kindly and supportive of the girls’ careers. I guess they were trying to add a character arc by having tension between her and Theo but it was unnecessary in my opinion. A “women lifting younger women up” arc would have been much more satisfying than “grumpy lesbian slowly warms to family life”. Also, would 1930s kids have known the word “lesbian”?
Sylvia was too young and the drama around whether the babies were actually hers was also unnecessary. I know she’s youngish in the book but she was at least 16 before Pauline came home, not 12. Chapter Two of the book, which is six years after Gum’s last departure, mentions her turning grey. She also was not a Rosie the Riveter type who worked in the factory and cleaned hospitals. She was a typically modest and gently anxious 1930s woman.
The girls’ ages make no sense – Pauline is 14 at the start of the show and 15 at the end, so all the events of the book are condensed into a year. But how is Posy working when she would still be too young at the end? The book makes it very clear that children had to be 12 before they could have a licence. Was it just convenient to have her and Winifred as fairies in MSND instead of two nameless girls? This is only half a nitpick as Eva pointed out that the girls’ ages are inconsistent in the book as well. In Chapter One, it says that Petrova arrived a year after Pauline and both were small babies but then a few pages later it describes Pauline as almost four and Petrova as just 16 months. Another few pages on and Pauline is six and Petrova 4 and a half. So she caught up a bit somehow. Mind you, this is Noel Streatfeild who managed to write two Christmasses into “Gemma and Sisters” with nothing but a January in between them.
Large bits of the plot around how they manage to make the money stretch are taken out, which I wouldn’t mind if it was a time issue. But they found time to add in extra storylines around Madame’s backstory and Sylvia’s love of art. The triumphs in the book are all the more triumphant because you know how they had to pawn their precious necklaces to buy material for that audition frock.
Mrs Simpson erasure. Mr Simpson/Saran should not be a love interest for Sylvia as that’s not his part in the plot. His part is to be a mentor for Petrova as no one else takes an interest in her. Making it about Sylvia makes his interest in Petrova a bit creepy, as if he’s only doing it to get close to her guardian.
Why was Madame played by a man? (Justin Salinger, who also played Gum) Was that meant to make her into a comedy character? If so, why? Also, I was not happy with the ending. No complaints with Manoff being turned into a woman though not sure why she was French instead of Czechslovakian
With all these gripes, you might wonder why I booked and why I said initially that it was actually a great show. Well, the booking was at Eva’s request and any sign that she wants to do something other than watch YouTube is to be pounced on. She’s not a great fan of leaving the house. And why it was actually a good show? Well, I will unpack that shortly. Let’s rewind though and here I am at Waterloo with a bunch of flowers and a bag of mini tambourines, eating udon and hoping to meet a man under the iconic clock:
When I booked the tickets for the show, I’d completely forgotten that I would be at a conference in Marylebone all day so I didn’t have time to go home and get Eva before 7pm. She’s not quite ready to traverse Central London on her own as she can do buses on trusted routes but three different trains might be a demand too far after a long week at school. So poor Nathan had to bring her all the way to Waterloo to meet me while I had enough time betwixt conference and theatre to sit and enjoy a bowl of udon at Marugame. Waterloo at rush hour is a bit hectic but the upper level is relatively calm and Marugame is a relaxed, canteen-style dining experience. I hadn’t eaten much in the way of conference lunch because eating standing up and talking to colleagues is a tricky ask for someone as clumsy as I am. So a bowl of noodles and sticky yaki meatballs went down well. I felt a little guilty that I was chilling instead of madly dashing across London to get Eva but I made up for it by buying her halloumi fries and fries-fries in Burger King so I had dinner ready for her when they arrived.
I paid Nathan for his time with the bag of flowers and mini tambourines and Eva enjoyed her Burger King feast to the sound of buskers playing “California Dreaming”. From there, it was just a short walk to the National Theatre and along the way we passed the mural of Paddington Bear which we’d seen being painted a few months back:
I don’t have a photo of it being painted but Eva and I both remembered it so it must have happened.
For the National Theatre, just head past the Southbank food market at the back of the Royal Festival Hall and follow this sign:
The show is in the Olivier Theatre, which is a couple of flights up so if you have a child who doesn’t like stairs, you might wanna wait for a lift. We had unusual seats in that they were sold as “Restricted View” but seemed to be very close to the stage (Row C). I had done a little research on the super helpful seatplan website and seen pictures of the view, which looked absolutely fine but a few reviews said the seats were narrower than usual, which I’d agree with. We went down one of the side aisles initially – I think that’s what our ticket said to do – but after some confusion and Eva going back up to go to the loo and then me going to look for her – we realised that the middle aisle was much easier for access to the seats. It required squeezing through a smallish gap and climbing over to an extent but the view from these seats was fantastic and took you right to the heart of the action.
The set was also fantastic – 999 Cromwell Road was brought to life with a two-level set, packed with fossils and pictures of dinosaurs. Plus an old piano to the side, which provided the opening to the show as a lady pianist made her way unsteadily across the stage to play it.
I really liked the fleshing out of Gum’s adventures and the way the shipwreck and mountain accident are brought to life are really quite spectacular. Gum’s character is one of the few that I considered to be spot on…he’s gallant but ridiculously selfish and possibly has ADHD (it’s line about how “time meant nothing” to him that chimed with me). As he chucks baby after baby at poor Nana (Jenny Galloway), he does so with the arrogance that Gum is meant to have….that his work is more important than any practical concerns Nana might have. Nana is another character that both looks and acts exactly as the book version does, which is pleasing. Posy (Daisy Sequerra) and Petrova (Yanexi Enriquez) are also pretty much as I would expect them to be, with Posy self-obsessed and excitable and Petrova living only for her engines. I’m not sure why Posy’s talent as a impersonator wasn’t included though as that’s an important part of her character in the book and stops her being too unbearable.
I should say that there’s nothing wrong with the acting – Pearl Mackie’s Sylvia is the right characterisation for the lines she was given but this liberated woman is not the Sylvia I know. Similarly Grace Saif gives Pauline all the expressions that match the script – the rolling eyes and pouting – but it’s just not book-Pauline. The actors do a great job, especially those that need to dance as well as act, but it’s more the creative decisions that feel a bit anachronistic…like they’re trying to impose modern teenage traits on a Pauline from almost 100 years ago. It’s the same as the gender-blind casting that sees men with moustaches in tutus taking ballet with their very masculine Madam. It’s a very modern sensibility that, to my mind, jars with the 1930s setting. The costuming is beautiful and very much of the right era so it’s not like the whole story has been transplanted to 2025…just some of the attitudes and personalities.
Some of the changes are less jarring. Theo Dane’s character is quite different but works just fine for her role in the plot, which is to introduce the children to the Academy. And along the way we have one of the most joyous scenes in the whole show, where the children dance the charleston to a gramophone in Theo’s room. I didn’t even mind her backstory being merged with the characters from the walls of the Academy – Baby Cora etc – as I feel like that was a nod to the book fanatics, of which I think I’m probably one. Nadine Higgin has some serious Jazz Age moves and they were used to great effect in this scene.
In fact, the dancing was probably one of the strongest aspects of the show because that’s what justifies it being a play rather than just an audiobook. Xolisweh Ana Richards and Georges Hann as backstory characters provided a lovely pas de deux as a kind of interlude to the main plot. And that bit also had a striking revolution scene that called to mind Les Mis (I know it’s a different revolution but the visuals are similar). Although I mentioned earlier that this backstory wasn’t really in the book I didn’t mind too much because it added both beauty and drama. And, inexplicably, chickens.
There are also some spectacular moments using aerial acrobatics. I don’t think that’s a spoiler because it’s in the trailer for the show but it was a really thrilling time to be seated near the front when Petrova whooshed over our heads. I wish there hadn’t been such a bright light right behind her as it made it hard to look up but that might be the “Restricted View” part of our otherwise excellent seats.
(Excellent in terms of view, not in terms of comfort. But I cannot complain!)
In fact, the whole “Midsummer Night’s Dream” segment was pretty visually spectacular. In the book, Nana complains about the overly modern costume design, so this was a natural progression of giving Nana stuff to complain about. It was indeed very modern – all silver tubes and clown hats – but it was meant to be cutting edge, so I was happy with that. By contrast, the “Alice” costumes were very classic, with Pauline and Winifred in powder blue and white, flanked by human playing cards. It made me very nostalgic for my first ever dance show in 1987, which had very similar costumes.
The everyday costumes of the characters were mainly spot on – the sisters had simple cotton frocks while Madame had rich colours and furs. I liked the way that that the girls seemed to be wearing Gum’s old nightshirts and Gum himself was what Eva likes to describe as “very fashion”. She also said that Dr Jakes (Helena Lymbery) was, and I quote the tween here, “very yes”.
The pacing was good throughout the show – there’s a lot of plot to get through and 2 hours 40 mins seems like a long time but it went by fast. There’s an interval after the very first “we vow” scene and Eva and I took the opportunity to stretch our legs and have some mango sorbet. There’s a lovely view from the foyer outside the stalls as well:
Post theatre, Eva was still hungry and my udon from earlier was not quite carrying me through so luckily GBK on Waterloo Road was still open to supply her with a late night vegan burger:
So I realise this has been an unconventional review because I usually try to be very positive and if I have any nitpicks, I would normally weave them in among the positivity. But overall, it was an enjoyable experience. It’s just that, as a fan of the books, there were a few elements that didn’t sit right with me. I know other commenters have said not to expect a faithful rendition but I can’t help having a fixed idea in my head of how these characters should be….after all, they’ve been with me all my life. So thank you for indulging all my grouching and be assured – if you’re not an obsessive reader of the books, then you will probably enjoy it all the more.
Don’t take my word for it – here’s the link for tickets and more info if you’re intrigued. Our seats were only £25 each and we were so close to the stage, so it was definitely worth a punt. Just take it at face value and try not to pick too many holes and you’ll have a great time.
What better way to end this post with a picture of lockdown-era Eva dressed as Posy Fossil? Pity she didn’t take the fright wig with her to the theatre….
