Festival season ended, what, a month ago, but like the partygoer who just ain’t ready to go home, the Old Red Lion valiantly dances on with the ‘Off Cut Festival’. Its a season of 24 original short plays (15 minutes each), chosen by and performed to an audience who then whittle them down to eight finalists, with the winner to be chosen by a panel that includes playwright Moira Buffini and TV and theatre director Nigel Douglas.
Other new writing worth flagging up is the Theatre Centre’s touring production of ‘Rigged’ for ages 14 and above which plays at the Unicorn Theatre between Tuesday 13 and Saturday 17. Written by former Stratford East literary manager Ashmeed Sohoye, it ploughs the same fertile dramatic soil as Tanika Gupta’s ‘White Boy’, examining the state of Britain’s white working (under)class through the story of a young man about to become a teenage father.
'The Great Extension' at Stratford East
Playwright Cosh Omar also knows a thing or two about angry young men. His 2004 debut ‘The Battle of Green Lanes’ chronicled the lives of young British men who turn to Islamic fundamentalism. His follow-up, ‘The Great Extension’ (which opens at Stratford East on Friday 9) promises to be a lighter but no less politically relevant affair. Described as an ‘outrageous farce’, it tells the story of a spoiled, second-generation Turkish man and his dandy houseboy, wrangling with racism, sectarianism and a neighbour opposed to their bachelor pad building extension.
There’s also a couple of potentially interesting revivals over at the White Bear. TheatreTroupe’s new version of ‘Macbeth’ plays until Sunday 11. Inspired by Erich Von Stroheim’s 1924 lost silent film classic ‘Greed’, it features mask work and macabre life-sized puppets, and will be followed by a revival of Howard Brenton’s 1984 faction drama ‘Bloody Poetry’ which examines the friendship between Romantic poets Shelley and Byron. And just down the road in Camberwell, the Blue Elephant continues its tenth anniversary celebrations with a new production of ‘Julius Caesar’ set in Berlusconi’s Italy.
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One to Watch! 'High Life' by Lizzy Dijeh (recently nominated for the prestigious Alfred Fagan Award) at Hampstead Theatre Until 17th October. An explosive domestic drama set within East London’s Nigerian community.Two families bound together by grief. One devastating secret set to tear them apart. When the families reunite after a tragedy, their union exposes a wealth of secret motives, jealousy, insecurities and some very different reflections on a young girl’s short life. A mother’s loss turns into obsession, a father’s ambition turns into contradiction and a child’s innocence is forever lost.
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