Two two-handers, one immersive show, two biopics – this August London stages seem to be full of rhymes. We’ve picked the most engaging theatrical evenings so you can mark the end of summer in style. Trust us, they’re worth it!
Wyndham’s Theatre
Charing Cross Rd, London WC2H 0DA
When William Shakespeare was starting his career as a playwright, Christopher Marlowe was already a brilliant star of the London stage. It’s not known for certain whether the two masters ever met – there’s no mention of it in diaries or any other documents – but they moved in the same, fairly small circle.
Here Liz Duffy Adams writes, and director Daniel Evans stages, the story of their meetings. Entirely fictional – imagined, dreamed – but we see a dangerous, magnetic, free-spirited Christopher Marlowe and a young, cautious William Shakespeare, who is no less witty and brilliant than Marlowe.
A dense, viscous game of cat and mouse unfolds in the back room of a grimy inn – and if rumours are to be believed, that tavern still exists at the corner of Deptford High Street and Deptford Creek, the same murky stream where Marlowe later met his death, and where the hero of Dickens’ last novel also meets his end.
Why “born with teeth”? For an Elizabethan audience, this was a symbol not just of a leader, but of someone ready for violence.
Christopher Marlowe here is played by Ncuti Gatwa, the Scottish actor (Sex Education and the Fifteenth Doctor in Doctor Who). His Marlowe is charismatic, cheeky, dangerous – nothing like the romanticised Marlowe of Shakespeare in Love(there played by LL).
British actor Edward Bluemel (Killing Eve, A Discovery of Witches) plays Shakespeare – cautious, quick, lizard-like, but always ready to bite back.
Deptford Storehouse
King Street, Grove St, London SE8 3AA
Yes, Deptford again – forgive me – but this time not on stage, but in real life. The huge underground space will amaze you – if not with its plot twists, then certainly with its atmosphere. Yes, it’s an immersive theatre. Once inside, the audience becomes a participant.
Over forty years ago, at the dawn of the internet, a group of four enthusiasts decided to preserve every trace of every user online – in physical form. Imagine it! Do you remember what you wrote in the early days of social media, in some long-forgotten LiveJournal? These folks wanted to preserve every youthful ellipsis. Of course, they failed. And of course, as a trustee, you must find out why.
9,000 square metres of twilight space: galleries, corridors, voices and shadows (you’ll hear Toby Jones, Meera Syal, Kathryn Hunter, Billy Howle). You probably won’t leave with one clear answer – but you’ll certainly leave with an impression.
What’s it about? Data manipulation, memory games, propaganda, disinformation and deceit, double play, control, and total disorientation in endless waves of information. It’s definitely not boring – and very much in tune with our times.
London Palladium
8 Argyll St, London W1F 7TF
Rachel Zegler sings on the West End for the first time – and straight into the lead role, no less – Eva Perón in the great Webber–Rice musical Evita.
This was the third musical from the duo after Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar. It was based on Mary Main’s biography The Woman with the Whip, recorded first as a concept album, and only after the album’s success did director Harold Prince stage Evita at London’s Prince Edward Theatre in 1978.
Jamie Lloyd closes the circle – he first tackled the musical in 2019 at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, but this new iteration is brighter, bolder, and far more directorial in approach.
Every evening, Zegler can be seen on the theatre’s balcony – passers-by happily applaud as, on Lloyd’s instruction, she sings the famous “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” to the entire Argyll Street (audiences inside watch the scene live-streamed onto a screen).
Jamie Lloyd means sold-out houses, stars, utterly reckless (if not downright audacious) directorial tricks, and either universal love or some degree of grumbling. Here, the audience complains that, with such ticket prices, they weren’t allowed to see the key aria live, while it’s shown for free to the street – but that’s precisely Lloyd’s sly point: to charm the “ordinary” people, to bring them under the sway of this unstoppable charisma.
It’s remarkable how Zegler, who voiced Snow White in the upcoming Disney film, transforms so completely here you can hardly recognise her – a small, steel-willed figure with an unbreakable will and a radiant smile; an incredible piece of acting work and a break from her previous image.
The singing is excellent, the movement outstanding. Zegler’s duet with James Olivas, who plays Perón, is charged with an almost electric pull – the air between them practically thickens. Sometimes it’s hard to make out the Argentine tragedy behind it all – this Evita feels like a show for those who already know the story. But who says that’s a bad thing?
Southwark Playhouse Borough
77–85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD
Lotte Reiniger is a key figure in world animation – on a par with Starevich and Disney. She worked with Brecht, Kurt Weill, Renoir, Fritz Lang, and Pabst. The incredible fate of a girl who, at six years old, was captivated by paper silhouette puppets and shadows – that is the subject of The Animator.
Her first film was called The Ornament of the Lovestruck Heart – and truly, that could also be the title of her life story. Leaving Germany as fascism rose, wandering the world, and working, working, working in the very style that had once captured her heart.
Remarkably, Reiniger’s silhouette films still look incredibly modern today.
Director Rosanna Mallinson’s show is a biopic in which Lotte is played by Lexie Baker, an actress equally at home in drama, singing, and dance.
The show (a winner at the Oslo Fringe) blends dance, acrobatics, cabaret, and of course, shadows and all the possibilities of shadow theatre – Reiniger’s greatest inspiration. In this multi-layered piece, the actors create a world of shadow and light, and speak of one very important thing: throughout the difficult war years, as a German forced to flee her homeland and wander the world with her husband, Lotte never stopped working. The Animator is a story of how art helps you survive – a kind of manifesto and a small straw of hope.
Riverside Studios
101 Queen Caroline St, London W6 9BN
A stage adaptation of the film of the same name. The original 2003 version was directed by Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh (starring Katja Schuurman and Pierre Bokma). Four years later, Steve Buscemi made a remake – he also starred, alongside Sienna Miller.
An eminent political journalist named Pierre is assigned to interview a young star named Katya. Neither is exactly thrilled: the seasoned journalist looks down on the young celebrity, while Katya is in no mood for the arrogant type and his silly questions.
Katya is smart, beautiful, and young – but she’s completely tangled up in her own desires, in her audience’s expectations, and unsure what to do. Then along comes an older, wiser man… Will he give her advice? Help her?
Unexpectedly, the interview turns into a tense emotional game – a full display of the Karpman drama triangle. They circle each other, moving through the familiar roles of victim, rescuer, aggressor – and it’s up to the audience to decide who’s who.
In this new production by director Teunkie Van Der Sluijs, Pierre is played by Robert Sean Leonard and Katya by Paten Hughes – perfect casting.
American actor Robert Sean Leonard became internationally famous for his role as Neil Perry in Dead Poets Society(1989) alongside Robin Williams. Even greater popularity came from his role as Dr. Wilson, the loyal friend of Dr. House in the hit TV series. But Leonard’s greatest passion is theatre – he has been nominated for the Tony Award several times and won for his portrayal of poet A.E. Housman in The Invention of Love.
Hughes is an American actress, one of the first members of the Old Vic New Voices Network, who has performed Chekhov and Miller, but became widely known for the web series Heirloom, in which her character unexpectedly inherits a small plot of land and starts growing vegetables. The show has over five million views. Now, the two actors meet on a London stage.
