Reviews by Alex Chapman
The Crucible Returns to Blewbury
Alex Chapman
If you haven’t seen or read The Crucible, I’ll warn you now that it isn’t a particularly happy play. Without spoiling too much, the narrative focuses on the 1692 Salem witch trials and the ...
5 years ago
The Crucible Returns to Blewbury
Ghosts: Henrik Ibsen Adapted by Mike Poulton
Alex Chapman
Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts is advertised on The Mill Arts Centre’s website as ‘the original Scandi-noir’ which feels somewhat disingenuous. Not because I dislike Scandi-noir, but because the two ...
5 years ago
Ghosts: Henrik Ibsen Adapted by Mike Poulton
The Effect
Alex Chapman
If I had to describe Lucy Prebble’s The Effect in a single sentence, I’d likely describe it as an existential crisis distilled into theatrical form. Printed on the front of the program is a quote ...
6 years ago
The Effect
Confessions of a Coconut
Alex Chapman
As theatres go, it’s hard to think of one more tailor-made for a production like Confessions of a Coconut than the Burton Taylor Studio. The cramped, even claustrophobic setting helps a great deal ...
6 years ago
Confessions of a Coconut
Vice [15]
Alex Chapman
I was about halfway through Vice when it dawned on me that unless I was careful, this entire review would devolve into nothing but comparisons between this film and The Big Short. If you went into ...
6 years ago
Vice [15]
Tulip Fever [15]
Alex Chapman
A young woman stands on a beach, her back facing the camera. The sky is grey and the sea appears turbulent. She is completely alone, and dwarfed by the harsh landscape. This is the first shot we see ...
6 years ago
Tulip Fever [15]
Shoplifters [15]
Alex Chapman
Looking through the canon of director Hirokazu Kore-eda, it’s immediately clear that he has a fascination with family. His films Like Father Like Son, Our Sister and After the Storm all examine ...
6 years ago
Shoplifters [15]
Wise Children
Alex Chapman
Whilst every theatre production inevitably demands a vast amount of emotional investment from those involved in its creation, Wise Children nonetheless stands out as a particularly personal play for ...
6 years ago
Wise Children
Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story
Alex Chapman
Initially, Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story tells a depressingly familiar tale of refugees, forced to flee their country, attempting to build a new life in a new land. For playwright Hannah Moscovitch ...
6 years ago
Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story
Collaborators
Alex Chapman
The year is 1938, and life in the Soviet Union is hard for playwright Mikhail Bulgakov (author of The Master and Margarita). Food is scarce, hot water is non-existent, and he is haunted by recurring ...
6 years ago
Collaborators
October Half Term at Cogges
Alex Chapman
Ghost Stories with Bill Spectre, Thu 25th Oct 2018 Like it or not, Halloween is fast approaching, and I for one cannot think of a better way to see in the spookiest time of the year than with some ...
6 years ago
October Half Term at Cogges
Lands
Alex Chapman
What do you get if you combine two characters, one trampoline and a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle? According to Jaz Woodcock-Stewart (the writer of Lands) you get a dysfunctional relationship on the brink ...
6 years ago
Lands
Wolf
Alex Chapman
If I had to summarise the entire attitude underpinning the production of Lewis Doherty’s Wolf, it would probably be ‘go big or go home’. It’s not a phrase you would associate with your ...
6 years ago
Wolf
Trial By Laughter
Alex Chapman
While Trial by Laughter certainly isn’t the first collaborative work between Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, it is perhaps the most personal. Set in December 1817, the play tells the true story of the ...
6 years ago
Trial By Laughter
