ADDING MACHINE (Finborough Theatre)**

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIFH_mlEJ0o

Link with subtitles: https://www.scenesaver.co.uk/production/adding-machine-a-musical-subtitled/

Available until:

Trigger warnings: Racism, Capital punishment, suicide

The Finborough Theatre has put on some brilliant productions over the years and one thing I love about them is that they’re not afraid to take risks.

But one downside of taking risks is that every so often, a risk won’t pay off – and this production didn’t pay off for me. If you look on google, there are numerous publications proclaiming it as a four-star musical and they’re more likely to be right than me. But I’m not going to pretend I liked and understood it when I didn’t.

GROOMED (Soho Theatre on Demand)****

 

By Dave

Link: https://sohotheatreondemand.com/show/Groomed

Link with subtitles: https://sohotheatreondemand.com/show/groomedcaptionedsubtitled £4

Available until: I have no idea but you get 48 hours access

Warning: 18+, descriptions of child sexual abuse and violence

Groomed first appeared as an award-winning play in 2017. Two years later, it was filmed on location in a children’s classroom. It is the film, directed by Nancy Meckler, which Soho Theatre have uploaded to Soho on Demand.

HAPPY MERRY (A Light in Dark Places)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKspi1hvYfw

Available until: Unknown

I think this is a very brave play. The other plays in this series have focused on giving support to people with mental health problems, but in this play, we see a couple of characters with a less than ideal attitude to mental illness. It’s a difficult and painful watch, but I think it’s really important to acknowledge that these attitudes exist and that not everyone is perfect and to look at ways of dealing with people who are less than sympathetic.

THE WINTER’S TALE (Sofa Shakespeare)*****

 

By Tommy

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zaTqbxPvVg

Available until: Unknow

Sofa Shakespeare is an online theatre company which produces fascinating and innovative productions involving anyone who wishes to be involved. Cast members are assigned a short section of the text and are then able to present it in whatever manner they wish. They can speak the lines as they would in a conventional production; they can use props and costumes; they can allow their pets and toys to ‘speak’ the lines – it seems there are no limitations, except, one would imagine, a few rules about common decency.

LIFEBOAT (Coronavirus Theatre Club)***

 

By Aashiq

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUB_1011BUU

Available until: How am I meant to know?

Lifeboat by Laura Riseborough is the first ever play posted by the Coronavirus Theatre Club. We did the first one out of order because there was a link on youtube to that specific play. But then I thought we’d better go back to the beginning or I’m never going to remember what we’ve watched and what we haven’t.

LETTERS – TIM CROUCH & NADIA ALBINA and ALEX AUSTIN & NIGEL BARRETT (Gate Theatre)***

By Louise

Link to book recordings: https://www.gatetheatre.co.uk/letters/?dm_i=444W,X2F6,6D0RS4,43HU5,1  from £1

Link to book live shows on Zoom: https://www.gatetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/letters/

Available until: The last Zoom shows are on 6^th and 7^th October, but the recordings of the shows are available till 31^st October, though not all are available yet.

Warning: The Tim Crouch & Nadia Albina video contains swearing.

Letters is a very special and original idea. A while ago, the Gate Theatre did a very successful play called Dear Elizabeth, which was all about the letters exchanged between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, who were both American poets. They wrote over four hundred letters to one another over the course of several decades. The roles were played by different pairs of actors at each performance and sometimes there were male Elizabeths or female Roberts.

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA***/PAGLIACCI**** (Royal Opera)

                                                                 By Imogen

Link: https://stream.roh.org.uk/packages/cavalleria-rusticana-pagliacci-2015/videos/cavalleria-rusticana-pagliacci-2015 £3

Available until: 9 October 2020

Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are short operas of about 70 and 75 minutes long and they’re famous for being performed together. Pagliacci was written when the composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo saw Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and thought he could do that too. And he did. Better than Mascagni. But Cav & Pag (as some lazy people call them even though there’s no G sound in Pagliacci if you say it right, it’s Pal-yee-AR-chi) were linked from that moment and they go together like me and Jordan Henderson. Or me and Shawn Mendes. Or me and Giovanni Pernice.