past productions
Who Killed Mr Drum?
by Fraser Grace and Sylvester Stein
Directed by Paul Robinson
Produced by Sarah Trehearn
In 1950s Jo'burg nothing stirs ... IT JUMPS!
Can Themba is a man who lives for a party - illegal booze, ganster slang and the fizz of jazz music all pepper the wicked prose of Drum magazine's 'Shakespeare of the Sheebeens'. And Drum's Chief Reporter Henry Nxumalo parties harder than anyone.
But now Sophiatown is being bulldozed clear for white housing.
Henry lies dead with twenty-three stab wounds.
And Can's flaunting the law by loving a white girl...
Based on Sylvester Stein's searing true story, Who Killed Mr Drum? brings apartheid South Africa's black underbelly jumping to life - and tells of the often fatal cost to these journalists in their ultimately successful to win freedom.
"A hugely rewarding evening'
Jane Edwards - Time Out
'Time Out Critics Choice
and
Time Out's Show of the Week
'A deftly staged production'
'A feast of acting'
Nicholas de Jong - Evening Standard
'Alive with pain, passion and humour'
'A vivid portarait of the period'
'Charles Spencer - Daily Telegraph
'You can't fail to enjoy yourself'
Miranda Sawyer - Sunday Telegraph
Sunday Telegraph Critics Choice
by Athol Fugard
Directed by Paul Robinson
Southwark Playhouse 14th October – 1st November 2003
A raw and profound autobiographical masterpiece which made its return to the London stage after 25 years.
Port Elizabeth, South Africa Johnnie is alone at the family home, surrounded by squalor, when a near stranger arrives. In one tense and desperate night a sibling reunion evokes powerful childhood memories as buried secrets come alive once again…
Hello and Goodbye is a rare classic by the internationally acclaimed and award-winning playwright. In a brilliant early play and in a more intimate setting, Fugard dramatically captures the explosive conflict that emerges when family ties are fully exposed.
The production starred Zubin Varla who has played lead roles in Jesus Christ Superstar and Midnight's Children and Tracy-Ann Oberman well-known for her many comedy and theatre roles including most recently playing Kenneth Branagh’s wife in Edmond at the National.
Designed by the award-winning Laura Hopkins, lit by acclaimed Nigel Edwards, dialect work by Joan Washington and directed by Artistc Director Paul Robinson.
Due to popular demand we plan for Hello and Goodbye to tour nationally in 2008.
Paul Robinson’s vivid revival is electric…both [actors] are superb…
Robinson captures the essence of Fugard’s clear-sighted conclusion
Dominic Maxwell, Time Out Critic’s Choice
In Paul Robinson’s meticulous production Fugard’s script is given the outing of its life by two fine actors.
…Achingly poignant…
Over the past 45 years Fugard has brought the personal and political in the ‘beloved country’ to international notice as this timely staging of his 1965 work shows.
Fiona Mountford, The Evening Standard
* * * * Four Star Rating
The actors are excellent – Zubin Varla’s fierce, solitary intensity is well matched by Tracy-Ann Oberman’s exhausted sensuality.
Michael Billington, The Guardian
Paul Robinson’s revival, gaining visceral power from it’s staging in this intimate space, reveals it as the author’s timeless masterpiece.
Johnny (played by Zubin Varla)…a figure echoing the heart-stopping desolation of Blake’s microcosmic glimpse of eternity in an hour-glass.
Tracy-Ann Oberman plays the lustrous Hester searching feverishly for her long-lost innocence.
John Thaxter, What’s On
* * * * Four Star Rating
Superbly acted production by Paul Robinson
Sarah Hemming, The Financial Times
Paul Robinson’s sensitive and subtle direction…
Neil Dowden, The Stage
Two of the best performances in town…a superbly-performed production
Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide
By Phil Porter
Directed by Paul Robinson
Royal Exchange Theatre Studio
27th July – 4th August 2002
‘It’s like God’s been sick across the sky – only pretty’
Ice rinks and cholera, sticky fingers and botched bunny burnings, romance and dust. Isolated Children in Faraway Places looked at the cracked and twisted fingers of fate through the eyes of eight adolescent protagonists. Four stories reveal teenagers fumbling with morality, and, even though worlds apart, they are eventually subject to nature’s poetic, if not divine, sense of justice.
Cleverly crafted, noteworthy production
Time Out
Much wit and poetry
The Stage
By Tim Arthur
Directed by Paul Robinson
Man in the Moon
March 17th – April 2001
Treatment Theatre Company gave Daydreaming its world premiere.
Reviews for Daydreaming:
exhilarating…stunningly beautiful…
accomplished direction...real power
Jonathan Gibbs
Time Out
Evocative and subtle… a study in fragmented thinking and emotions of a soul driven beyond its limits by grief.
The Stage
