2015

Wassuuuuuup. Happy 2015! I was going to wait to do a hello again post until after I’d caught up with all my reviewing, but to be honest that day may never come (see list below). So here I am. Still alive, still pigging about in south London and you know, various theatres. However, I have some news. From mid-April this year I will be trotting myself back up to my homeland of the north (Newcastle, to be precise) to live there instead of here. I won’t technically be a Brixpig any longer (even though now I’m really a Hernepig anyway), and I’m not sure what I’ll do about this blog. I’ll probably carry on. I’ll let ya know.

 

In the meantime, I am planning to massively enjoy my last few months in our fair capital. I spent New Year’s Eve at my friend’s lovely boarding school in Banbury, drinking half pints of prosecco in the common room and dancing round tables, eating excessive amounts of carrot sticks and dicking about with sparklers. And this year I have already seen some stupendous theatre, eaten a load of leftover Christmas cheese, discovered Magic FM’s new Sunday evening radio show starring John Barrowman (you know you want to), and eaten more bags of Mini Eggs than I care to think about.

 

Music-wise, I am still loving Bleachers who I get to see in February (yesssss), and HIGHLY recommend Marina and the Diamonds’s new stuff – she is releasing one new song a month until the Froot album release in April and I can confirm that they are all brilliant so far (particularly Immortal). And in my traditional style, I’m about six months behind the rest of the world and have just discovered how amazing Sia is. I am obsessed with her album. This video of her new single Elastic Heart is amazing (and features Maddie from Dance Moms – who knew my mother’s TV viewing was actually on trend?).

 

 

Telly-wise, I’m catching up with new episodes of Girls and Glee (both underwhelming but I’m sticking with them), and undertook the perhaps unwise feat of watching series 1 and 2 of Broadchurch simultaneously. I have now seen the whole of series 1 so can rumble along with the rest of the nation from this point on – so glad to see Eve Myles back on my screen, she is a cracker. Episodes is also back in the US (and therefore online…) and is on top form so far – Greig, Mangan and le Blanc are a dream trio. Final recommendation is Catastrophe, which started a couple of weeks ago on channel 4 and is fucking hilarious – just watch it and I guarantee you’ll be laughing out loud.

COMING UP IN 2015:
The Changeling at the Wanamaker
How to Hold Your Breath at the Royal Court (Maxine Peake!)
London Gin Festival
Bleachers at Bush Hall
Stevie at Hampstead Theatre (Zoe Wanamaker!)
Antigone at the Barbican (Juliette Binoche!)
The Broken Heart at the Wanamaker
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown at the Playhouse (Tamsin Greig!)
Sweeney Todd at the Coliseum (Emma Thompson!!)
Fleetwood Mac again in Leeds (Christine McVie!)

 

And when I finally get my writing shit together, here is what you can expect to see, reviews-wise:
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore
Kylie
Electra
Urinetown
The Crucible
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Chrissie Hynde
Edward Scissorhands
Elephants
Made in Dagenham
(Can you see why it takes me so long??)

 

Lovely to be back.

 

Brixpig x

Jumpy

When: Monday 27th August

Where: Duke of York’s Theatre

Why: TAMSIN GREIG

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – day tickets are the BEST. Granted we got to the Duke of York’s at 9am and the box office didn’t open until noon (cheers for that, bank holiday), but after a sunny morning stroll around Cov G we wandered back and queued for a bit and got front row seats for a tenner. The only thing I will say is that day tickets apply to the front two rows, which are orchestra pit rows, and I would probably go for the second row in future. You’re basically IN the stage, by which I mean my nose was in touching distance of the edge. At one point, Tamsin Greig’s character is curled up weeping at the front of the stage, and I could have genuinely reached out to give her a comforting pat. Which was actually quite cool. But a bit hard on the neck. You can see the whole stage though, just sort of from the feet up. Better to be too close than at the back though (cf. my row X experience at Wicked).

Jumpy is a new play by April de Angelis and is centred around the relationship between a mother who has just turned 50, and a rebellious teenage daughter. In some ways, it’s a fairly standard storyline, not especially original, but it is written very engagingly and will resonate with essentially anyone who has a woman in their family (so... all humans then).

The plot manages to pack stuff in and there’s some pretty dramatic stuff in there, including teenage pregnancies, running away, affairs, marital issues, gunshots and cradle-snatching. Very much the drama of everyday life. Tamsin Greig is brilliantly suited for this role, and it’s made for her particular strengths of portraying gritty emotion and combining strength and vulnerability in a very relatable character. She’s just such a classy actress and you know you’re always guaranteed a quality performance when you see her. The chemistry with her on-stage daughter (expertly and spiritedly played by Bel Powley) was also sparky and believable. The daughter’s teenage friend was also really excellently played by Seline Hizli who gave a very touching and funny performance of a daffy but loving teenage mother.

Another big plus for this producation was Doon Mackichan (yes! Off of Smack the Pony and Celebrity Fame Academy!) She plays the best friend and is a right old hoot. She has a belly-laugh-inducing striptease routine which had me in stitches throughout and for about 10 minutes after it was over. Needless to say her character is treating the old 5-0 with an altogether different approach to her married friend, and her attempts to win round the chaps are hilarious.

The thing I noticed about this play was that every single actor was really excellent and it was such a standout group performance, which I have hardly ever seen in a play and certainly none since I’ve been in London. It was such a relief to be able to relax into the play and just let everyone’s marvellousness wash over me. That was what made the play such a great experience I think, having the confidence just to get right into it and not be conscious of some rubbish person in the background the whole time.

I massively recommend and at £10 for day seats I will definitely be back before the run ends on 3^rd November.

Brixpig x