Sunday 22 March 2015

These Trees are made of Blood @ Southwark Playhouse


Thanks to Anthony of our Meetup group, we caught another brilliant play at the Southwark Playhouse. This time the play was held at the smaller of their 2 stages and walking in was such a pleasant surprise.

The entire theater had been converted into an Argentinian Night Club - The Coup Coup Club - the perfect setting for "These Trees are made of Blood" by Theatre Bench The performance was a combination of musical, cabaret and hard hitting drama.

I have never before seen such a powerful piece of Political Theatre.


Recipe for every Fascist Regime -> Self Righteous High Decibel Discourse + Religious Support of Actions + Oppression of Free Speech & Expression. This play was about the disappearance of 30,000 people in Argentina between 1979-1984. But the lessons are every bit as relevant for the World and especially India of today. This was art of a transcendental nature.

The band members welcomed us with some beautifully haunting music and I was completely mesmerized by Anne Marie Piazza's voice and musical capabilities. I finally understood the term "a voice like melting honey". However, hitting the high notes was left to Rachel Dawson who also played a CIA operative and a prosecutor. Josh Sneesby on guitar and keyboards, Neil Kelso on keyboards and doubling up as a magician and mind reader, Eilon Morris as percussionist were all wonderful.

This is definitely a multi-talented cast. Greg Barnett as the Argentinian General was amazing. His justification for his actions was so convincing, that even while hating what he did, his reasons still seemed so compelling as he held forth on why the worst parasite is an idea. Val Jones as Gloria - the frantic yet powerless distraught mother is spot-on. Alexander Luttley initially came across as awkward and then the comic relief, but it takes guts and conviction to put on a performance like his.

Tickets are just 18GBp and the play is on until the 11th of April. I highly recommend watching this one.


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