Moment of Grace - review

Moment of Grace

Four stars

In 1987, Diana Princess of Wales visited London’s first AIDS Unit. It was a hugely significant and important event as during the visit she shook hands with a patient without wearing gloves. This historic moment was captured on film and the powerful image triggered a momentous shift in public and media perception of people living with HIV and AIDS.

This visit, now more than 30 years ago, forms the basis of a play written by Bren Gosling.

Moment of Grace is told from the viewpoint of three individuals - Andrew a patient at the Unit, scared about his diagnosis and who worries about the impact his coming out would have on his family and friends but who is excited about the prospect of a visit from the Princess; Jade, a nurse on the ward looking after HIV-infected patients, caring and empathetic but who keeps her job a secret from her friends and family for fear of what they might think; and Donnie, a fireman married to his childhood sweetheart, yet who is estranged from his only son and who has his own rather bigoted and ignorant views on homosexuality, HIV and women. 

As well as exploring the impact the Princess’s visit has on the three characters, Moment of Grace also takes inspiration from the oral history testimonies collected by the National HIV Story Trust’s archives and other original interview material.

The play was originally due to run at The Actors Centre’s Tristan Bates Theatre but thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic it has now been reimagined for the screen and is being streamed for a limited period.

Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the three actors shot the scenes in their own homes using a single phone camera, with no crew and using remote direction by Nicky Allpress. 

The result is a film/theatre hybrid beautifully shot and sensitively told, treating the issues of HIV raised at the time - ignorance, prejudice and lack of medical knowledge in how to treat it - with compassion and sensitivity. It manages to intertwine the lives of the three people whose story it tells in a way that has you smiling and then welling up throughout. 

The three actors - Luke Dayhill as Andrew, Lucy Walker-Evans as Jude and Andrew Paul as Donnie - are terrific and seeing their faces so close, with all the emotions etched onto them, adds to the intensity of the piece.

Engaging, powerful and full of emotion, in short it is storytelling at its best.

Moment of Grace is available to watch via The Actors Centre website until August 9. Tickets cost £6.

FOUR STAR REVIEW - Lettice & Lovage at the Menier Chocolate Factory

FOUR STARS

Peter Shaffer’s play Lettice & Lovage was first performed at the Theatre Royal Bath in 1987. Now 30 years later it has been revived by Sir Trevor Nunn at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

It is set firstly in the Grand Hall of Fustian House, a stately pile in rural Wiltshire, where a certain Lettice Douffet is a guide, taking visitors around on tours of the house. It appears to be a miserable job because nothing of note has ever happened there.

So, when one of her visitors yawns at the end of one tour she decides to take action to liven things up a bit. Using her theatrical prowess, gained from growing up with an actress mother who spent most of her time in France, she begins to embellish the stories until some of them retain very little, if any, truth. They seem to be successful, so much so, that bowls she puts out to collect “appreciations” begin to overflow.

However, one day a certain Lotte Schoen turns up from the Preservation Trust which employs Lettice, and berates her for telling fibs to bring in the punters. Despite firing Lettice, it is the start of an entertaining friendship between these two very different women which ultimately sees them joining forces.

It is not the greatest of plays, however there are some very funny moments, including the scene in which they both get sozzled on Lettice’s homemade brew of “verbal and herbal” ingredients.

The big draw in this production is the fact it’s been directed by Sir Trevor Nunn and that its two stars are Felicity Kendal as Lettice and Maureen Lipman as Lotte. 

Kendal in particular is a delight as the flamboyant, theatrical red headed Lettice whose outlandish and entertaining stories of the dull as dishwater Fustian House are regaled with aplomb.

Sadly, the full comedic prowess of Lipman is not able to shine through, although this is really down to the script. There are thankfully, a few moments of brilliance, such as when Lotte discovers Lettice has a cat and proceeds to gag as though she is bringing up a fur ball of her own, which brought the house down.

Ultimately it is a delightful pairing and a treat to see these two great actresses on stage together in what is a hugely entertaining production.

Lettice & Lovage is on at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Southwark Street until July 8. Tickets from £40.

FIVE STAR REVIEW - Love In Idleness at the Menier Chocolate Factory

FIVE STARS

A young man, with socialist principles, comes back from living in Canada for four years only to find his widowed mother living rent free with a millionaire who is still not quite divorced from his much younger wife.

And so begins Terrence Rattigan’s play Love In Idleness which is currently being staged at the Menier Chocolate Factory and directed by Trevor Nunn.

It is hilariously funny from the off with the characters leading a merry dance around the subjects of love, passion, politics, ideology and loyalty.

Set in the latter stages of the Second World War, Olivia Brown is vivacious, charismatic, dippy and ditzy and has been a widow for two years. After her husband dies she falls for Sir John Fletcher, a man with more money than he knows what to do with and who despite being a business man with no political experience, has found himself a member of Churchill’s war cabinet in charge of tanks.

He is as besotted with her as she is with him but because of his job he cannot divorce his wife. 

Her son Michael comes back from Canada and takes an instant dislike to Sir John and eventually, after much conniving and mischief making, forces his mother to make a choice - him or Sir John.

Torn between the two and with distinct references to both Hamlet and Oedipus, she chooses her son over her lover.

It is directed with panache by Nunn and thanks to a stellar cast this staging of the play works really well. 

Anthony Head as Sir John is terrific, showing off a quiet but steely determination to keep his love, as is Edward Bluemel, fresh from starring in The Halcyon, as Olivia’s sulky, petulant and firebrand son Michael.

But it is Eve Best as Olivia who dazzles her way through the production. She positively bursts with energy and is a delight to watch, capturing Olivia’s ditziness perfectly as well as her dilemma at having to choose between son and lover - particularly when her son has given her such a horrid choice. She lights up the stage whenever she is on, which happily is most of the time.

Love In Idleness is on at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Southwark Street until April 29. Visit www.menierchocolatefactory.com for full listings.

FOUR STAR REVIEW - Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Old Vic

FOUR STARS

IT may be 50 years since Tom Stoppard’s seminal work Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was first staged but a new revival now on at the Old Vic shows it still has plenty of life in it.

The story is about the two minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who find themselves on the outskirts of the play and in many ways, life itself.

Full of emotion and with an ending that is rather poignant, it has a whiff of Waiting For Godot about it all as the two try and make sense of their lot, with plenty of verbal sparring and discussion as they wait for things to happen.

As their own story develops, a production of Hamlet is staged somewhere in the background, dipping in and out of the proceedings. Added to the mix is a troupe of players who find themselves involved and perform a play for the King.

This particular production stars Mr Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe as Rosencrantz alongside Joshua McGuire as Guildenstern and they complement each other perfectly.

Radcliffe is really good, the foil and straight man to McGuire’s fidgety, constantly chatty and more intellectually gifted Guildenstern. With his pauses, vacant stares into the middle distance, shrugs of his shoulder and perfect comic timing, Radcliffe shines in the role.

McGuire too is equally captivating but for different reasons - he paces the stage, constantly questioning, discussing and dissecting life and there’s an uncanny resemblance to actor Tom Hollander about him too.

They are joined by the ever excellent David Haig who, as the leader of the players, swaggers about the stage giving a masterclass in comic acting.

Although undoubtedly for many the draw with be seeing Daniel Radcliffe, this production, directed by David Leveaux, is terrific, and breathes new life into what is a gloriously wordy and brilliant play.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is on at the Old Vic, Waterloo until April 29. Tickets from £12. Visit www.oldvictheatre.com/ or call the box office on 0844 871 7628 for full listings.

THREE STAR REVIEW - Ugly Lies The Bone, National Theatre

THREE STARS

UNLESS you’ve been on a tour of Iraq or Afghanistan as a soldier I would guess it’s almost impossible to imagine what it must be really like to be there and part of military action. The noise, the smells, the injuries and in the worst case, threat of death are ever present.

And what must it be like to come home, perhaps horribly injured and to a life that is not the same as it was before?

A new play by American playwright Lindsey Ferrentino, and now on at the National Theatre, aims to shed light on this and explore a virtual reality therapy which, according to the programme notes, has been successfully used to reduce pain levels in patients who have suffered serious injuries such as burns.

Ugly Lies The Bone tells the story of Jess, a woman who has come home to her Florida town of Titusville in the heart of Nasa country, after three tours of Afghanistan. Horribly disfigured thanks to an IED, needing the help of a zimmer frame to move about and in constant pain she finds life is not as she remembers it.

Her sister Kacie and Kacie’s doting boyfriend Kelvin have thrown a homecoming party but the one person Jess wanted there, her ex boyfriend Stevie, didn’t show up so she goes to find him. It turns out he’s been fired from his job at Nasa and is now working in a petrol station.

As she tries to reconnect with her old life and in a bid to help her recovery she takes part in a virtual reality therapy programme which aims to help reduce her pain levels. She and the audience are taken into a world of snow capped mountains in the Rockies, where it snows feathers and Jess has to climb and move her body in a way she has hitherto felt unable to because it’s so painful.

And so begins her journey of recovery both mentally and physically.

It is a short 90 minute piece played out on the expanse of the Lyttelton stage by a strong cast led by an unrecognisable Kate Fleetwood as Jess. It is a physically demanding role not least as she’s on stage almost the entire time. Covered in prosthetics she conveys the awkwardness of her character’s movements as well as the dark humour and frustration she feels. It is a stunning performance. Ralf Little deserves praise as Stevie, bumbling, nervous and always saying the wrong thing.

However the play itself does not deliver fully - it’s rather flat in places and there is not enough character development although as a way to showcase what virtual reality therapy can do it does its job.

But it’s the set, particularly when Jess is in her virtual world that is the real winner here. Full of visually stunning graphics it is quite mesmerising.

Ugly Lies The Bone is on at the National Theatre until June 6. Tickets from £15. Visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or call the box office on 020 7452 3000. 

FOUR STAR REVIEW A Midsummer Night's Dream, Young Vic

FOUR STARS

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been given a bit of a makeover in a daring and captivating new production at the Young Vic.

Directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins, who was responsible for the Waterloo theatre’s dark take on Macbeth, itself an already dark tale, and equally sinister Edward II at the National a few years ago, it takes the audience through a nightmare rather than a fairy dream.

For in this production, it is much more of a nightmare. Played out with a mirror at the back of a stage made entirely of rough earth and mud Glastonbury style, the characters run, walk and stumble about getting caked in the stuff as they try and get out of the situations they find themselves in.

It is actually brilliantly done and a refreshing take on the play which is normally fun, full of light and very funny.

But while there is humour in this it is dark and forboding. Even the quartet of lovers don’t seem to enjoy the positive passions of love and Lysander is particularly and surprisingly violent in his advances towards Hermia when they are in the woods. Not only does he try and force himself on her he also then tells her vehemently after having been drugged by Puck that he hates her. Slowly we see her crushed so that by the end she is no longer the feisty woman she once was.

In fact, in this interpretation, Hill-Gibbins shows us that actually within the text there is danger, terror and violence in the play - even Titania is not without a violent and nasty streak to her - and that it is not sweetness and light.

The cast is top notch with some stand out performances most notably Anastasia Hille who takes on both Titania and Hippolyta and Lloyd Hutchinson who as Puck, is not a nimble sprite but a lumbering servant of Oberon who amuses us as he clearly can’t be bothered to do his master’s bidding.

The mechanicals get most of the laughs and Leo Bill is terrific as Bottom. In his grotesque transformation, and cavorting around the stage at full pelt before he too falls victim to the boggy nature of it, he also conveys the horror in which he finds himself.

At the end, the cast find the mirror at the back of the stage has been painted black making it impossible to escape the nightmare.

Shakespeare was right - the course of true love never did run smooth - and this production surely shows that.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is on at the Young Vic until April 1. Tickets from £10. Visit www.youngvic.org or call the box office on 020 7922 2922 for full listings.

FOUR STAR REVIEW Twelfth Night, National Theatre

There seems to be a bit of a thing about gender bending in theatre at the moment. And for the record, it’s no bad thing. Especially when you see a production as strong as the National Theatre’s Twelfth Night.

In this glorious staging by director Simon Godwin, the wonder of love and how we should grasp it with both hands is very much the focus.

But there is also the wonderful mixing up of characters so we have a female Malvolio - here it’s Tamsin Greig as Malvolia - and Doon Mackichan as Feste the clown sporting some rather fabulous sparkly boots.

There is also more than a suggestion of same sex pairings with Daniel Rigby’s hipsterish Sir Andrew clearly in love with Sir Toby and Antonio enamoured of Sebastian. Even the Duke Orsino is not averse to kissing Cesario and, when confronted with the truth at the end, gives Sebastian a tender kiss.

The story is played out on the Olivier’s revolve stage which features a pyramid shape that splits during the opening storm scene in which the twins, Viola and Sebastian, get separated. It then opens out to reveal staircases, rooms and plenty of water - from a fountain at which Malvolia reads the letter supposedly from her mistress Olivia to the plunge pool in which Olivia tries unsuccessfully to seduce Cesario. 

The revolving set also allows for the characters to spy on each other, peeping through the holes, and cavort freely not to mention letting Olivia, supposedly in mourning for her dead brother but now totally in love with Cesario, to climb the stairs and rock out to her favourite music when she thinks no one is looking.

The cast is excellent, from the dapper and rather louche Sir Toby played with swagger by Tim McMullan who is thankfully not so completely drunk he falls over all the time and loses our respect, to Greig’s Malvolia with her straight and severe bobbed hair cut and black attire. She also manages to interact beautifully with the audience and her transformation with the yellow stockings cross gartered is a sight to behold. Wearing a pierrot frilly white jacket she rips it off as part of a strip tease complete with twirling nipple tassels as she descends the stairs to the bewilderment of Olivia. Her ridiculing and subsequent humiliation are painful to watch.

But for me it was Daniel Rigby as Sir Andrew who stole the show. With his long hair fashioned in a top knot and his hipster attire he transformed the part brilliantly and made it his own.

Bonkers and wonderful in equal measure, this production is a real tonic and made me chuckle all the way home.

Twelfth Night is on at the National Theatre until Saturday May 13. Tickets from £15. Visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or call the box office on 020 7452 3000 for full listings.

FIVE STAR REVIEW Promises Promises, Southwark Playhouse

FIVE STARS

IT may be cold and gloomy outside but I guarantee a show now on at the Southwark Playhouse will warm the cockles of your heart and leave you with a glow.

Based on the screenplay The Apartment, Promises Promises features the wonderful and uplifting music by Burt Bacharach.

It tells the story of Chuck Baxter, a junior executive at a New York insurance firm, who is invisible to all around him, in particular the lovely Fran Kubelik.

Despite his best endeavours to impress his boss, JD Sheldrake, Chuck never seems to get noticed. However, a visit to a bar after work one night alters his fortunes. On hearing that he has a mid-town apartment, he suddenly becomes not just noticed by the executive bosses but extremely popular.

And so begins the lending out of his apartment to the various men who use it to entertain their lady friends, in a bid to gain promotion.

To begin with things run smoothly and Chuck eventually is summoned to Sheldrake’s office. It seems Chuck will get the promotion he wants if he allows Sheldrake the exclusive use of his apartment. Little does he know that Sheldrake is using it to woo Fran, with whom he has been having an on off affair for a while.

Of course Chuck finds out about the affair and seeks solace in a bar where he comes across Marge. The two have a hilarious scene where they flirt with each other and get drunk to ease the pain before heading back to Chuck’s apartment.

Fran meanwhile has had just about enough of Sheldrake and his broken promises and takes drastic action to escape.

It is a lovely, bitter sweet romantic comedy with fabulous lyrics by Hal David and of course the gorgeous music by Bacharach and the production here is a toe tapping, joy.

Beautifully directed by Branagh Lagan, it has a top notch cast with Gabriel Vick as Chuck Baxter, who displays more than a passing resemblance to Jack Lemmon who played the character in the film version, and Daisy Maywood as Fran.

It is a delightful pairing and their rendition of I’ll Never Fall In Love Again was heart meltingly good.

Other stand outs include John Guerrasio as Dr Dreyfuss and Alex Young who puts in a scene stealing performance as Marge, the lush with whom Chuck meets in the bar.

Promises Promises is a real treat and will leave you with a warm and fuzzy glow for days to come.

Promises Promises is on at the Southwark Playhouse, Newington Causeway until February 18. Tickets cost £25. Visit www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk  or call the box office on 020 7407 0234.

FIVE STAR REVIEW - Why The Whales Came

FIVE STARS

To hold the attention of young children for anything longer than about 20 minutes is a real skill but Danyah Miller has it down to a fine art.

Indeed her current show, an hour long adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s Why The Whales Came, had her mostly young audience rapt from the off.

The story is set in the Scilly Isles right at the beginning of the First World War and features two children who defy their parents’ wishes and visit the Birdman, an elderly man who the islanders believe has put a curse on the island of Samson.

However the children realise that far from being a mad man and someone to be afraid of, he is actually nothing of the kind, and is in fact someone that cares very much about the environment in which he lives. And it eventually falls to the children to stand up to their parents when a whale is washed up on the beach - the islanders want to kill it but the children, inspired by the Birdman, urge them to help get the whale back into the sea.

Danyah tells the story by means of a few props which are ingeniously hidden in her simple but effective wooden set which transforms itself from a jetty to a home to a bed and to a boat.

And all the while she skips, jumps and climbs in and around the set and even wades and paddles in the water that appears when one part of the set exposes itself to  become a beach. There is also an element of puppetry which is rather beautiful.

It is a wonderful story brilliantly told that kept the audience entranced from start to finish.

Why The Whales Came is on at the Ovalhouse Theatre, until January 31 and then on tour including the Lyric Hammersmith on January 28 and The Southbank Centre on February 17. Tickets cost £11. Visit http://www.wizardpresents.co.uk/production/why-the-whales-came/ or call the box office on 020 7582 7680 for full listings.

FOUR STAR REVIEW - Hedda Gabler at the National

FOUR STARS

Acclaimed Belgian director Ivo van Hove, who captivated audiences with his stunning revival of A View From The Bridge at the Young Vic last year, has done it again. This time making his debut at the National Theatre with a new version of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.

Written by Patrick Marber it is a mesmerising production, and stars Ruth Wilson in the title role, a performance that is achingly brilliant.

She sits right in the centre of the stage with her back to the audience sprawled over and playing on a piano. It sets the tone immediately - this is a woman who has practically given up on everything and doesn’t know what to do with herself.

The set is a cavernous sitting room that could do with a lick of paint. It is sparse, with merely the piano, a couple of sofas and initially rows of tubs of flowers - rather like those seen in a florist.

And throughout Berte the maid sits quietly at the side as though she is waiting for something to happen.

Patrick Marber has updated Ibsen’s original, making it feel very modern. And refreshingly instead of portraying Hedda’s academic husband Tesman as an old fuddy duddy, he’s the same age, quirky and eccentric for sure, but in American Kyle Soller, he’s also at times a bit Tiggerish, bouncy, energetic and excited - though clearly not in a way that does anything but irritate his wife.

She in turn is exasperated at her turn of circumstance - bored to death, desperate for some excitement and picking away at those who she comes into contact with just to get some reaction and for something to do - whether it’s Brack the judge, her former lover Lovborg, who now teetotal, she encourages back on the sauce, or her old schoolfriend Mrs Elvsted who is now in love with Lovborg.

When she’s on her own, she paces about the room, full of rage and despair, fiddling with the blinds at the window or hurling tubs of flowers all over the stage, some winging their way into the front rows of the audience, and then stapling the flowers to the walls. And in between scenes we hear the haunting song of Joni Mitchell’s Blue playing in the background.

Throughout the performance we almost don’t know what she’s going to do next - she’s volatile and unpredictable and you almost don’t want to look.

The end when it comes is pretty horrific not least the scene in which she is destroyed and humiliated by Rafe Spall’s evil and calculating Brack, in my view unnecessary.

However despite this, it is a fabulous and utterly gripping production with an exceptionally strong cast.

Hedda Gabler is on at the National Theatre until Tuesday, March 21. Tickets from £15. Visit www.nationaltheatre.org. uk for full listings.

FIVE STAR REVIEW - Amadeus at the National

FIVE STARS

PETER Shaffer’s masterpiece Amadeus was first staged at the National’s Olivier theatre in 1979. Paul Scofield was court composer Salieri and Simon Callow played Mozart. 

It tells the story of how Salieri, once the undisputed music king of the court, felt threatened and jealous with the arrival of the startlingly brilliant and young Mozart. So much so that he set out to destroy his rival with devastating effect.

Fast forward more than 30 years and this fantastic piece has been revived, playing out once again on the expanse of the Olivier’s stage.

This time it stars Lucian Msamati as Salieri and Adam Gillen as the child prodigy and musical genius Mozart.

Directed by Michael Longhurst this revival is a real feast for the senses - from the glittering and sumptuous 18th century inspired costumes to the treats for the ears thanks to the wonderful writing and beautiful music.

The Southbank Sinfonia provide the music, live, wearing modern day black tops and trousers or skirts and carrying their instruments with them at all times, they are integral to the story and the set and blend seamlessly into it rather than being hidden in the background.

The cast is fine throughout but it is the two central performances that shine out - much like Mozart’s gold breeches. Wearing baby pink DMs and colourful overcoats Adam Gillen’s Mozart is a man who can’t sit still - not even at his harpsichord to compose his music, which he does in the main in his head. 

Shaffer paints him as a genius, a melting pot of someone constantly moving about, punky, vulgar yet vulnerable, childish, irritating and brilliant - and who knows how good he is. 

This is someone with a whiney voice, who won’t conform and who annoyingly can take a piece of dull music and give it the heart and soul and lift it needs to make it sing.

And this is what Salieri, brilliantly played by Lucian Msamati can’t bear. He recognises instantly how mediocre he is compared to the natural brilliance of Mozart.

We see him first as an old man in a wheelchair in the last day of his life. He is full of remorse and anguish, and talk of how he killed Mozart.

But then he transforms himself to his younger self through which he tells the story of how they met and how he plotted his rival’s downfall.

We see how the jealousy and resentment eats away at him, railing against God for allowing Mozart, a man who beds all his female pupils, to be given the talent rather than him, a man who has stayed true to his wife and God.

It is a glorious production, full of wit and drama and reminds us of the stunning music that Mozart wrote in his all too short life.

It is a joy from start to finish, so much so that it is a real shame that Shaffer is no longer here to see it.

Amadeus is on at the National Theatre until Thursday, February 2, 2017. Tickets from £15 as part of the Travelex tickets initiative. Visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or call the box office on 020 7452 3000. Amadeus will be broadcast live to more than 680 cinema screens across the UK on February 2, 2017. Visit www.ntlive.com for full listings. 

FIVE STAR REVIEW - LOVE at the National Theatre

FIVE STARS

THIS Christmas while most of us are happily sitting down to a sumptuous lunch with family and friends spare a thought for the 120,000 children and their families who are homeless.

The stats are stark enough but when you see a snapshot of what life is like being homeless and the not knowing when or where you are going to be housed, is something else.

And that is what you see in LOVE, an incredible piece of theatre which has just opened at the National.

The small cast and director Alexander Zeldin used testimonies from people they met over the course of about a year to devise the piece.

It focusses on four different sets of people - a middle aged man and his incontinent elderly mother, a family of four with another on the way, a woman from Sudan and a man from Syria.

All are in the hostel or B&B for different reasons - such as eviction by landlords who double their rent overnight, a delayed payment in benefits, or a lack of appropriate housing for those with complex or special needs - and have been there for longer than the six weeks set down by law.

But all of them are trying to cope and get by despite their circumstances. And these circumstances are often horrific. Living in cramped and often squalid conditions, a family sharing one room, sharing a bathroom and kitchen with people who don’t clean up after themselves, trying to get hold of their housing case officers to beg them to re-house them in permanent accommodation and the stress and strain of having children who are constantly hungry and don’t have anywhere to do their homework or practice for their school nativity play.

Watching it unfold over 90 minutes was often difficult. One of the most poignant and shocking was when Colin washed his mum’s hair with Fairy liquid in the kitchen sink and then dried it with a dirty tea towel. Another was when his mother decided to leave the building without her walking stick. Seeing her stagger through the audience and reaching out to people for a helping hand was gut wrenching - the fourth wall very much non existent.

The cast was excellent - Nick Holder as Colin trying to look after his elderly mother, Barbara, played by Anna Calder- Marshall and Luke Clarke as Dean who was trying to keep his family fed and upbeat despite having lost his job and nowhere near the top of the housing list.

Despite the sadness and horror that we were baring witness to there was much humour to be had and to see the characters try and hold it all together while inside they were no doubt in despair about their situation was humbling.

We only saw 90 minutes - the people in this type of accommodation face weeks and more often months here and it is something we should all be angry about and want to do something to change it.

LOVE plays in the National’s Dorfman Theatre until January 10, 2017 and is produced in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre where it will appear between January 26 and February 11, 2017. Tickets cost from £15. Visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or call the box office on 020 7452 3000.

REVIEW - A Christmas Carol, Vaults Theatre

FOUR STARS

Charles Dickens’ classic tale, A Christmas Carol has been given a bit of a theatrical makeover thanks to a new adaptation of the story by the Fitzrovia Radio Hour.

Set in the 1940s and staged deep underneath Waterloo Station at the Vaults, the five strong cast enact the story as a live radio broadcast with us as their studio audience. The actors even do their own sound effects and intersperse radio ads for gin into the mix. 

But it’s not quite as straightforward as that. For there is a nasty undercurrent as one of the cast has done the dirty on his rival and caused an accident that has resulted in said rival being taken to hospital - we are told he might not make it. Cue gasps!

We are also told as a result of the accident the stage at the Old Vic, where the broadcast was due to take place, is now a crime scene, hence the underground bunker of the Vaults.

It is all very silly and it really adds to the acting out of the proper story they are there to stage for us. 

The injured actor, Stanley De Pfeffel, had been due to play Scrooge for the 18th year. Instead he is replaced by Ernest Andrew, looking for all the world like Laurence Olivier, and sneeringly delighted he’s finally got a chance to ditch Tiny Tim and be Scrooge.

Ernest wastes no time in ingratiating himself with his fellow cast members who are all devastated at the news of Stanley’s accident - none more so than Stanley’s lover Gretchen Haggard.

They start the show and it all seems to go swimmingly until they get to the bit where Marley’s ghost visits Scrooge. And then all manner of spooky things happen - from lights flickering to voices echoing and lights collapsing from the ceiling.

In the end of course, Stanley emerges from his hospital bed to take back the role he was meant to do, to the horror of Ernest and the delight of the rest of the cast. Much merriment ensues as the two rivals battle it out on air.

It is brilliantly done, with some clever touches, very funny and silly and the cast are spot on with their cut glass accents and dexterity at the sound effects table, not to mention the pushing and shoving that goes on between the two rivals.

And what’s more at about 80 minutes straight through, it’s a show that is entirely suitable for children aged from about 12 and up.

A Christmas Carol is on at the Vaults, Launcelot Street, Waterloo until Saturday, December 31. Tickets cost from £20. Visit www.ChristmasCarolLondon.com or call the box office on 020 7183 5942 for full listings.

FIVE STAR REVIEW - She Loves Me at the Menier Chocolate Factory

FIVE STARS

Lyricist Sheldon Harnick’s declaration of praise for Matthew White’s production of She Loves Me must have been music to the ears of the cast and crew.

Indeed the 92-year-old, when invited to the stage on press night, said the production, at the Menier Chocolate Factory was “maybe the best I’ve ever seen”.

And although I’ve not seen another version, I must admit, this one is pretty special. Indeed it is colourful and vibrant, full of wit and humour, fizzing with energy and with a strong cast who deliver all the songs and the story beautifully.

Set in the 1930s, was written in the 1960s and concerns the staff of a Budapest parfumerie with a love story that has echoes of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Cyrano De Bergerc and the film, You’ve Got Mail.

It is owned by Mr Maraczek, a lovely performance from Les Dennis, whose manager Georg has been writing love letters to an anonymous woman for a number of weeks after contacting her through a lonely hearts column. 

Into his life comes Amalia Balash, recently let go by a rival parfumerie who wows Mr Maraczek with her selling technique of a music box and gains herself a job - much to the disgust of Georg.

She too has been corresponding with an unknown man - and it doesn’t take much to work out who it is. However, face to face, the two get off on the wrong foot and spar verbally with each other.

However, things take a turn when they agree to finally meet each other’s letter writer at a local cafe - and things don’t go according to plan not least thanks to Georg being let go by Mr Maraczek who mistakenly believes him to be carrying on with his wife.

And here lies the first of two subplots - Mr Maraczek seeing his wife seduced by another man and the other being that of Ilona, the beautiful but unlucky in love sales assistant who has fallen for colleague Kodaly - a cad and a bounder if ever there was one. But she is made of strong stuff and in a fit of pique and after being spurned once too often she decides to go to the library and amongst the books finds herself a better man.

It is a delightful show and full of wonderful and very funny moments including a glorious scene with Cory English as the waiter who insists his cafe has a “romantic atmosphere”. Katherine Kingsley is hilarious as Ilona with her sideways glances and one liners and Dominic Tighe as Kodaly is suitably roguish.

But the night belongs really to Scarlett Strallen as Amalia and Mark Umbers as Georg who shine and sparkle like lights on a Christmas tree - and their falling in love despite themselves is a joy to watch.

She Loves Me is on at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Southwark Street until March 4, 2017. Tickets cost from £45. Visit www.menierchocolatefactory.com or call the box office on 020 7378 1713 for full listings.

FIVE STAR REVIEW - Peter Pan, National Theatre

Anna Francolini as Captain Hook. Credit Steve Tanner

Anna Francolini as Hook and Paul Hilton as Peter Pan. Credit Steve Tanner

FIVE STARS

PETER Pan is one of the most enduring of all children’s stories. Featuring the boy who never grows up it tells the story of his adventures with Wendy, John and Michael Darling who end up flying with him one night to Neverland where they meet Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys and do battle with the evil Captain Hook.

It has been adapted for the stage many times over the years, but a new version, now on at the National Theatre is an absolute gem. 

Remaining faithful to the original story, with loss and love at its heart, it has been given an update with a modern twist in a version that is both playful and exuberant with a gloriously funky soundtrack from Benji Bower, fabulous costumes, a stellar cast and plenty of technical wizardry.

Indeed it is this that adds to the zestiness of the piece, showing off the impressive and vast Olivier stage with floor to ceiling ladders on either side on which counterweighters climb to allow the actors to leap about on ropes - and almost fly into the audience. Their “fairy strings” are always visible and provide them with endless entertainment.

And mid way through, the stage revolves and Captain Hook’s ship, made mostly out of what looks like a skip, comes up from the bowels of the theatre and eerily into view.

Devised by Sally Cookson and the cast, it is a great show - the musicians visible at the back of the stage, the Lost Boys also playing mermaids and Captain Hook’s crew and, in a genius move, doubling up the roles of Mrs Darling and Captain Hook reinforcing Peter’s unhappy vision of mothers.

Peter himself, played by Paul Hilton, is all green suited, boyish and immature and totally unaware of his allure, particularly when it comes to Wendy.

Wendy meanwhile, played by Madeleine Worrall is gloriously feisty - no starched nightdress for her, instead the same striped pyjamas as her two brothers and as eager for adventure and to do battles with Peter’s foes as Peter himself.

Hook, superbly played by Anna Francolini, is all glittering teeth, gothic black corset and purple silk skirt and bewigged with an ending that is brilliantly staged.

It is a fantastic production, both wonderfully funny but with plenty of poignant and sad moments that dazzles with mischief, invention and adventure.

Peter Pan is on at the National Theatre until February 4, 2017. Tickets from £15. Visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or call the box office on 020 7452 3000.

FIVE STAR REVIEW - Another Night Before Christmas, Bridge House Theatre Penge

Rachael Wooding as Carole and George Maguire as Santa. Credit Robert Workman

FIVE STARS

Two years ago director Guy Retallack and his actress wife Rachel Tucker set up the Bridge House Theatre in Penge. Their first  show It’s A Wonderful Life was a stunner. This year they are back with another hit on their hands - Another Night Before Christmas.

In a slight departure for the Bridge House team, this is a musical of sorts and stars Rachael Wooding and George Maguire.

The story is a simple one. Carole Elliot is a stressed out bah humbug of a 30 something social worker. She works all the hours god sends but with little reward and certainly no social or love life. And don’t get her started on Christmas - something she has been indoctrinated to believe by her nagging mother that is “one big con”.

But then one Christmas Eve night on her way home from the office Christmas party she sees a man outside her door. He looks dishevelled and thinking he’s homeless she offers him her bag of left over party food. 

However, this is no homeless man. For not long after she arrives home and pours herself a generous glass of wine and settles down to watch the Christmas Bake Off does this man appear in her flat.

Thinking he’s about to rob the place she calls the police. But he insists he’s not there to take anything - merely to bestow some festive spirit on Carole and open her heart to the joys of Christmas, because as Santa that is what his job is all about. 

Understandably she’s not having any of it and stubbornly refuses to believe him.

And so follows a somewhat merry dance of words between the two as he tries unsuccessfully at first to convince her that he’s the real deal.

It turns out to be tricker than he thought and by the end of act one he’s stormed out of the flat, with her in hot pursuit worried that he’s going to die on the cold streets.

We return in Act Two to see her flat transformed and the man in the kitchen rustling up some fish cakes. Little by little they get to know each other and the man adds more charm and warmth so by the end it’s quite emotional - particularly when it’s revealed that as a child all Carole had ever wanted was a Christmas like everyone else - with presents, tree, decorations and all the trimmings.

With a tight script and a few well placed, catchy musical numbers, it’s both very funny and poignant, and beautifully staged and acted with Rachael and George both bringing warmth, humour, vulnerability, charm and beautiful singing voices to it. 

And the ending, while not unexpected in many ways, does give you a warm and fuzzy moment. It is just what you need to get you in the Christmas spirit.

Another Night Before Christmas is on at the Bridge House Theatre, Penge until December 23. Tickets from £10. Visit www.bhtheatre.com for full listings.

FIVE STAR REVIEW Peter Pan - Greenwich Theatre

FIVE STARS

It’s panto season again and this year Greenwich Theatre has gone out on somewhat of a limb with its version of Peter Pan. Not only is Peter Pan not a panto in the strict sense of the genre but this is not the Peter Pan story of old.

No, this is Peter Pan - A New Adventure, written by, starring and directed by the inimitable Andrew Pollard.

It is his 12th show for the Crooms Hill theatre and it happens to be one of his best yet. In a nod to the current political, cultural and social climate he’s managed to mix together a heady cocktail of traditional panto fare with a huge dollop of humour, farce, comment, a glorious musical soundtrack and a cracking story sprinkled with plenty of glitter, outrageous costumes and festive pizzazz. In short it’s a winner.

But what of the story? It features a Wendy who is descended from JM Barrie’s original. Gone is the starched white nightgown and mumsy character and in her place is a feisty young woman with a can do attitude, adventurous spirit and who is no push over. This girl definitely can.

Wendy (Louise Young) runs her family’s fish packing business in the London docks aided by the tea lady, Long Joan Silver (Andrew Pollard). But she longs to escape the grey world in which she finds herself and have an adventure.

Her wish comes true when the bell in her necklace begins to ring and she realises Peter Pan (Rory Maguire) is in trouble. She hires a Thames Clipper and along with Joan and the ladies who work for her, she travels to Neverland in a bid to find Peter and Tinkerbell (Krystal Dockery).

Meanwhile, in a neat twist, Hook (Anthony Spargo) and Smee (Sackie Osakonor) have been frozen in ice after the former’s near death experience by being eaten by the crocodile. When the ice cracks they come back to life and they too go back to Neverland in search of revenge on Peter. 

Once in Neverland both parties meet and try to get the better of each other - with the inevitable hilarious results - before good prevails.

As usual Andrew Pollard has set the standard high this year with his wonderful story. The cast is strong, and the verbal sparring of Joan and Anthony Spargo’s Hook is brilliantly funny. But credit too to James-Paul McAllister who is utterly hilarious as Ethel Merman, the High Priestess and Percy The Parakeet. His scenes as the High Priestess where he displays his vocal gymnastics with Joan and as Ethel in the Mermaid cove were the undoubted highlights of the show and had everyone weeping with laughter.

This is the panto by which all others should be judged so if you want a cracker of a show this is definitely it.

Peter Pan - A New Adventure is on at Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill until Sunday, January 8 2017. Visit www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk for full listings.