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You may well have read 'The Diary Of A Nobody', but not everyone will have, so I should explain that it started out as a serial in Punch magazine, created by brothers George and Weedon Grossmith during the late 1880s, and later became a book, published in 1892.
It was acclaimed by the likes of Evelyn Waugh and JB Priestley, and has been adapted for stage and screen on a number of occasions. Following a successful London run in the summer, clever and innovative theatre group Rough Haired Pointer return to King's Head Theatre to again bring this well-loved story to life.
Attracted by the sound of this adaptation, in which a small cast take on lots of roles, against the backdrop of a charmingly evocative set, I sent director Mary Franklin some questions, to find out more about the play, as well as her company, and why she named it after a breed of dog... You can read the interview here.
'The Diary Of A Nobody' is on at King's Head Theatre until 14 Feb. See this page here for more info and to book tickets.
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COMEDY: Darren Walsh - Punnoisseur | Museum Of Comedy | 23-31 Jan
Tallish (he's 6'8) comedian and glib wordsmith Darren Walsh, winner at last years Pun Championships at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival, presents his very first show, an hour of jokes, videos and sing-song nonsense. Details and tickets here. COMEDY: The Luke McQueen Experience | The Invisible Dot | 23 Jan (pictured) Headlining improviser Luke McQueen, extremely talented 'Odessa' man Joseph Morpurgo and gauche Etonian Ivo Graham makes three in this tri-pronged comic attack, the latest in a wider series of 'Experience' nights The Invisible Dot is hosting this Q1. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: 2071 | Royal Court Theatre | until 24 Jan This is the very final chance to net '2071', a cross-collaborative play by playwright Duncan Macmillan, director Katie Mitchell and world-leading scientist Chris Rapley that takes a long, hard look at climate change, and the bearing it's having on Planet Earth. Details and tickets here. |
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MUSIC: Alt-J | The O2 | 24 Jan (pictured)
Standing at the apex of sideways pop since 2007, Mercury Prize-winning Leeds innovators ∆ play The O2 behind their latest LP, 'This Is All Yours'. This show is their biggest headline date ever, so will likely be special and packed with tricks and cool visuals. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Between | King's Head Theatre | 24 Jan - 14 Mar Having already created a sensation in Dublin, Cape Town, Brighton, Edinburgh, and at The King's Head back in August, South African actor/playwright Oskar Brown's racy 'Between' comprises three interlinking storylines, each a different portrait of male sex and sexuality. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Ivy & Joan | Jermyn Street Theatre | until 24 Jan One last chance to watch this "intricately linked" pair of intimate, funny and heartbreaking vignettes by writer James Hogan, who tells ThisWeek London in a recent interview that "in both plays the basic story is how any of us can face a bleak future without that special person who would be the love of our lives". Details and tickets here. |
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CABARET/COMEDY: Lynn Ruth Miller - 80!!! | Leicester Square Theatre | 25 Jan (pictured) A long-time treasure both at the Edinburgh Fringe and on the nationwide cabaret trail at large, 'Granny Gone Wild' Lynn Ruth Miller is still at her peak, still telling it like it is in the ninth decade of life, and shattering old-age cliches with a lively, ribald take on sex, aging, sex, cooking, sex, medical problems, sex, exercise, sex, dating, sex, driving, and... well, you get the idea. Details and tickets here. COMEDY: The NATYS - New Act Of The Year | Bloomsbury Theatre | 25 Jan Bad-tempered telly man Arthur Smith MCs the grand final of this year's NATYS, if not the cream of all the new act contests, then certainly the weirdest. 2014 winner Alistair Beckett-King headlines, with angry topical comedian Ashley Haden, likeable and fast-paced wit Jenny Collier, long-form comedian Chris Betts and laconic Aussie stand-up Nick Elleray amongst the live acts hoping to take his crown. Details and tickets here. MUSIC/SPOKEN WORD: Burns Baby Burns | St John At Hackney | 25 Jan Party-planning folk pod The Nest Collective and "immersive events experts" Adamotions lay on this old-style ceilidh in the style of the considerably stylish Rabbie Burns, which comes with face-painting, toast-making, ode-reading, haggis-piping and a garnish of foot-tapping songs from London's own Ceilidh Liberation Front. Details and tickets here. |
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DANCE: Richard Alston Dance Company - Mixed Bill | Sadler's Wells | 26-27 Jan
Choreographer Richard Alston's always top-of-its-game dance co shows its scope and quality with this disparate four-part programme. First is 'Rejoice In The Lamb', which has Britten's choral score sung live by the 24-voice , Montclair State University choir, and following that is Martin Lawrance's lust-struck 'Burning' about the composer Liszt; new piece 'Nomadic', a mixture of gypsy and urban motifs by young dancer Ajani Johnson-Goffe; and finally 'Madcap', a picture of a 'disturbing outsider' on the fringes of a rock band, backed by a contemporary score by Julia Wolfe. Details details and tickets here. THEATRE/COMEDY: This Comedian | Duchess Theatre | 26 Jan (pictured) A show by comedians, for comedians (and everyone else); 'This Comedian' features sets by the high-flying likes of Katherine Ryan (pictured), James Acaster, Sara Pascoe and Robin Ince, who'll each give a glimpse of what it's really like to do stand-up for a living. It's the live component to a multi-media project by photographer Idil Sukan, whose exhibition, also titled 'This Comedian', opens at the Embassy Tea Gallery on 20 Feb. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Walking The Tightrope | Theatre Delicatessen | 26-31 Jan A body of "explosive" short five-minute plays by writers Mark Ravenhill, Neil LaBute, Caryl Churchill ,Hattie Naylor and others, 'Walking The Tightrope', as indicated in its caption ('the tension between art and politics'), has been devised as a means of reacting to themes of censorship and boycotting in the arts. Certain works are inspired in part by events of last year, like the Tricycle Theatre's altercation with the Jewish Film Festival, and the early cancellation of the Barbican's controversial 'Exhibit B'. Details and tickets here. |
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MUSIC: First Aid Kit | Eventim Apollo | 27 Jan
(pictured) Bold-voiced folk-pop siblings Johanna and Klara Söderberg, aka First Aid Kit, tear themselves away from the snowy scenes of their native Sweden to play this show in the wilds of... erm, Hammersmith. The pair play the healing songs of their latest LP 'Stay Gold', also looking back on comparatively 'old' favourites from 2012's 'The Lion's Roar' and 2010's 'The Big Black & The Blue'. Details and tickets here. MUSICAL: Molly Wobbly | Leicester Square Theatre | 27 Jan - 14 Mar This titillating song-and-dance satire, rated "absolutely dazzling - 5/5" by TW London's esteemed sister site ThreeWeeks", finds the greying ladies of the town of Little Happening (and bolshy, big-hearted stranger Molly Wobbly) plotting ways to make the world a more beautiful place. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Dara | National Theatre | until 4 Apr The NT's first new feature of the year, Pakistani playwright Shahid Nadeem's lavish royal family drama 'Dara', spans the lifetimes of two Indian princes (and brothers) with contrasting visions for their empire. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: RAT - Induction | The Vaults | 28 Jan - 1 Feb Shooting the bolt on this year's 'politics, gender and income'-themed Vault Festival, sketch players Camilla Whitehill, Dave Newman and Alistair Donegan present their celebrated fringe feature 'RAT - Induction'. It's the dreamlike story of three people (and an invisible intercom voice) who review their past lives leading to the present; dark recesses, bleak corners and all. "You'll laugh. You may cry. You may cry some more. You'll do one more small laugh, then it ends. After that you can go away and try and pretend it never happened". Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Neneh Cherry + Rocketnumbernine | Electric Ballroom | 28 Jan (pictured) Ever the fearless hip-pop experimentalist, 'Man Child' hitmaker Neneh Cherry plays behind her first LP in eighteen years, last year's genre-screwing 'Blank Project'. She's joined live by its lead beat-maker Rocketnumbernine. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Hello/Goodbye | Hampstead Theatre | until 28 Feb Rom-com writer Peter Souter and a strong on and off-stage cast drive this spirited metropolitan play, which follows an only-in-films mix-up in which a sassy career girl and a "sexy" stranger wind up sharing a flat against their (initial) wishes. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Tony Law - Enter The Tonezone | Soho Theatre | 29-31 Jan (pictured)
Canadian king-of-nonsense Tony Law crash-lands with this "life-affirming, life-changing" show, which features - in the main - "magical shapes", one original song (and no more!) and fits of interpretative dancing, albeit dancing that interprets both world events and the fear of death. Details and tickets here. FILM: Totally Serialized | Ciné Lumière | 29-31 Jan As ever, the heavily-entertaining festival of TV series features big-screen playbacks, previews and premieres of the finest French/British little screen shows. Totally Serialized 2015's 'what's on' programme boasts first looks at the likes of Russell T Davies' new E4 creation 'Banana', a marathon of France's 'new generation' of telly comedies, leading French series 'Paris', 'Spiral' and 'Working Girls', and a range of 'in conversation' events and masterclasses on production and writing for TV. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Jessie Ware | Brixton Academy | 29-30 Jan Brixton-raised 'relatable diva' and soul-pop trader Jessie Ware plays a pair of dates in her native SW London ends, this mostly in ongoing promotion of her well-received latest LP 'Tough Love', and its prequel 'Devotion'. Details and tickets here. |
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