
Stuart King


Review: UNDER THE BLACK ROCK at Arcola
By Stuart King Tuesday, March 7 2023, 10:02
A giant, ominous black rock is suspended by ropes above the playing area in the staging of a new and hard-hitting drama about The Troubles by Tim Edge. Twenty-Five years after the Good Friday Agreement finally brought to an end the decades of bloodshed in Northern Ireland, UNDER THE BLACK ROCK serves as a timely reminder of what’s at stake.
Under the Black Rock. Photo credit Gregory Haney.


Review: OKLAHOMA! at Wyndhams Theatre
By Stuart King Wednesday, March 1 2023, 10:04
On a brightly lit, pine wood stage which extends to the facia panels on the walls and boxes around the Wyndham’s auditorium, (effectively rendering them like cheap Western coffin lids) the banjo, guitar and string-strumming band members remain in full sight of the audience from the get go in this production of spectacular extremes. It’s certainly Oklahoma! as you’ve never seen it before, or indeed heard it…or once loved it.
Greg Hicks (Andrew Carnes), Philip Olagoke (Cord Elam) and Georgina Onuorah (Ado Annie) in Oklahoma! Photo by Marc Brenner.


Review: RUSALKA at Royal Opera House
By Stuart King Saturday, February 25 2023, 13:28
A new production of RUSALKA — Antonin Dvorak’s 1901 lyric fairy tale with libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil — opened at Covent Garden this week, and it is most definitely one for the eco-age. Created, directed and largely choreographed by the combined talents of Natalie Abrahami and Ann Yee the tale mixes Czech mysticism with the familiar folkloric story of a disenchanted water nymph who longs for her Prince (variously Ondine, Mélisande and The Little Mermaid elsewhere) and gives-up her voice to assume human form.
Rusalka at the Royal Opera House - Photo Camilla Greenwell.


Review: WOMEN, BEWARE THE DEVIL at Almeida
By Stuart King Saturday, February 25 2023, 13:17
The Almeida’s stage is currently redolent of a Vermeer painting — adorned with wood panels, black and white chequered flooring and flickering candles. We’re at the royalist-leaning home of the De Clare family which is populated with lords, ladies, a witchfinder, sundry maids (in varying degrees of maidenhood) and The Devil himself. Well, what ancient stately pile doesn’t have its charming complications and quintessential quirks?
Women, Beware the Devil - Almeida Theatre


Review: THE BEACH HOUSE at Park Theatre
By Stuart King Tuesday, February 21 2023, 11:03
Jo Harper's gentle three-hander The Beach House had its world premiere at Park Theatre this Monday. A pregnant woman and her new girlfriend decide to imbue some calm and stability to their situation by moving nearer the sea and buying a charming but run down home a stone's throw from the beach where they plan to bring-up the child together. The leaking roof and issues with the floor act as metaphor for the fundamental faults which underpin and undermine their burgeoning relationship.
The Beach House at the Park Theatre
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