Past Reviews

Copenhagen, The Tabard Theatre, Written for The Stage, 09.11.2007

Four years before the destruction of Hiroshima, two leading nuclear physicists met in Copenhagen. The exact purpose of Werner Heisenberg’s visit to Niels Bohr in 1941 remains unclear.
Frayn’s play sets them and Bohr’s wife Margrethe together post-death to reflect on the details and ethics of that meeting, grappling with their past obligations and present responsibilities. More broadly, history and morality are mirrored with quantum physics: full of relativity, subjectivity and uncertainty.
Under Elly Green’s direction Copenhagen loses none of its gripping intrigue, as the well-constructed mystery unravels before us. The pitfall of the past is deftly avoided, without nostalgia or sentimentality, and the science is clear and uncondescending.
Roger Ringrose delivers a warm and likeable Bohr while David Shelley neatly encapsulates Heisenberg’s conflict between legacy and liability, adding a slight touch of Blair to the scientist’s mannerisms.
However, thanks in part to the arbitration of Jane Guernier’s muted Margrethe, the action never threatens to explode into passion: always ponderous debate, never personal or political argument. Belle Mundi’s simple blackboard design rife with partially-erased markings perhaps overstates certain themes, while the blocking is all too often transparent in its motives.
Nonetheless, this is a very engaging – if slightly calculated – reprisal of a fantastic text.

Counterfeit Skin, The Courtyard Theatre, Written for The Stage, 24.01.2008

If drama is nothing more than conflict, Counterfeit Skin has it coming out of every pore. Mere opposition alone, however, does not make for dramatic tension. Jason Charles' exploration of modern homosexual relationships is freckled with nice moments, but suffers from familiarity and predictability.
Rapidly flicking between a miscellany of urban locations, Counterfeit Skin charts the respective relationships of Leo (John Rayment) and his co-habiting godson Jake (James Kristian) through their inevitable entanglement and entrapment.
Though themes of dominance and submission, honesty and illusion are handled tidily, the plot is dragged down too many short and unnecessary scenes. Too much repetition and outpouring of feelings over the three-hour running time eventually undermines patience with the writing, not helped by a cramped staging.
Nonetheless strong performances surpass the text to provide sporadic excitement. Kristian plays Jake's naivety entirely without judgement, spitting out his words with a beautifully misguided confidence. Rayment appears immensely comfortable onstage, bringing a natural and laid-back quality to Leo, while, as Ralph, Dean Lyle provides effective comic relief and a hopelessly romantic counterfoil to Jake.There is potential here: Counterfeit Skin might make reasonable television, but if it is to survive onstage it requires more than a little nip/tuck treatment.

Rider Spoke, Blast Theory @ The Barbican, 19.10.2007

Bridging the gap between theatre and game, Rider Spoke attempts to provide its audience with a personal expedition around London, interacting with both the city itself and past journeys of others.
Cycling around the Barbican with a computer attached to the handlebars of a bicycle, audience members must ‘hide’ recorded answers to questions and find the recordings of others using wi-fi technology. Whilst it works in theory, in practice it can become an exasperating experience.
As the familiar becomes unfamiliar and the city transforms into a series of unexplored nooks and crannies, it is interesting and exciting. The search for the correct location – be it “a stinking arsehole of a place” or somewhere your father might like – triggers the imagination. A soft anonymous voice in one’s ear both reassures and isolates whilst travelling, pricking the senses with a touch of danger.
However, the piece is hindered by the technology that enables it. The computer, with its rustic graphics of swallows and shacks, is frustratingly slow. In looking for others’ answers the technology does too much, finding answers within a large radius of their intended location, displacing recording and place. As a result, the process becomes somewhat arbitrary.
Nonetheless, it is an affecting hour. The recordings of others are at times amusing, at others moving, always voyeuristic yet personal. Unique and enjoyable as a game, intriguing if flawed as theatre.