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The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

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We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...

Theatre: Clybourne Park



The first thing that strikes you about this Olivier-award winning play is how great the production looks. You feel like you are transported back into the 1950s in a living room fashionable for that time, and populated by people you would expect to see. As the play gets going however it becomes apparent that this is going to be a darkly comic night at the theatre that looks at property, neighbourhoods and the enduring value of real estate... It was worth finally getting a chance to see it before it ends its run...



To give too much away about the story would spoil the fun but it is inspired (and plays off) the the events that take place in A Raisin in the Sun. While I was not so convinced by the sentiment of the first act (which seems trite and overlong), the humour that comes from the skirmishes between the couples was hilarious. But the second act was like watching a different play. Here the comedy is relentless and explosive. The performances of the ensemble bring out the best of the material and the audience were in hysterics.

I'm not sure what the central message of the play is, but it sure made you leave feeling like you should buy some property in a neighbourhood that you may not feel like you belong in just to mix things up a little... It's playing now at Wyndham's theatre until early May...

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