Review – Hangmen, Royal Court

Phil had an uncle whose job as a prison governor meant he was called on to witness some of the last hangings in this country. He also kept the autobiography of Britain’s most ‘celebrated’ hangman, Albert Pierrepoint, on his bookcase and Phil is led to believe, visited the pub that Pierrepoint ran after retiring from execution.

As a child, Phil looked on most of this with a mix of macabre fascination and horror, which was much the same reaction that he had to the first scene in Martin McDonagh‘s, Hangmen.

Review – The Twits, Royal Court Theatre

The Royal Court showed great goodwill to us all by not offering up The Twits as their Christmas show. Indeed – and rather bizarrely – this partially seasonal entertainment started previews the day after Easter Monday.

And, yada, yada yada, it was the first preview that Phil indeed attended and of course he is perhaps a little mature (in the elderly sense) for the audience it is aimed at. So, he will bear these matters in mind. But only a tad.

For this is Roald Dahl “mischievously adapted” by Enda Walsh and what a strange and untimely beast it is.

Review – The Nether, Duke of York’s Theatre

There are some terrible things out there on the internet. Well, you’ve come to this site so you presumably already knew that.

American playwright Jennifer Haley‘s The Nether is dystopian, but we will not hold that against her, as it is also a disturbing thriller with a grim warning about the technological future.  Set between two worlds, a dreary room where suspected paedophiles are being interviewed and The Hideaway, a murky virtual realm where visitors can interact with and touch, hurt, rape and repeatedly murder children with an axe. So no tap dancing then.

Review – The Low Road, Royal Court

The Whingers have been on something a journey with Bruce Norris plays at the Royal Court.

The Pain and the Itch and The Low Road top and tail Dominic Cooke‘s tenure at the Court. The former saw a rare Whingers’ schism, the latter an even bigger one as Andrew turned down the opportunity to attend.

The ‘taste the difference’ jam sandwiched between those aforesaid works was Norris’ hilarious Clybourne Park which saw us unanimous in fulsome admiration; Andrew was so enthralled he returned for a second viewing. High praise indeed.

Despite Phil dangling two of Andrew’s 5-a-day; the twin carrots of Norris’ 100% hit rate with Andrew and the WEW-endorsed Simon Paisley Day‘s inclusion in the cast he was having none of it. If only Phil had kept quiet schtum about the original advertised running time of 3 hours 20 minutes (now clipped to a mere 3 hours).

So, this piece is Norris’ ‘fable of free market economics and cut-throat capitalism’ performed as a swashbuckling pageant, mainly in 18th century New England, by way of prostitution, slavery, highway robberies and bees.

Review – Constellations, Duke of York’s Theatre

We caught this before its Evening Standard Best Play Award had had time to gather any dust and it was a treat to see the Duke of York’s full.

The latest transfer from the Royal Court Theatre, Nick Payne‘s Constellations is a romance between a beekeeper Roland (Rafe Spall) and a quantum physicist Marianne (Sally Hawkins).

It takes string theory (the existence of several extra dimensions to the universe that have been compactified into extremely small scales, in addition to the four known spacetime dimensions -gettit?) to imply that there are almost identical versions of us out there somewhere in the multiverse, living subtly nuanced variations of our lives in endless permutations. Think Sliding Doors to infinity and beyond.

Review – Clybourne Park, Royal Court Theatre

Why on earth would anyone want to go to see Clybourne Park, the latest offering at the Royal Court? These are the only reasons we could think of off the tops of our heads.

Review – Disconnect, Royal Court Theatre

The Whingers were feeling a little disconnected themselves on Tuesday evening having spent the day fielding queries left, right and centre as the Paint Never Dries media scrum centred rather discombobulatingly around them. Well, it was actually centred around Love Never Dies, but it’s as close as the Whingers are ever likely to get to being at the centre of a media scrum. Looking it up in Wikipedia it seems that the Whingers were probably the number eights in the media scrum and interestingly the players in this position tend to have the physical strength of a tight forward along with the mobility and pace of loose forwards. Really, what else is there to be said on the matter?

Review, Off the Endz, Royal Court Theatre

Blame that notorious award-hogging Jerusalem-jiving Jez Butterworth. Blame Mike Bartlett and his impressive Cock.

These two playwrights made such a lasting impression on the Whingerz last year that they’ve booked for a slew of playz at the newly appointed official powerhouse of interestingness, the Royal Court. And yes, since you asked, we intend to get very cheap gagz from milking Mike Bartlett’s Cock for years to come.

So, anyway, could Bola Agbaje’s Off the Endz make it a hat-trick for the Court?