Tag Archives: Deven Modha

United Queendom

★★★★★

Kensington Palace

United Queendom

United Queendom

Kensington Palace

Reviewed – 2nd March 2020

★★★★★

 

“a fabulous and thoroughly enjoyable journey”

 

If you are lucky enough to have a ticket for this sold out show you are in for a treat. If you don’t have a ticket try and get a return.

Kensington Palace is the venue and, when you arrive, you will discover that you have been invited to the birthday party of King George the Second. A feast of delights awaits you! Will you meet the King? Or maybe Queen Caroline? You will definitely see them, and you will also see Henrietta Howard, the Queen’s mistress, and a host of characters from the Georgian court. The Necessary Woman, played by the irrepressible Christina Ngoyi, will escort you to the entrance to the palace. She will probably explain that her job is emptying the many chamber pots that are scattered around. She will be shooed away by Deven Modha, as the Lord Chamberlain, the most important of the King’s staff, as he will no doubt inform you. You’ll pick up a glass of wine, and the revels will begin. At the bottom of a grand staircase you will suddenly by surrounded by a flurry of skirts and wigs as courtiers appear and mingle with the crowd. You will be taught how to bow or curtsy, and maybe hear some hints of scandal. Senesino, the renowned court musician and composer will play virtuoso violin and, later, you will hear his beautiful counter tenor as he sings an aria that echoes and floats down the King’s staircase. James Hastings plays him with such sublime talent, and such wonderful theatricality, that you won’t want the music, to stop. Some of you will be given a golden envelope and ushered away to visit the King’s inner apartments. I don’t know what will happen to the rest of you, as there are two ‘tracks’ to the show and two different experiences. One thing is certain; you will have a fabulous time, whichever way you go.

We were treated to some hilarious court mischief, exposed to factions supporting the King or the Queen, and invited to a salon, where the women of the court hosted such great thinkers as Isaac Newton to talk. Deborah Tracey’s vibrant Salonnieres and the fusty old fashioned Duke of Newcastle, brilliantly played by Richard Holt, disagreed about whether the earth is round of flat. On the way round the palace we come across the Countess of Hertford, a supporter of the Queen, who wears men’s clothing and raps up a storm. Lucy Reynolds clearly has fun playing her, and is a joy. We discovered that Lord Harvey is rather a naughty boy, especially when he is with Miss Vane – Stephan Boyce and Nadia Sohawon really are deliciously scandalous in these roles. And yes, we met the King and Queen and, of course, Henrietta Howard. Lavinia Co-Op is archly camp George II, and Miranda Heath and Yasmin Keita, as the two women central to this story clash and face off like two birds of paradise in a sparkle of jewels and a ruffle of feathers. But is it possible that this ‘Queendom’ could be united? is there, perhaps, another way of doing things? You’ll just have to go and see it to find out. If you can get a ticket.

The costumes are glorious, the wigs and make-up a flamboyant delight. And the music is divine. Susan Kulkarni, Victoria Stride and Patrick Neil Doyle respectively are a dream team of creatives. Nadia Sohawon’s choreography adds to the mix, which manages to be both historically accurate and contemporarily relevant, lit with touch of magic by Pablo Fernandez Baz. And all brought together into a fabulous and thoroughly enjoyable journey through one night in the Georgian court by director Christa Harris. Amid all the uproarious glee we learned a lot too. Unmissable.

 

Reviewed by Katre

Photography by Gail Harland

 


United Queendom

Kensington Palace until 30th March

 

Last ten shows reviewed by Katre:
The Legend Of The Holy Drinker | ★★½ | The Vaults | January 2020
Beige | ★★★★ | The Vaults | February 2020
Gypsy Flame | ★★★ | Network Theatre | February 2020
In My Lungs The Ocean Swells | ★★★★ | The Vaults | February 2020
Killing It | ★★★★ | Network Theatre | February 2020
La Cage Aux Folles | ★★★★ | Park Theatre | February 2020
Life And Death  Of A Journalist | ★★★ | The Vaults | February 2020
Spree | ★★★★ | The Vaults | February 2020
The Upstart Crow | ★★★★★ | Gielgud Theatre | February 2020
Time And Tide | ★★★ | Park Theatre | February 2020

Click here to see our most recent reviews

 

The Game of Love and Chai – 3 Stars

Chai

The Game of Love and Chai

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch

Reviewed – 21st April 2018

★★★

“a fun and lively take on a traditional farce, contemporary, relevant and wittily reimagined”

 

“What’s so terrible about marriage?” Sita asks Rani. Raj is coming to the house, an intelligent and successful businessman, and a possible marriage prospect for Rani. But Rani isn’t convinced, so she enlists the help of her cousin Sita. They will exchange identities so that Rani can get to know the real Raj. What she hasn’t counted on is that Raj has had the same idea, and has swapped identities with his Uber driver. This is an original take on the 18th century french farce, ‘The Game of Love and Chance’ by Pierre Marivaux, which touches on love, marriage, mistaken identity and class. Adapted by Nigel Planer, he reinvents Marivaux’s play in an Asian household in modern day Britain, interspersed with Bollywood dances.

Goldy Notay as Kamala-Ji, Rani’s mother and Sita’s aunt, delivers a fantastic performance. She laughs her way around the stage, a glass of prosecco always in hand. She is always in on everyone’s plots and plays along with glee. Kiren Jogi as Sita also delivers a lovely performance, warm, genuine and immediately likeable, and the cast as a whole work well together.

Amidst the farce, the play also starts some really interesting conversations about the part class has to play within relationships, the culture of arranged marriages, and how to reconcile being independent and being in love. However, restricted by the original, these issues are not sufficiently explored and the final conclusions of the play predominantly reinforce them.

The asides worked well, as if we the audience are each characters’ confidante, however they are sometimes unclear due to the pace the production has a tendency to move at. Frustratingly, the actors perform more towards the audience than each other, which makes the connections between characters onstage appear weaker. This particularly affects the chemistry (or lack of) between Raj and Rani. On the whole, the piece is quite one note. It is overly frenetic at points, and I think some of the humour of the text is actually lost in this. Whilst the writing is funny, the slapstick visual comedy we usually see in farce is predominantly missing here and in a genre which is heavily reliant on this element, the piece suffers because of it.

Performed by a strong cast, this is a fun and lively take on a traditional farce, contemporary, relevant and wittily reimagined, and a lovely way to spend an evening.

 

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Simon Annand

 

https://www.queens-theatre.co.uk

The Game of Love and Chai

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch

 

Related
Previously at this venue
The Rope | ★★★★ | Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch | February 2018

 

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