Johannes Radebe: Freedom Unleashed – The Peacock Theatre, London – Saturday 8th April 2023 & Brighton Theatre Royal – Saturday 29th April 2023

(Rated “It’s Still a Ten from Pen”) This Restricted Review is being compiled over a year after the event! My emotions in April 2023 were so taken over by my meet & greet with the man himself, which felt too personal really to be ‘hiding behind’ the mask of my alter ego The Restricted Reviewer. But for completion’s sake, I am borrowing from my otherwise noted down reactions at the time and sharing them here.

Peacock Theatre: Mine & My Jojo-Bestie's Easter Saturday Treat: Johannes Radebe's 'Freedom Unleashed' Bestie said the best £55 she's ever spent I might put it a different way involving fun and clothes :) 'Freedom' was extremely brilliant. This was off the scale Fab-u-lous, Darhlings Act1 as in his first show, Jojo dancing to his own South African tunes. Act2 - very Strictly dance inspired and with much gratitude to said TV show and including references to many of the roles he's been given to play - including a Casualty nurse asking Doctor Ellie Taylor how to revive a mannequin and Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert. My absolute favourite parts an ABBA medley with Jojo as Donna from 'Mamma Mia' and another 'Lion King' medley with Jojo as a very golden Simba :)<3

Brighton Theatre Royal: Johannes Radabe's 'Freedom Unleashed' was even better in Brighton (Saturday 29th April) Well according to Jojo it sold out first in Brighton. And anyone who knows anything about Brighton will know it would suit Jojo very well. I was crying during the whole of the first act all related to Jojo's South African heritage. So full of celebration and joy and I'm increasingly falling more in love with Afrobeats and dancing style. Full of messages around being strong with kindness and freedom! And shine as yourself! And goodness has Jojo lived that Then there's his Love, Acceptance and Unity section with songs to match including 'Imagine' and of course Being Gay & Proud The Strictly-inspired showtime section with 'We Go Together' from 'Grease' and a soupson of Jojo singing 'But now, there's nowhere to hide since you pushed my love aside...' and his Pink Ladies, going into ABBA's 'Gimme, Gimme, Gimme' and 'Voulez-Vous' and Jojo as Donna then into 'He Lives in You...' from 'The Lion King' and golden Jojo Simba :) The whole show inspires such utterly joyful campness and living your best life Pure Fun :) :) P.S. Jojo's playlist courtesy of another Jojo fan

Johannes Radebe: Freedom Unleashed – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2023

The Divine Mrs S – Hampstead Theatre – Saturday 20th April 2024

(Rated 4/5)

This could well be the longest after the event that I am writing a review of a theatrical production which I have enjoyed. Though she may be divine, poor Mrs S got a little lost amongst appearances of the equally divine Mr R, and this restricted reviewer going beyond her restrictions to travel around the country to see said Mr R in his ‘House of Jojo’ with different theatre-going companions each time! However, I simply cannot allow more time to pass, before I write about Rachael Stirling as the titular Sarah Siddons, for fear of forgetting to note down what I’d like to say about her!

I was mesmerised by Rachael Stirling in ‘Boy Meets Girl’, in which hers and Martin Freeman’s character swap bodies following being struck by lightening. I have to admit, I’ve kind of forgotten Martin’s performance, but was so impressed by Rachael literally embodying a man, that she stuck fast in my brain, and I wanted to see whatever she was in! Yes, of course, her natural voice lends itself to us believing she may be a different gender, but her movements and manner as the male character blew me away. Since then, I’ve seen her in a few screen pieces – an episode of ‘Doctor Who’ with her mother Diana Rigg, ‘The Detectorists’ also with her character’s mother played by her mother, Diana Rigg and an episode of ‘Agatha Christie’s Poirot’ (nope, Diana Rigg not in that one!) with David Suchet as Poirot, though a little disappointingly no scenes with him. She particularly moved me in the ‘Poirot: Five Little Pigs’ episode. She has such an incredible presence, and of course, when I heard about her playing ‘the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century’ on stage, I wanted to be in the front row to see her. There is something so special about being so up close and personal to an actor performing – to be able to see every little movement of their body, every subtle change in expression on their face and hear every nuance in intonation of their voice. Yep, you have to pay more, of course, but I almost feel why bother going if you can’t witness the subtleties in those qualities. And, though the play by April De Angelis did somewhat, Rachael herself did not remotely disappoint. The play was written as a farce, which I guess is appropriate and of the time, but somehow felt incongruent with a piece exploring the backstage world of a tragedienne. Then again maybe that contrast was deliberate. For me, all the other characters felt two-dimensional next to Rachael’s three-dimensional Sarah. I imagine for the portrayal of her brother, John Philip Kemble by Dominic Rowan, that may have been deliberate – my favourite scene is when Sarah attempts to help John tap into his own emotional experience for his acting – she was clearly using Method Acting before Stanislavski came along with it in the next century – whilst her brother was using the over-exaggerated gesturing and voicing more typical of the style of acting at that time. But, aside from Anushka Chakravarti’s assistant/maid for Mrs S, Patti, for me the performances of all the other characters lacked depth too. Then again, maybe tricky to do anything more when playing multiple characters as Eva Feiler, Sadie Shimmin and Gareth Snook all did – differences detectable by costume, but not much else unfortunately I felt. With all that, it meant Rachael’s Sarah really did stand out, and of course she absolutely was the main focus – Sarah Siddons the first celebrity actress; Mrs Siddons fashioned celebrity in all the multiple meanings of that word. In this version of Mrs S’s story, we see the potential psychological consequences of Sarah using her unhealed life traumas to access emotional depth. Again, with the farcical nature of the play, we lose the impact of that dramatically a little. It did, though, have me thinking of the contrast in approach between Marilyn Monroe (very much Method) and Lawrence Olivier and how the latter suggested to another Method actor Dustin Hoffman, ‘Why don’t you try acting, dear boy?’ As another Method actor once told me, ‘I don’t understand how you do it any other way, than from experience.’ But, clearly, many actors do, and with great results 😊 So, in fact, there does not have to be Method in their Madness.

In this production, we, as the real audience, see everything pretty much from the backstage dressing room of Mrs. S. We do see her, and fellow actors, perform as though to the audience in the plays within this play from the back of the stage, with either their backs to us, or from the side. We see Sarah in various roles, snippets of her performances of those characters and their impact on her and vice versa. We also get a good overview of the nature of theatre and the environment stage folk were working and living in at that time. It feels like a little taster, and left me wanting to know a great deal more about Sarah Siddons. Thankfully, that will be possible thanks to a biography by Jo Willett.

As the play ends, we, the real audience, merge with the fictional one, as Rachael Striling as Sarah Siddons plays Lady Macbeth! She gives us her most famous role.

Billed as a comedy, this play and production, were not laugh-out-loud funny; just maybe at points making me chuckle slightly, but seeing Rachael Stirling on stage is indeed divine! TheDivineMrsS – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2024

Hamnet – Garrick Theatre – Saturday 17th February 2024

(Rated Novel 5/5, Play 4/5) William Shakespeare had a Wife, Who caused him no Strife, By name of Agnes Hathaway, She cheered him on the right Way, To lead us to Emote, From the Plays what he Wrote! Whoops, ok, I will leave that there and refer you to the master playwright William Shakespeare for far superior witty. profound and moving rhyming – or not – Elizabethan verse and prose. However, in ‘Hamnet’ the play/novel, Will Shakespeare plays a supporting (or not, depending on how you view the story 😉) role to Agnes Hathaway, who is in fact the key character in Maggie O’Farrell’s book, and the play adaptation by Lolita Chakrabarti.

The Agnes created by O’Farrell was a herbalist and healer with ‘uncommon powers’, maybe psychic and possibly enabling her to communicate with the spirts. In the book, we are introduced from the outset to her son, the titular character Hamnet, and the story jumps around in time as we follow Agnes’ highly moving story of love with Will, the joy of children, the pain of separation from her husband while he lives in London to make his name as Queen Elizabeth I’s most famous playwright, and devastating impact of ‘the pestilence’ on her family. O’Farrell says ‘Hamnet’ is a work of imagination and that her 'idle speculation' on Shakespeare's son and the reason for his death led to this highly emotive extraordinary exploration into the possible characters/personalities of Hamnet's mother Agnes, twin sister Judith, older sister Susanna and maybe most notably his never named father! It has a lovely stream of consciousness element and wondrous exploration of love, relationships, death and grief. Above all if there is even the remotest 'factual truth' to it William Shakespeare would never have found himself without Anne Hathaway and the influence of her way of being as drawn in this book can be seen throughout all his plays. Add to that the power of the loss of their golden-haired boy and how William may have written Hamlet as a way of processing that loss... and therein lies the playwright's genius through life experience.

I loved the book, and this play not so much. For me the latter suffers a little from having to be told in chronological order, though twins Hamnet (Ajami Cabey) and Judith (Alex Jarrett) do appear on stage in the loft as though communicating to their mother Agnes (Madeleine Mantock) even before she has met their father William (Tom Varey). I think my other difficulty with it was simply we were sitting so far back, it was hard sometimes to even tell who was which character, let alone be able to explore the beauty of their facial emotional expressions. We do, however, get a strong sense of the nature of life in Stratford, and later London, at that time, and the recreation of Agnes’ affinity with nature and how she loves to be at one with it, is remarkably clear. Will is immediately struck by Agnes when he sees her flying her hawk. She is beautifully wild and free, both grounded, yet other-worldly, and of course then he falls for her. It doesn’t take them long at all to conceive their first child Susanna (Phoebe Campbell). Having put a baby in her belly. Will has little choice but to marry Agnes. For me, the play somehow gives the impression that Will was trapped into this marriage, and then held back from seeking fame and fortune by Agnes and their children. I got a totally different sense from the book, where Agnes very much encourages Will to go to London, knowing he can make more of himself than as a Latin Teacher. Meanwhile Agnes very much held everything together at home. One of the devices I loved in the play was as Agnes was in labour with them, each of the actors playing her children, gradually walked over to her and gifted her a ‘baby’ carried in their arms. As always, act 1 was the set-up, and act2 explored at far greater depth the connection between Will’s family experiences and aspects he put in his plays. Ophelia gifting herbs before she commits suicide and the witches could all have been inspired by his ‘medicine woman wife’, and twins appear in many of his plays. Again, for me though, showing that on stage, rather than expressing it in the character’s thought processes in a book, somehow take us away from Agnes and more into Will’s mind. Until, that it, the denouement. Following Hamnet’s death, Agnes travels to London and witnesses a production of ‘Hamlet’. It gave me, and clearly her too, goosebumps seeing Ajami Cabey (Hamnet) playing Hamlet “Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt…”

As far as I could see the RSC ensemble gave great performances, and it was a very good production. I think I personally am always greedy to be able to fully experience performers in all their close-up glory!

Unfortunately, as I write, this production of ‘Hamnet’ has finished, but there will always be productions of Agnes’ husband’s plays for all time, and now we have Maggie O’Farrell’s book bringing Agnes and her beloved son Hamnet to life for all time too. Hamnet – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2024

Backstairs Billy – The Duke of York’s Theatre – Saturday 13th January 2024

(Rated 3/5) Written by Marcelo Dos Santos, ‘Backstairs Billy’ is the story of the relationship between Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (Mum of Queen Elizabeth II in case anyone is not aware of who she was), and her manservant, William ‘Billy’ Tallon. I imagine it is inspired by the facts, as much as it might be possible for the author to know them from public records, and from those who knew Billy. It is entirely set in Clarence House, in 1979 and 1951, the latter being when Billy first met the Queen Mother (QM) at the age of 15 years old. He had written to the then consort Queen Elizabeth and her husband King George VI, asking whether he could be of service to them. He would remain working as an ever increasingly closer companion to QM, until her death in 2002 at the age of 101. Billy survived her by only 5 years, dying in 2007, when he was 72.

OK, so why this one, you may ask… or even if you don’t, I’m going to tell you 😉 As many others did, I felt a great fondness for QM, and in the past have really enjoyed stories of Queens and their servants – ‘Mrs Brown’ and ‘Victoria and Abdul’, with Judi Dench as Mrs. Brown aka Queen Victoria to Billy Connolly’s John Brown in the former and again Judi with Ali Fazal as Abdul Karim in the latter. AND, as with Dame Judi too, I have a great love of Dame Penelope Wilton, yet never seen her on stage. Dame Penny W, (to distinguish her from Dame Penny Keith 😉), has appeared in numerous stage and screen roles – my personal favourite being as Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North and then Prime Minister in ‘Doctor Who’. Remember, ‘We know who you are’ lol.

The play is much more about its titular character than the QM. He is played by Luke Evans. We witness how the innocence of young Billy (Ilan Galkoff) being taught to dance by QM transforms to the power and control older Billy came to have over proceedings at the QM’s engagements, particularly when she received visitors to the Garden Room in Clarence House. We see the clash that develops between Billy’s personal gay lifestyle and the etiquette of functions hosted by QM. It is a gentle, light-hearted romp in the most part… until it isn’t, and Billy gets too big for his boots and receives a pretty shocking put-down from QM! Very rapidly after that the play finishes, which feels a little odd. As an audience member, I felt too much in shock to fully appreciate the joy of a mostly beautiful relationship between them.

Pre-show the gay anthems of 1979 play loud and proud in the auditorium of The Duke of York’s Theatre, getting us in the mood 😉 Though, I did naively comment ‘This doesn’t sound appropriate for the Queen Mother’! So, this is one, I’m glad to have seen, but wouldn’t recommend as such. Penny W was very good as a Penelope Wilton version of QM, but didn’t convince me as QM in my own imagination. Tom Rand created her outfits, and they were very QM as we saw her in public. Luke Evans is fine as Billy – though I don’t know how Billy was! – and did some good impressions of now King Charles and Princess Margaret. But, something was missing for me in them together – though I obviously can’t say how them together were!! There was some lovely dancing, some amusing farcical happenings, oh, and… some real live Corgis, but not enough of the latter for what I anticipated!!!

‘Dear, oh dear’, as The King might say about this play featuring his Granny 😉 BackstairsBilly – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2024

The Time Traveler’s Wife Musical – The Apollo Theatre – Saturday 23rd December 2023

(Rated 5/5 Musical, 7/5 Book, 5/5 TV, 3/5 Film)

Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Traveller's Wife' is in my top 5 favourite books (alongside George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’, The Works of William Shakespeare, Michael Cunningham’s ‘The Hours’ and (maybe?) Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’). I so love the story I've now experienced it in 4 different media, and they are all associated with special memories. I first read the book on a weekend Mum- and Fred(dog)-sitting. Sadly, Mum was on a major low, but looking after her was always special to me. I sat on the sofa, with Fred lying across my left hip, and read to the end, never wanting it to finish Later, Mum would enjoy the same copy of the book, pictured in accompanying photos. I saw the film for my birthday in 2009 with friends. None of us were very impressed, but still a beautiful memory. I watched the TV series on my own sitting in Mum's chair, and absolutely loved it - written by genius TV scribe, Stephen Moffat and with one of my newer favourite actors, Rose Leslie, as Clare - I love her beautiful, sensitive, expressive face, and Moffat adapted it very cleverly, embracing the skill of apparently chaotically jumping around in time, yet in a very structured way, in Audrey Niffenegger’s book.

And now I've seen the stage musical and made more special memories with my sister-from-another-mister (she knows who she is 😉) .Such a fabulous day and experience. We both felt Act2 was better than Act1 – mind you that is usually the case as first acts usually suffer from having to set things up and so maybe come across as slower and less dramatic. We found Joanna Woodward as Clare initially a little too ‘shouty’, but I think in time, (pun actually unintended), forgave her and she did sing and perform very well indeed. David Hunter was a great Henry, and we especially enjoyed the dance/movement section in Act2, exhibiting his time-travel. My theatre companion really liked Tim Mahendran as Gomez, and whomever we had as Young Clare/Alba (Ava Critchell/Poppy Pawson/Lily Hanna/Holly-Jade Roberts) was adorable. The idea to create a musical of the book came from Producer Colin Ingram’s Wife 😊 (how appropriate!). The book was adapted by Lauren Gunderson, who wrote about how efficient a musical has to be, compared with an original book, which allows the development of concept, characters and their relationships to grow gradually, intricately and – in this case – so artistically creatively over time, yet with all sorts of time shifts too. The musical had to come right in there with the first song telling us the nature of the big issue in Clare & Henry’s lives together, whilst in the book, the structure and skill of the placement of their meetings at different ages and times, so providing different challenges to them both at each meeting, is part of the extraordinary genius of Audrey Niffenegger’s composition. An additional draw for me (as if it being one of my favourite stories wasn’t enough) was that the music and songs were created by Eurythmics Dave Stewart and Joss Stone. I’ve said before that I love the way a song in a musical is able to encompass the essence, story and motivation of the particular character singing it. Clearly, there are other songs, and some duets, some ensembles, which provide other aspects of the whole production. The staging was magical and, for me, the whole show moved me to tears.

So, I'm still thinking about my 'leader board, but The Book definitely top, the film definitely bottom, and, in the words of Claudia Winkleman 'everybody else in between' TheTimeTraveler’sWife – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2023

The Enfield Haunting – Theatre Royal, Brighton – Saturday 18th November 2023

(Rated 2.5/5) So, the draws for this one was myself and my partner actually directly knowing one of the investigators – Guy Lyon Playfair from the Society for Psychical Research -of the real-life case of poltergeist-related events experienced by an ordinary, working-class family – the Hodgsons – living in a council house in Enfield… and, for me, Catherine Tate 😉

Having read a few reviews – including one by another SPR member – I wasn’t expecting to be wowed, but I was also thinking – well, for drama, things will get exaggerated or added, so, yes, it’s going to be disappointing for anyone wanting to see ‘the truth’ of what happened or be educated about the case, but it could still be a ‘good’ piece of dramatic art. However, for me, it was even worse than lacking in truth! As a fan of drama, and having written plays myself, I know you need to up the ante, show and not tell the characters and experiences in all their glory, and create dynamics between them for them to bounce off each other so to speak. Writer Paul Unwin, who spent a good few hours with Guy, being told about the case, played the recordings and shown photographs of the 11-13 year ols daughter – Janet – being involved in many of paranormal occurrences, made some odd choices for his docudrama treatment of this story, which I really would not expect from an award-winning drama writer. There was a huge amount of exposition – often around Guy – who never appeared as a character himself in the play, and yet was painted as somewhat at odds with fellow investigator Maurice Grosse – who appeared in the form of David Threlfall – and the events that had already happened prior to this one night of investigation, which Paul had limited himself to in staging the play. There’s talk about mother Peggy (Catherine Tate)’s abusive husband – all tell and no show – why not bring him in? – well instead a neighbour was brought in as a kind of love-interest, in whom Peggy was not really interested. Maurice was presented as kind of ineffectual, with all sorts of challenges as to why he was there – to which he’d always respond to help the family, and lame chat about how everybody was tired – well so were the audience, shifting around uncomfortably in their seats as though there was more poltergeist-induced drama around them, than on stage. I even felt the actors seemed bored as the ‘plot’ roamed around aimlessly in a very lacklustre fashion. In fact, when the stage finally went dark for the final time, at least one audience member asked ‘Is that it, have they finished?’

Now, it could of course be argued that we saw an early performance, and the actors haven’t really got into the swing of things yet, but I fear they may never do so. The script doesn’t really seem to give enough ‘business’ or mettle for them to get engaged with that and/or each other. Nobody really had a story arc. I did joke before going, that I hope Catherine doesn’t come out with ‘Am I bovvered? Does this face look bovvered though?’ – to the poltergeist – but that might actually have woken us up. When ghostly effects happened, nobody seemed very scared, and there was no real interaction with them. A few good special effects, but too detached from the activity – or non-activity – on stage amongst the supposedly live human beings. The performances were ok, but again, as all good actors will tell you, they are nothing without a good script. One personal aspect of Maurice’s true life story was used – as a connection between him and the case – and to kind of increase the stakes for his character, but so much more could have been done with that to make it effective drama. If you are going to twist the facts to fiction, at least make it worth it. Ella Schrey-Yeats was very good as haunted Janet Hodgson. Everyone else ok with what they were given. I’m not sure what else to say. I’m glad I’ve seen it, as knowing those for whom it was part of their life work, I was curious to do so, but I can only say I’m kind of glad Maurice and Guy are no longer around to be disappointed or upset by it.

The Enfield Haunting – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2023