These two events are a bit of a contrast but both worth knowing about:
The annual Barn Dance at St James Church is on this Saturday from 6-9.30pm. It’s great fun and the tickets are only £5 for an adult, £2.50 for a child and a family ticket for four is £12. Plus you get a hot dog and popcorn thrown in with the ticket. The music comes from The West London Folk Band. Tickets available from either St James’ Church on 020 8840 2586 or St John’s 020 8566 3507.
4.48 Psychosis is on at Questors until Saturday. I saw it on Tuesday and was very impressed with how this play was staged. Here’s the information I wrote about the play for a previous post plus a brief review:
‘The Sunday Times has picked out the Sarah Kane season at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre as one of its ‘ hottest picks’ for 2015. However, you don’t need to go to Sheffield to experience Sarah Kane’s talent and reflect on the loss to the theatre of her suicide at just 28. Ealing’s Questors Theatre has Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis on later this month. It describes the play as follows:
A rhythm of raw beauty – vivid and imaginative theatre
and there is my body
dancing on glass”
With its powerful use of the most beautiful and poetic language we are drawn into the pained world of Kane herself at one moment in time: 4.48am. Sarah Kane’s masterpiece is theatre as a text for performance rather than a play. It is about love and about survival and about hope.
Several weeks after completing the play, at the age of 28, Sarah Kane committed suicide leaving this her masterwork – an affirmation to live rather than a suicide note.
This production will be an unforgettable experience – an evening of vivid visual theatre, raw and beautiful.’
Suitable for ages 16+
Contains disturbing adult themes and smoke
Details of tickets etc here
Review
‘I saw this play last night and was very impressed with what is an extremely difficult play to stage. There are no named characters, no specific voices given to any character and no indication of how many performers or of any gender. Having said that I thought Questors put on a powerful and inspiring performance. An abiding memory of the play is the stark staging and dissonant music which caught the fractured mood of the mind of what I take to be the central character. It’s interesting that the music changed to something much more melodic right at the very end.
For me, the play gave great insight in to the mind of someone with serious depression and the mood swings, the darkness, anger and humour that flickers like a faulty light. Questors staged Sarah Kane’s play with an all female cast with some strong performances and is well worth seeing.’