Latest news with #KilnTheatre
Time Out
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs
This review is from Soho Theatre in 2022; it transfers to Kiln Theatre with a partially changed cast that includes Liz Carr and Leah Harvey. The rainbow flag offers an idealised portrait of the LGBTQ-plus community: people of different stripes co-existing in harmony, each taking up an equal amount of space. But the reality is messier, scribbled over with conflicts and inequalities. Iman Qureshi's warm, complex play 'The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs' explores just how difficult it is to create a queer space, while showing how beautiful it can be when the stars align. Things start out in pretty formulaic style. Each week, a disparate gaggle of lesbians meet up in a leaky-roofed hall to sing in a choir, with the lofty goal of performing on the main stage at Pride. There's wildly confident womaniser Ellie (Fanta Barrie), hyper-woke academic Ana (Claudia Jolly), and her reluctantly-tagging-along butch engineer girlfriend Lori (Kibong Tanji) who turns out to have an amazing singing voice, all arranged into an approximation of harmony by self-styled OWL (older wiser lesbian) Connie (Shuna Snow). It could all be the beginnings of a dykier, hopefully less doomed remake of 'Glee'. But Qureshi's play is way smarter than that. She toys enjoyably with lesbian cliches (sensible footwear, veganism, buzzcuts) only to reach beyond them to tell less familiar stories. Like that of Dina (an engagingly puppyish Lara Sawalha), a Muslim woman who throws herself into choir as an escape from her forbidding husband. Or that of the faltering romance between trans woman Brig (Mariah Louca), and Fi (Kiruna Stamell), who campaigns fruitlessly for a ramp so she can access the choir's hall independently, but alienates Brig when her feelings of being left behind spill out in an agonised tirade against twenty-first-century inclusivity. Qureshi doesn't shy away from tackling transphobia, and the way it's driven a wedge between different generations of lesbians. But she also highlights the relative privilege that British queer people live in, using Dina's story to highlight the injustice of the immigration system and the suffering of closeted people in countries where homosexuality is illegal. 'The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs' tackles massive themes, in ways that threaten to unbalance what's fundamentally a feel-good comedy with added a capella. There's not much lesbian theatre around, so it sometimes feels like it's struggling under the weight of trying to encompass every lesbian story in one short show. But it all just about works, thanks to a septet of winning performances and Hannah Hauer-King's taut direction. It's a warm cosy hug of a show, full of life, wit, and pathos that lingers long after its last notes fade.
Irish Post
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Post
Reunion, Mark O'Rowe's gripping family drama, gets London premiere
MARK O'ROWE'S gripping family saga Reunion will get its London premiere later this year after enjoying sellout runs in Dublin and Galway. The 2024 play, O'Rowe's first in six years, centres on a family gathering on an island off the west coast of Ireland. The arrival of an unexpected visitor brings tension to the surface in the production by the Galway International Arts Festival and Landmark Productions. It will get its London premiere at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn in September, with the majority of the original cast making the trip across the water too. Reprising their roles are Ian-Lloyd Anderson, as Aonghus, Venetia Bowe, as Janice, Stephen Brennan as Felix, Leonard Buckley as Ciaran, Simone Collins as Holly, Desmond Eastwood as Stuart, and Catherine Walker as Gina. They will be joined by Peter Corboy as Maurice and Kate Gilmore as Marilyn, with further casting due to be announced. Venetia Bowe, Ian-Lloyd Anderson, Desmond Eastwood, Catherine Walker, Leonard Buckley, Stephen Brennan and Simone Collins star in Reunion by Mark O'Rowe 'I am absolutely delighted that Reunion will be seen by its first London audiences this September,' O'Rowe said this week. 'The Kiln is such a beautiful, intimate space, and I can't wait to see how the show plays there before we return to the joyful expanse of the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, and hopefully beyond.' Culture Ireland will support the performances at Kiln Theatre. Following its time in London the play will run at the Gaiety Theatre from October 21 to November 2. Reunion runs at the Kiln Theatre from September 11 to October 11. See More: Dublin, Galway, Kiln Theatre, London, Mark O'Rowe, Reunion
