★★★

“Different Theatre holds its own; this is an ambitious play, and one they tackled well”

Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – no mean feat for a cast of 4 – remains an engaging piece of absurdist metatheatre. Directed by Sam Chittenden, this production, though small, economises engagingly with Polonius puppets and Ophelia dolls.

For those who don’t remember their Shakespeare or their Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead follows the two eponymous characters. Whilst mere side characters and victims of Hamlet’s rampages in the source material, in Stoppard’s play, they are central figures, desperately trying to navigate existentialism, actors, and an unhinged Hamlet. They yap about biased coin tosses, a human Schrodinger’s Cat, and word games, until petitioned by King Claudius to suss out Hamlet’s odd behaviour. Thus, the double act begins listlessly plodding around Elsinore, meekly trying and failing to engage Hamlet in meaningful conversation. The only people they ever really engage with are the travelling players, who are always performing.

Eventually, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are shipped off to their death in England, where at least they won’t be made to watch any more theatre. Except the players are also on board. It’s a series of more and more unfortunate events.

Perhaps this play, which directly uses the source material of Hamlet, is undermined by the smallness of the venue. The narrative and progression of time seemed at odds with the space, though perhaps this was part of Stoppard’s surrealist agenda. That being said, with three acts and two intervals, the piece did drag somewhat.

This is a demanding play, requiring theatrical dexterity and total command of the language. The cast, though competent and agile in their multi-rolling, perhaps struggled with such demands. With its post-modernist conceits and snappy dialogue, it was a challenge to maintain momentum.

It did often feel clumsy, and played for laughs, rather than trusted as an innately witty and erudite piece of writing.

However, the actors were a cohesive bunch, especially Ross Gurney-Randall as the Player and Claudius. Ben Baeza and Morgan Corby as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were well-matched, and distinct in an Odd Couple-esque way. One addition was the employment of audience members during the play within the play. By dragging volunteers in to play the roles of Queen, King, and Uncle, Chittenden toyed engagingly with the politics of metatheatre. The downside of this, however, is it tipped the piece into pantomime territory, which is always a terrifying prospect.

It may seem a small point, but volume was a noticeable problem. Where Corby was a little too quiet, Baeza was consistently too loud. His projection, in such a venue, felt a little like an auricular assault. But they worked well together and maintained a decent rapport.

As an amateur production, Different Theatre holds its own; this is an ambitious play, and one they tackled well. It did, however, crave more soldering and slickness if it is going to tackle Stoppard.

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★½

“The cast, across the board, is excellent, reaffirming their ability to shape and invigorate otherwise middling writing”

‘This is My Family’ is a refrain repeated with such alarming frequency in this show, I started to hope it might actually hint at a much darker piece, which used ‘happy families’ as a veil for a seedy Mafia tale of subterfuge, criminality, and intrigue, expressed via showtunes. Alas, it did not.

It was, in fact, about an unremarkable, nuclear family from somewhere unspecified in the North of England in which 13-year-old Nicky (Nancy Allsop) wins a competition that grants her and her family any holiday of her choosing. Except her ideal family, as described in her application, is not so ideal: her brother (Luke Lambert) has become some kind of satanic incarnation of a teenager; her grandmother (Gay Soper) has burgeoning dementia and an affliction for arson; and her mother (Gemma Whelan) and father (Michael Jibson), who have been together since they were 16, are steeped in mediocrity and have grown indifferent towards each other. Tim Firth’s new play (or musical?) engages with all these topics but tends to neglect a nuanced exploration of them.

Firstly, and truly, one is reminded that good actors are wonderful artists. The cast, across the board, is excellent, reaffirming their ability to shape and invigorate otherwise middling writing. Allsop as Nicky is particularly charming, eminently watchable and sweet, and with a delightful voice. Whelan is also a standout as Nicky’s deeply frustrated mother, Yvonne.

This is my Family is nominally a musical. And yet, its status as such calls into question the framework and requirements necessary to earn its place as a musical. Because, surely, just sing-speaking constantly does not a musical make. A musical should really justify its songs: they have a reason for being: when speaking isn’t enough. Not when speaking is just not interesting enough. In this piece, dialogue and song became interchangeable and quickly indistinguishable, substituting memorable showstoppers for loosely spoken song. In all honesty, the only memorable bit of music is the aforementioned ‘this is my family’ line.

Set design (Chloe Lamford) was a standout: an initial shed-like house soon collapses, giving us a cosy interior. The switch to greener pastures in the Second Act was also a neat design choice.

In general, This is my Family is mediocre, but with first-rate actors. Whilst a play need not have a profound moralising conclusion, or solve the world’s most pressing problems, it ought to say something interesting, and with nuance. The plot is circuitous and often tedious, its twists predictable and its characters on the stock side. In its defence, it is light and fun, and the stakes are generally quite low. This may be a particularly palatable thing for theatre and audiences at the moment, given *gestures vaguely at everything* stuff. This is my Family is unimposing, gentle, and lightly comic, appealing to many a sensibility. However, its lightness came at the expense of subtlety and depth and is entirely devoid of a ‘showstopping number; a real showstopper’.

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD

Drayton Arms Theatre

★★★

“Different Theatre holds its own; this is an ambitious play, and one they tackled well”

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD

Drayton Arms Theatre

Reviewed on 10th June 2025

by Violet Howson

Recently reviewed by Violet:

ROSENCRANTZ

ROSENCRANTZ

ROSENCRANTZ

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★½

“The cast, across the board, is excellent, reaffirming their ability to shape and invigorate otherwise middling writing”

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 28th May 2025

by Violet Howson

Photography by Mark Senior

Last ten shows reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

THIS IS MY FAMILY

THIS IS MY FAMILY

THIS IS MY FAMILY

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