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Showing posts with the label Isabel Della-Porta

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Scenes from a marriage: Jab @parktheatre

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Jab takes us back to five years ago when no theatres were open. Instead, it was staying at home watching endless television, clapping for the NHS, mask-wearing and hand washing. Against this backdrop, isolation from a married couple of 29 years slowly drives them apart and to the brink. But while it captures the period well, you want to know more about this couple on the edge. It's currently playing at Park Theatre after its premiere run at the Finborough Theatre last year.  James McDermott's play is loosely based on his parent's lives during the pandemic. It opens with Ann (Kacey Ainsworth) and Don (Liam Tobin) watching the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson inform the nation they need to stay at home. She is an NHS worker, and he runs a vintage shop. As she is an essential worker, she has work to do, but he is forced to stay at home while his shop is closed. There's also another source of tension in that Anne brings in all the income in the household. And so we watch ...

Long term relationships: Chutney @BunkerTheatreUK

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The central message from Chutney, is that anyone you date at University is not worth staying in a long term relationship with. You get bored with your smug post-university life and soon youā€™ll be wanting to murder the neighbourā€™s cat. Or their parrot. Or a few hedgehogs. Itā€™s currently playing at The Bunker . Weā€™re introduced to Claire (Isabel Della-Porta) and Gregg (Will Adolphy) after something terrible has happened. Theyā€™ve just been dog-sitting for some friends and then a fox came and ripped the dogs head off. Or was it a homeless man. Or did they do it? Thereā€™s a middle class kitchen complete with John Lewis kitchen appliances. It sets the scene where boredom meets murderous thoughts and actions. Itā€™s American Psycho meets Croydon Cat Killer. Without the moral panic. Thereā€™s plenty of gross, stomach churning dialogue. But playwright Reece Connolly has some sharp observations about the lives of millennials. Not old enough to have positions of power. Not young enough to have carefre...