Children's Shows Music Musicals Spoken Word Theatre ThisWeek In London

Three To See 17-23 Sep: Starting This Week, Short Runs, Very Short Runs

By | Published on Monday 16 September 2019

THREE STARTING THIS WEEK

Anansi The Spider | Unicorn Theatre | 18 Sep-27 Oct (pictured)
I thought I would start this week with a suggestion for those of you out there with small children to look after, specifically those aged between three and seven, as I always feel it’s handy to have an indoor activity to fall back on when autumn is well on its way. Plus this one, from the excellent Justin Audibert is presented in celebration of Black History Month. “People say that a time long, long ago, animals walked on two feet and spoke with words, like we do. And back then it was known by everyone that the cleverest of all the animals in the kingdom was a spider – the infamous Anansi – the original trickster and the master spinner of yarns”. More here.

Black Chiffon | The Park Theatre | 18 Sep-12 Oct
“Mrs Alicia Christie maintains a beautiful home, with a clever husband and devoted children. This surely makes her an upstanding society woman…What would you do to protect your family? Would you lie? Would you pretend to be a completely different person to the one everyone knows? Would you forsake all your beliefs? Would you go to jail? One woman. One crime. One decision”. Gosh, this sounds compelling, doesn’t it? And it’s got a great cast. Head to the venue website here for information and to book tickets.

Call Me Fury | The Hope Theatre | 17 Sep-5 Oct
I’m always interested in shows that take witches or witch hunting as their inspiration as subject matter, and this show here falls very much into that category, though primarily, I think, this piece seeks to comment on contemporary feminism and sexual politics. It’s a performance by an all female ensemble that uses folk songs and stories of witch trials all over the world, and it’s already won love and acclaim at a sold out run at Vault Festival earlier this year. For all the details, head right this way


THREE SHORT RUNS

Old Stock: A Refugee Story | Wilton’s | 18-28 Sep
“Sex, religion, tragedy and triumph… This darkly funny musical folk tale erupts from a shipping container, lifts you by the collar and takes you on a whirlwind exploration of what love actually means across the centuries. Let the klezmer music take you on the journey of Chaim and Chaya as they flee Romania and arrive as ‘outsiders’ to Canada in 1908”. This sounds great, promising, according to the listing, a “shape-shifting, genre-bending, gig-meets-live-theatre experience that is as timeless as the tale itself”. See this page here for more.

Darkfield | Montgomery Square, Canary Wharf | 15-21 Sep
This is exciting, a collection of three immersive experiences, taking place in shipping containers in Montgomery Square. For ‘Séance’, one of said containers is transformed into a Victorian séance room and sees a twenty minute exploration of group psychology; ‘Flight’ takes place in a container with an interior exactly resembling that of an Airbus 320, and transports its audiences to parallel worlds; and finally, ‘Coma’, which premiered at edfringe this summer, encourages its audiences to lie down and “slip into a collective dream”. See this page here for all the info on all of it.

Lit | Omnibus Theatre | 17-21 Sep (pictured)
“The problem with love is that it’s different for everyone. For Bex, love is a flirt in detention and the promise of a date at a Chinese buffet. She doesn’t even like Chinese. How long can she keep searching for love before she ends up burnt?” This exploration of the  turbulent teenage years of a girl looking for love in all the wrong places” from Sophie Ellerby was originally developed through HighTide’s First Commissions programme. Head this way to find out more.


THREE VERY SHORT RUNS

Earthquakes In London | Ovalhouse | 19-21 Sep
“London. 2010. A new coalition government and an earthquake is on its way. In this darkly comic rollercoaster of a show, we follow three sisters living very different lives since their father abandoned them. Over the course of three days, we watch them attempt to hang onto themselves and the lives they’ve built, whatever the consequences”. This is described as a “passionate call to arms” and examines “how the choices we make reverberate through the generations and challenges us to confront the question, just when is it too late to heal?” See this page here for more.

How To Keep Time | The Albany | 22 Sep (pictured)
We’ve been tipping quite a lot of shows lately that got their start at the old edfringe, though most of them were on at the 2019 Festival. This play from award-winning spoken word artist Antosh Wojcik was a hit at the 2018 Fringe, and explores the effects of dementia on speech, memory and family life: “Using just his voice and an electronic drum kit, Wojcik tells the moving story of his Polish grandfather’s struggle against vascular dementia and the effect it had on the people around him”. Details here.

What Is The Word | Camden People’s Theatre | 17-18 Sep
“For the last fifteen years, acclaimed writer/performer Chris Goode has been presenting occasional live anthologies of experimental work from the margins of the 20th century: avant-garde, hybrid and outsider texts that still have the power to startle, disorient and enthral contemporary audiences”. This is a best-of selection that focuses on material that “foreground the strangeness of language and the weird and awesome border-zone where text meets music meets noise,” and features work from the likes of Samuel Beckett, Gertrude Stein, and Christopher Knowles. Info right about here.



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