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I Miss The Mountains: Fly More Than You Fall @Swkplay

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Losing a parent when you’re still figuring out who you are and your place in the world seems like a bummer of a topic for a musical. But somehow, Fly More Than You Fall tackles grief and loss with a light touch, catchy music and enthusiastic performances. While it may not offer great insight into the exploration of grief, it gives pause for thought and a few laughs on the way. After all, death doesn’t take a holiday, and nobody gets out of here alive. We just hope it doesn’t happen too soon. It’s currently playing at Southwark Playhouse Elephant .  We first meet Malia as she prepares for summer writers' school. She aspires to be a writer and has a story in development. Encouraged by her mother to keep going, she is looking forward to the summer. But the summer school is cut short when her mother is diagnosed with stage four cancer. Back home so her mother can spend her last days with her family, Malia has to grow up quickly and find her voice while watching her mother slip away.  T

Living pretty: Nightfall @_Bridgetheatre

Living in the country never looked better than in the sumptuousproduction of Nightfall. This play about life in rural Hampshire is currently playing at the Bridge Theatre. Desginer Rae Smith has created a farm backdrop that is beauty to behold even before any of the actors speak. Which is just as well since the night I saw it the show was delayed as one of the actors was caught in a very urban predicament: delays on the London transport network. Chis Davey’s lighting also evokes the sunsets over Hampshire.

But looks are deceiving as nobody wants to be there. Dad’s dead and left a pile of debt. The son, Ryan (Sion Daniel Young) is trying to make the farm work by siphoning off oil from a pipeline that cuts through the property. His best mate Pete (Ukweli Roach) is out of and jail helping him with his criminal enterprise.  The daughter, Lou (Ophelia Lovibond) is drifting in and out of jobs and a relationship. And mum (Claire Skinner) would rather just lounge about, barefoot, drinking a fine white wine.

There are so many contrivances that happen over the course of the piece that you could easily forget that it also doesn’t feel like its set on a farm. Unless rural decline is the result of ambivalence to farming.

It feels much more like the urban angst you’d find in Crouch End rather than rural Hampshire. Writer Barney Norris keeps things light and amusing, but you’ll struggle with finding much more here about life on the land. It does looks like it could be fabulous. And just like city living with all those drinks outside and nibbles from Marks and Spencer.

Directed by Laurie Sansom, Nightfall is at the Bridge Theatre, London’s newest and loveliest-looking theatre, until 26 May.

⭐️⭐️⭐️


Production photos by Manuel Harlan 

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