The Sugar Syndrome

by Lucy Prebble

seen at the Orange Tree Theatre Richmond on 6 February 2020

Oscar Toeman directs Jessica Rhodes as Dani Carter, Ali Barouti as Lewis Sampson, John Hollingworth as Tim Saunders and Alexandra Gilbreath as Jan Carter (Dani's mother) in this first London revival of Lucy Prebble's first play, in which a teenager navigates her way from the often illusory world of chatrooms to encounters with the real people behind the names - encounters which may be more exciting but also more perilous.

The play opens with sounds familiar to older users of computers but probably completely foreign to those who have no idea of the tedium of dial-up phone connections. Actors prowl around the edge of the stage in dim blue light when they are in a chatroom, but use a lower central acting space when in the real world. Though the conversations between mother and daughter indicate a level of technology now long superseded, the issues and tensions in the play are still strikingly relevant and disturbing. 

The Lie

by Florian Zeller

seen at the Menier Chocolate Factory on 29 September 2017

Lindsay Ponsner directs Christopher Hampton's version of Zeller's new play with Samantha Bond as Alice, Tony Gardner as Paul, Alexandra Gilbreath as Laurence and Alexander Hanson as Michel.

Anna Fleischle has designed a stylish French apartment's living room for a very stylish and very French play about the thorny issues of lying, being honest, being tactful and being deceitful, set around Alice's disquiet at hosting her husband's friend Michel and his wife in the evening after by chance seeing Michel kissing another woman in the street during the afternoon. Paul argues that neither Michel nor Laurence should be confronted - it is Michel's business and not theirs to interfere - but this raises large questions about honesty amongst friends and in a marriage, with spiralling and unforeseen consequences for all concerned.

The Wars of the Roses

by William Shakespeare adapted by John Barton and Peter Hall

seen at the Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames on 29 October 2015

In 1962 John Barton and Peter Hall devised three plays they called 'Henry VI', 'Edward IV' and 'Richard III' from Shakespeare's original 'Henry VI' Parts 1, 2 and 3, and 'Richard III'. Presented under the overall title 'The Wars of the Roses', this was a major success for the then-new Royal Shakespeare Company, but the adaptations have rarely been performed since. Trevor Nunn saw the original productions as an undergraduate, and they inspired his vocation as a theatre director - he later followed Peter Hall as artistic director of both the RSC and the National Theatre. Peter Hall was also the founding patron of the Rose Theatre, and so Trevor Nunn has revived the trilogy here as a tribute to his mentor.

This production features Alex Waldmann as Henry VI, Joely Richardson as his queen Margaret of Anjou, Kåre Conradi as Edward IV, Alexandra Gilbreath as his queen Elizabeth, Robert Sheehan as Richard of Gloucester (later Richard III) and Alexander Hanson as Richard Plantagenet the Duke of York. The many other speaking parts are shared between these and sixteen other actors, some young boys and a 'company community chorus' of sixteen more assorted soldiers and peasants. The set was designed by John Napier and Mark Friend.