Skip to main content

Review of Let The Right One In at the Apollo Theatre, London

I was in London again sooner than anticipated after getting an opportunity to see an understudy performance (more on this in the next blog), so I took the opportunity to see a play that had just missed out to 1984 (review here) on my previous visit.

Let The Right One at the Apollo could be best described as a vampire romance. Based on the novel and subsequent film (which I have not seen) by John Ajvide Lindqvist it tells the tale of a bullied teen Oskar played by Martin Quinn and his encounter with the mysterious Eli played by Rebecca Benson. What follows is a captivating and charming romance set to a background of vampiric intent.

Quinn, staggeringly making his stage debut, is confident, funny and highly skilled in his performance. This role challenging him to the extreme in both performance and physicality. The final scene at the swimming pool is one of challenge and stamina and Quinn rises to it superbly. Benson as the mysterious Eli is quite simply superb, offering a very special vocalisation and physical movement to the role that is nothing short of a delight. To call scenes in a so-called vampire based play beautiful might seem odd, but that is all that can be said of scenes like the "dance with me" scene between Quinn and Benson. Their scenes together are both captivating and belie their age in the quality of their performance.

The rest of the cast do not drop the standard across the board with Clive Mendus as Eli's "father" both disturbing and sorrowful as he goes about his business of fulfilling Eli's needs. Likewise Susan Vidler as Mum is both in turn funny and sad in her performance.

The set is a wonder to just see on entry to the theatre even before the play begins. Designer Christine Jones has come up a multi-purpose forest which offers through John Tiffany's superb direction all that we need from the play, whether it be forest, sweetshop, swimming pool or bedroom. Indeed the clever switching of scenes in the forest is even joked upon in play: "Never mind the shoes, there's a bed!"

Associate director Steven Hoggett also brings some rather stunning and balletic scenes of choreographed movement to bear which some might say are out of place, but to me are just beautiful (that word again). The music from Olafur Arnalds is perfectly in keeping with the performance, quiet and gentle where needed and terrifyingly powerful when required and yes I jumped! You will know what I mean if you see the play.

Finally a mention of the horror, there is some yes and this for some might be the reason some would not see this play. However the work of the vampire, provided by special effects man Jeremy Chernick, while clearly bloody, happens rarely and for me would not be a reason to miss this delight of a play. This is no bloodbath of a Saw or a Tarantino.

Overall one of the best plays I have seen in the last few months with two of the most talented stars in the leads. A vampire tale with a bite, but more of a love bite, and one you should go and be nibbled by.

Performance viewed: Thursday 7th August 2014 at the Apollo, London.

Let The Right One In continues at the Apollo Theatre, London until 30th August, 2014. Details can be found at http://www.apollotheatrelondon.co.uk/let-the-right-one-in/



Popular posts from this blog

Review of Murder She Didn't Write at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Murder She Didn't Write , stopping off for a four-day run at Royal & Derngate on a lengthy UK tour, treads the now well-worn path of an improvisational evening of theatre entertainment. Unsurprisingly, from the title, this show from Degrees of Error's takes a murder mystery as its inspiration, with the story influenced by ideas from the audience each evening. Due to this, Murder She Didn't Write and a review are very much an individual affair. What I saw in my evening at the theatre will differ significantly from what the audience will see the following evening; however, the fine performers will remain. The touring cast, in no particular order, is Lizzy Skrzypiec, Rachael Procter-Lane, Peter Baker, Caitlin Campbell, Stephen Clements, Douglas Walker, Harry Allmark, Rosalind Beeson, Sylvia Bishop, Emily Brady, Alice Lamb, Sara Garrard, Peta Maurice and Matthew Whittle. For my performance, Skrzypiec, Procter-Lane, Baker, Walker, Bishop, and Clements were on stage alongsid...

Review of The Rocky Horror Show at Milton Keynes Theatre

Richard O’Brien’s anarchic, surreal, and often incomprehensible musical, The Rocky Horror Show , has captivated audiences for over fifty years now. With this new tour, it feels as fresh and unpredictable as if it had just emerged from O’Brien's vivid imagination yesterday. While another review might seem unnecessary given the countless dressed-up fans who fill every theatre it visits, let’s go ahead and write one anyway. The Rocky Horror Show follows the adventures of Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple. On a dark and stormy November evening, they run into car trouble and seek refuge at a mysterious castle reminiscent of Frankenstein’s. There, they encounter the eccentric handyman Riff-Raff, the outrageous scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter, and a host of other bizarre characters. What unfolds is a science fiction B-movie narrative that is at times coherent and at other times bewildering — yet somehow, that doesn’t seem to matter. I first saw The Rocky Horror Show in 2019 and exper...

Review of Flashdance - The Musical at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes

For the second week running, the Milton Keynes Theatre is overrun by a wave of eighties nostalgia as Selladoor's production of Flashdance The Musical follows hot on the heels of An Officer and a Gentlemen. However, is it nice to have more of that classic decade upon the stage? The answer mostly is yes, despite the fact that the story driving Flashdance is that light and flimsy at times, you just have to sit back and watch the dancing and the bright colours to get you through. Welding genius, Alex Owens, has her sights set for a bigger thing beyond this tired and struggling factory in Pittsburgh.  Hoping to take her dancing beyond Harry's bar, she plans to make big, via Shipley Dance Academy.  Then, also drifting into her life comes Nick Hurley, who initially unknown to her, happens to be the factory bosses son, the scene is set for romance. Flashdance has a generally excellent cast led with a tremendously good performance from Joanne Clifton as Alex Owens. Those famil...