Tag Archives: Alex Brenner

BITTER LEMONS

★★★½

Park Theatre

BITTER LEMONS at Park Theatre

★★★½

“The imagery is striking evoked and passionately told”

Bitter Lemons follows two women’s intertwining narratives as they ready themselves for a vital moment in their careers, and a big personal decision.

After a successful run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023, the show has revived the same team for a London run. It bills itself as an issue play, centring around one moment in these women’s lives, but in many ways that detracts from the message of the piece.

We follow two women – Angelina (Shannon Hayes) and AJ (Chanel Waddock). AJ is a professional goalie and the ‘tart of the team’. Meanwhile Angelina is firmly implanted in the corporate world, having to prove to colleagues, clients and her own boyfriend that she is more than a diversity hire. The stories are superficially different, but connect and intersect throughout.

Writer and director Lucy Hayes’ script blends theatre and prose poetry. The imagery is striking evoked and passionately told. It is at its best when it weaves between the stories, allowing the characters to fly in quick fire entangled prose. But it also has a distancing effect, at times keeping the audience at arm’s length.

The script and performance is at the core of this piece, but Hayes’ direction allows these two aspects centre stage. Some muddied physical theatre does little to add to the atmosphere, but the staging is thoughtful, especially given the parallel narratives.

Chanel Waddock has a powerful physicality, blending comedy and poignancy while retaining a grounded stage presence. Shannon Hayes has excellent comic timing and a strong connection with the audience.

Hattie North’s sound design is throbbingly atmospheric. Creating both internal and external worlds through sound she gives the piece an urgent and purposeful pulse.

The set (Roisin Martindale) which has changed slightly from the Finge, is baffling until the final scene. For me, it wasn’t worth it for the reveal, but with a plastic backdrop curtain, blue Lino flooring and mirrored blocks it has a simple but clean feeling.

The show is quite busy. A lot of ideas are thrown around, and the women’s lives feel at times used to tick boxes of on trend messaging. There are some powerful moments but a lot of the ideas and commentary feels a little familiar. Splitting the narrative makes both stories feel a little undercooked and simplistic, with the characters feeling less well developed than they otherwise could have.

 


BITTER LEMONS at Park Theatre

Reviewed on 30th August 2024

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Alex Brenner

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

WHEN IT HAPPENS TO YOU | ★★★★★ | August 2024
THE MARILYN CONSPIRACY | ★★★★ | June 2024
IVO GRAHAM: CAROUSEL | ★★★★ | June 2024
A SINGLE MAN | ★★★★ | May 2024
SUN BEAR | ★★★ | April 2024
HIDE AND SEEK | ★★★★ | March 2024
COWBOYS AND LESBIANS | ★★★★ | February 2024
HIR | ★★★★ | February 2024
LEAVES OF GLASS | ★★★★ | January 2024
KIM’S CONVENIENCE | ★★★★ | January 2024

BITTER LEMONS

BITTER LEMONS

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

 

FARM HALL

★★★★

Theatre Royal Haymarket

FARM HALL at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

★★★★

“a fascinating reconstruction of what might have been said”

Last year’s Jermyn Street Theatre production of Katherine Moar’s cerebral play journeys the short distance down Haymarket to take up residence at the majestic Theatre Royal.

The title Farm Hall takes its name from the real Cambridgeshire country residence in which a number of Germany’s top physicists are imprisoned at the end of the war and where their every word is recorded and scrutinised. The play is a fascinating reconstruction of what might have been said and how such a collection of brilliant men may have behaved. With the central character of Werner Heisenberg in common, Moar’s fascinating first play invites comparison with Michael Frayn’s brilliant Copenhagen.

The action is set entirely in Farm Hall’s downstairs drawing room; a room that first appears luscious with antique mahogany furniture, polished floorboards, and a Persian rug in front of the open fireplace, until one’s eyes are drawn to the damp on the walls and the peeling wallpaper (Designer Ceci Calf). Everything is softly lit (Lighting Designer Ben Ormerod) exuding a gentle period feel.

The six scientists, impeccably dressed in suits and ties, sit and stand around. It transpires they are rehearsing a scene from Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit just to fill the time. Later, we’ll see them reading, or playing chess or backgammon. One scientist amusingly sulks because they haven’t got Monopoly. There is surprisingly little talk about science. Director Stephen Unwin skilfully moves the six men around the room without ever hurrying the pace or making the room appear overcrowded.

At first it appears that the dashing Weizsäcker (Daniel Boyd) is the group’s ringleader, controlling the group’s activities and its conversation, and then Von Laue (David Yelland, delightfully plummy) as the senior scientist. Like a group of public-school boys, they fantasise about pretty girls, there are petty rivalries, even some slight bullying of the generally disliked Diebner (Julius D’Silva) – the lone experimental physicist amongst a majority of theoreticals. The empathic Hahn (Forbes Masson) tries to see that everyone gets along and Bagge (Archie Backhouse) prickles that he has the most of all to fear for the future. The six actors are all excellent, the dialogue flows and we are drawn in, fascinated by their individual stories.

And then the tone changes, a large shadow is cast over the gathering as the Americans drop the first atomic bomb. Each man reacts differently, Heisenberg (a mightily impressive Alan Cox) simply won’t believe it. Hahn is inconsolable and hints at suicide. And the conversation turns from games to something more serious. Did they really intend to create a bomb for the Nazis or did they just pretend to? Heisenberg ambiguously admits that both could be true and as the group collect their suitcases on their eventual release they are now asking themselves the impossible question: What is truth? And that is one question too big for any short play to answer.

 


FARM HALL at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

Reviewed on 13th August 2024

by Phillip Money

Photography by Alex Brenner

 

 


 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

HEATHERS | ★★★ | July 2021

Farm Hall

Farm Hall

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page