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Life upon the wicked stage: Already Perfect at Kings Head Theatre

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Performing two shows a day on a Broadway run sounds exhausting enough. But when you’ve just had a not-so-great matinee and are having a crisis of confidence, I would assume the last thing you’d want is to confront your past. Yet that’s the situation in Already Perfect, writer-performer Levi Kreis’s slightly autobiographical journey of confronting the past and his younger self. With a series of toe-tapping and emotional songs in a sleek production, you’re invited to experience someone else’s therapy session. And with a show title called Already Perfect, you know what kind of session this is going to be. It makes for a show where nothing is left unsaid, even if it is unnecessary,  unbelievable or best left on a greeting card. It’s currently playing at the King’s Head Theatre .  The story begins in his dressing room after a matinee, with Kreis alone. The show didn’t go so well. Struggling after being dumped by a lover, pressure mounting on the evening show being filmed for poster...

Digging in: Checkpoint Chana @Finborough

What do you do when you're a successful poet accused of semitism? How do you avoid the social media storm and the calls for an apology? These are the thoughts that come in Checkpoint Chana by Jeff Page. It's having its premiere at the Finborough Theatre following a reading at Finborough's Vibrant 2017 festival.

It starts with Bev (Geraldine Somerville) complaining to her assistant Tasmin (Ulrika Krishnamurti). She has to write an apology  after one of her poems sets off a social media firestorm. It’s been labelled anti-Semitic after every other recent poem of hers has been ignored.

The indignity of a respected poet needing to do this is compounded by problems in her personal life and pressure from her university. But she eventually relents to making an apology, and having a sympathetic interview scheduled. She’ll even do a talk at a North London arts centre. 

Somerville is convincing as a person caught up in the drama that’s part of their own creation. But often the work seems to pull its punches. Much could have been explored with the echo chambers of social media, topics that are taboo and the liberal north London set. 

Sitting watching Bev unravel amongst her books about the Israel occupation, you could be forgiven for thinking about others from north London accused of anti-semitism.

Perhaps if Bev was more like a literate Ken Livingsone it might have been more fun. And a bit more challenging. Afterall it’s playing alongside Returning to Haifa where the passion and fury is loud and clear. 

Directed by Manuel Bau, Checkpoint Chana concludes at the Finborough on 20 March running on Sunday, Mondays and Tuesdays. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Photos by Samuel Kirkman

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