Tag Archives: Southwark Playhouse

You are Going to Die @ Southwark Playhouse

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Life is hard, and once in a while all you really want to do is catch a play with a naked man sprinting around a smoking toilet. Such a play has arrived in our anointed patch and while this specific production might not be your pot of tea, it might open your eyes to the more mainstream offerings over at both branches of the Playhouse.  Of course we’ve checked it out for you.

You Are Going to Die was the breakout play at Edinburgh Fringe last year and was received with rave reviews. With the use of his body, the actor/creator takes us through a series of nude vignettes which feature different people at different ages. Themes of climate change, rejection and alienation in a fast moving world are abiding themes. His presentation is at times vulnerable and at others menacing and anarchic. With all this heavy material the piece (all 70 minutes of it) is, ironically, often humorous, especially when he addresses the audience directly. During our show he was able to tell off two late arrivals by only using his body. 

If penises swinging about isn’t exactly what you’re looking for on a night out, Southwark Playhouse has two local houses (the Newington Butts venue is shiningly new and we’ve reviewed it here) with a wide variety of quickly changing shows. At the moment they are also showing in interesting new play about football fans and in May an ‘adult fairy tale’ about Sappho. 

You Are Going to Die is on now until 4 May and tickets are £26. We can assure you, it won’t be boring but it isn’t for everyone. And the Borough outlet has a cracking bar which is open to the public.

Strike! At Southwark Playhouse

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We recently popped into our much loved Southwark Playhouse to review their latest offering ‘Strike’ and we’re here to tell you rebellious souls all about it. Those of you lucky enough to be Runoff regulars will be aware that the Playhouse now has two locations. Strike is staged at the original-but-soon-to-be-extinct venue in Newington Causeway. The new, more flashy venue is much closer to Kennington in Newington Butts at the base of curiously named high rise Uncle. 

Strike is a true story set in Dunne’s department store in Dublin circa 1984. When a worker follows through with directives from her union and refuses to sell an item made in South Africa, she is suspended from her role. However, she takes 10 like minded colleagues with her and the story evolves into life on the picket line. As their movement grows the group learn lessons from South African exile Nimrod, who had been incarcerated at Robben Island with Nelson Mandela and gives insight into daily life under Apartheid.  

In spite of opposition from Dunnes, the Catholic Church, the government and even union bosses themselves, the strikers persevere and their profile grows and they begin to spread their message as far as the United Nations and beyond. After 2 ½ years Ireland becomes the first western nation to ban South African agricultural goods, contributing to the fall of Apartheid two years later. Although the subject matter is bleak and serious, the play is at times funny, touching, and even has a few musical numbers thrown in. 

Strike is about justice, rebellion, and the right to stand up for what you believe in, which more or less sums up most Greater Kenningtonians. The only thing we could fault about this play was that it didn’t celebrate the fact that almost all of the strikers were female and had to make great sacrifices to pursue what they felt passionately about. However, with all of the strong ensemble female roles this will become evident to everyone in the audience. 

Strike is on now and runs until 6 May at the old venue. For some strange reason there are still tickets available and they can be purchased here. 

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The Walworth Farce @ Southwark Playhouse

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If you’re a committed Runoff reader (and when you think about it, why not?), you’ll be aware that we’ve been closely monitoring the opening of the new Kennington facing Southwark Theatre and we toured the place last summer. It’s now open for business with the geographically appropriate dark comedy ‘The Walworth Farce’ and we’ve just checked it out for you. 

Set in three claustrophobic rooms in a council block in Walworth Road, Irish brothers Blake and Sean live with their father Dinny and spend their day recreating a script of their previous life in Cork. In some scenes Blake and Sean play younger versions of themselves. In other scenes they depict older members of their family in various scenarios primarily centred on murder and inheritance, to an audience of no one. As the older sibling, Sean vaguely remembers what actually happened to his family in Cork and presents this to Dinny, who has an vested interest in reinterpreting the narrative. 

Sean is the only member of the household allowed to leave the flat, and in his daily visit to Walworth Tesco he befriends Hayley, who turns up to drop off some shopping. Seemingly obvious to her presence, the trio continue to depict their series of tragic events and struggle to bring Hayley into the narrative. We won’t tell you if the arrival of Hayley becomes an existential threat to their endless play or if she can liberate Sean to safety. The play’s theme of physically and emotionally trapped characters, compelled to act out narratives in an endless loop, certainly reminded us our lives in 2020 and 2021. 

The Walworth Farce is on now until 18 March and £15 tickets can be purchased here. Or you could just sit at home and watch a programme about Katie Price doing her house up. The choice is yours. 

And only five days to go until we unveil our Ten Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington (+ One Sunday Roast)!

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Faking it at Southwark Playhouse

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Are you at that point in January where there isn’t much to do but you’re nevertheless scratching to get out of the house or office? So are we, so to address the scratch we just checked out the intriguing and timely show ‘Fake News’ at Southwark Playhouse. Not the new Playhouse in Kennington that we visited last summer (it’s a thing), but the original in Newington Causeway. 

Originally presented to a sold out crowd at the Edinburgh Fringe, Fake News revolves around a budding journalist who’s just landed a plumb internship at the country’s foremost news organisation. With the audience acting as younger interns, Millennial Times is described to us as ‘the most lucrative and therefore respected media company on earth’ (we thought that was Kennington Runoff, but moving on). Given this, what the Times value most is the pursuit of clicks and money above ethics. But as long as people remain entertained, is this such a bad thing? 

As our budding journalist finds himself increasing enmeshed in a hilarious and distressing workplace with Angus and Debbie, he struggles to find a story that will launch his career and prove that he deserves to be there. Eventually he stumbles across a story that might not only make his career, but might disprove one of the biggest news stories since 9/11. But is his revelation itself fake news and if so, does it matter if it makes people happy and shareholders richer? Of course we’re not going to tell you.

Fake News is on now and runs until 28 January and tickets can be booked here. A delicious irony is that it’s received rave reviews from some of the same news outlets that it bashes. Below is the writer appearing on Sky News. The running time is one hour so you can toddle on home and still make it an early night. 

We here at the Runoff will be taking a break for the next month. But before you fall into apoplectic fits of anguish, don’t worry as we will be spoon feeding you with highlights from our history archives. We’re offering you these stories purely because they had the most hits give Greater Kenningtonians much more depth and context into our anointed patch. Enjoy!

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A New Theatre for Greater Kennington

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There’s a brand spanking new 300+ seat theatre set to fling open its cutting edge doors in Greater Kennington and we’ve just had a behind the scenes sneak preview of the place. Located in the surreally named ‘Uncle’ building in Newington Causeway, Southwark Playhouse is actually just moving from the other side of Elephant. The old site will be open for a few more years, but this will be the new permanent home of one of the most acclaimed theatres south of the river. The opening is set for the end of 2022, and if there’s a gala opening party we’ll play the ‘but we’re Kennington INFLUENCERS’ card to bag an invite*. 

The design of our new playhouse is actually something to behold in itself. The theatre is fully adaptable with the ability to remove all of the seats or even the galleries (!) to create theatre in the round, traverse, or proscenium staging. The new space also prides itself on its green credentials: Much of the wood is reclaimed and kept to a minimum, and there are a few living green walls in the cafes. One thing we love about the other venue is the very cool and somewhat ramshackle café area, where you can get a cheap pizza and cocktail before a show or at other times of the day. They’re hoping to recreate this in their new venue with council approval. Southwark, we’re wagging a fat Runoff finger at you as we type! 

What really makes Southwark Playhouse special is its free outreach programmes for young people aged 11 – 18 (Southwark residents). They also have acting groups for people aged 65+ and a ‘people’s company’ geared towards all adults who are interested in different aspects of the stage, from set design to acting. There is a studio in the building for the bespoke use of these groups.

If you’ve never been to the Playhouse, it focuses primarily on new writing and emerging artists in a manner similar to that of the Young Vic. Sometimes this work is challenging (the current offering is a musical about yeast), but at other times fun and delectable. Earlier this year we saw a Romeo and Juliet re-imagined  in a south London council estate in 1981 set to a soundtrack by Madness. We also had underpants thrown at us but we’ll ignore that. 

*This never works 

Romeo and Juliet at Southwark Playhouse

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We recently made a visit to the soon to be relocated Southwark Playhouse in Elephant and Castle to see a reworking of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. This production is set in Brixton (a popular neighbourhood south of us) in 1981 with a backdrop of Thatcher, The Specials and Madness. If these names mean nothing to you please ask your parents and feel free to read on. 

In this production the Montagues and Capulets become rival council houses. The presence of pop music has the potential to make the production has the cheesy, but it is subtly done and used in the background. The play sticks almost entirely to the original script, but manages to weave into it a fair degree of humour and levity and the odd bit of swearing and slang. One monologue is delivered while a women is folding laundry and asking audience members to help her. And when talking about Juliet, Paris and Romeo have a bad habit of condoms popping out of their pockets. Exceptionally strong characters are Yinka Awani as a Friar Laurence determined to make a wedding happen come what may, and Fiona Skinner as a hilarious Lady Capulet who at the end of the day just wants to have giant piss up for Juliet instead of a wedding.

This production is part of Southwark Playhouse’s ‘Shakespeare for Schools’ project, will enables over 2000 Southwark kids to see the play for free during a series of matinees, but hopefully with the fucks and shits taken out. This year Southwark Playhouse will be moving to the top of Kennington lane, in the giant and strangely named ‘Uncle’ high-rise. While this has been in the works for ages, we’ve been informed that the move is imminent. 

Romeo and Juliet is on now until 5 February and tickets can be booked here. There are six characters playing 13 roles, so it pays to pay attention. This is a very fast paced production and comes in at 1:45 with no interval, so get a large drink to take in from the very fun café.  And to the bosses at Runoff HQ, we too had a large drink but this counts as a business meeting, like it or not