East End Review

Tag: Sarah Gill

  • Kansas Smitty’s – bar review: ‘like a big living room but with live jazz and kickass drinks’

    Kansas Smittys 620
    All that jazz: Kansas Smitty’s

    There’s nothing more electric than live music and it feels there’s never been a better time to enjoy it in East London. A couple of weeks ago I sat in a cellar bar packed with people listening to nothing but the sweet sounds of a piano and a double bass picking out tunes like ‘Pitter Patter Panther’ and ‘Lady Be Good’ with just the chinking of glasses being picked up and put down on tables.

    It was Basement Tapes night at Kansas Smitty’s, one of the area’s newest jazz hangouts, where each week one member of the self-titled house band invites other musicians in to play music to a ticket-only crowd. That week it was band member Joe Webb on piano and Conor Chaplin on double bass and both were excellent.

    It’s ticket-only, presumably, because otherwise there’d be a scrum on the door. Open since May, the venue already has a loyal following of regular customers, with one saying he and his friends got there several hours early to make sure they got a spot.

    The Kansas Smitty’s house band regularly play the likes of Ronnie Scott’s, the Vaults and the Vortex. They’re led by Giacomo Smith on clarinet, who hails from upstate New York. The bar is their permanent base in the city, with a film night on Tuesdays, jazz throughout the week and plans to put on more live events as autumn draws in.

    The model of bringing in musicians from the wider jazz community to play there means there’s always fresh music coming through and creative collaboration really is at the heart of what they’re trying to promote with the venue.

    “The clearest goal we had from the outset was that we had to one day have our own bar,” says Kansas Smitty’s manager Jack Abrahams. “We’ve always felt that there was this whole group of people we’d met along the way and were yet to meet who just needed a home to come together in – we are now in the what-happens-next phase.”

    With the Jackdaw jazz café just opening in Clapton, is this something of a ‘golden era’ in terms of the jazz talent in in the city right now?

    “Absolutely,” says Abrahams. “As London’s land value goes up the larger venues are proving unsustainable and closing down so lots of smaller ones spring up. So much so that the independent arts, music, drink and food scene in London is bordering on frenzied. Plenty of shows means plenty of musicians which means everyone’s bringing their A-game no matter how small the show.

    One thing you’ll notice, is that it’s not a pretentious place. It feels more like a big living room, except with a kickass drinks menu and some of London’s brightest musical talent performing each week.

    This wouldn’t be a bar review without mentioning the drinks and here it’s all about the juleps. There’s a beautiful ‘Scarborough Fair’ with bourbon, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, toasted almond, salted heather honey and mint. The Allotment is also good, this time with gin, nettle, elderflower, carrot, coriander seed, apple, pear and mint.

    All the alcohols are infused over night with herbs and flavours. Served in crushed ice out of a metal cup, the idea is that as the ice slowly melts different flavours are unlocked – so don’t knock them back to fast. With ingredients ranging from Tonka bean, nutmeg and pimento to cloves and chamomile there’s plenty to try, as well a fridge-full of cool beers and ales as the music heats up.

    Great music, great atmosphere and exemplary juleps. Don’t miss out.

    Kansas Smitty’s House Band will be playing at the bar on 23 September to celebrate the launch of their debut album.

    Kansas Smitty’s
    63-65 Broadway Market, E8 4PH
    kansassmittys.com

  • Hamlet – stage review: ‘ambitious, visually lavish and perfectly-pitched’

    Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet in the Barbican's production of the Shakespeare play. Photograph: Johan Persson
    Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet in the Barbican’s production of the Shakespeare play. Photograph: Johan Persson

    It may be the magnetic pull of its lead actor that made this the fastest-selling theatre show in UK history, but in the Barbican’s Hamlet Benedict Cumberbatch is just one of the heavy hitters in a knock-out production.

    Lyndsey Turner’s highly-anticipated (and already controversial) production of one of Shakespeare’s most often-performed plays is ambitious, visually lavish and perfectly-pitched. Ciaran Hinds’ Claudius, Anastasia Hille’s Gertrude, Jim Norton’s Polonius and Karl Johnson as the gravedigger are just some of the highlights in an ensemble that bring fresh humour, irony and energy to some of the most well-worn lines in the English language.

    They’re supported by yet another impressive set design from Es Devlin, whose extraordinary work you might recognise from previous London shows including The Master and Margarita (also at the Barbican), Chimerica and The Nether, all the way to Jay Z concerts. The music, a powerful part of the show, comes from renowned producer and composer Jon Hopkins, plus Luke Halls on video, Jane Cox on lighting and Christopher Shutt on sound. It’s an electric performance that chews you up and spits you out three hours later.

    The best thing about Benedict Cumberbatch in this role is that you don’t feel like you’re watching Benedict Cumberbatch. Despite reports his fans flew from as far as LA to queue for a chance of picking up tickets and his (now virally-shared) appeal to audiences not to film the performance, his celebrity doesn’t overshadow the play.

    Maybe it’s because he manages to stay relatively private in the public eye, which is something that made watching Jude Law in the same role quite distracting for example. Maybe it’s because the sheer scale of the production means it hangs less on its lead. At any rate he delivers a powerful, very human and at times hilarious performance in what many see as a milestone role in an actor’s career.

    Dressed in scruffy student clothes, sitting alone listening to Nature Boy on his record player as the play opens, he plays a very relatable Prince of Denmark, wrestling with the death of his father and sudden remarriage of his mother to his uncle Claudius. The uncle who killed his father and whom he will spend the rest of the play finding the resolve to take revenge upon.

    It’s an energetic performance, as Hamlet shapeshifts with agility from self-loathing despair to rage to comedy. His antic disposition, the method to his ‘madness’, is first manifest with him dressed as a toy soldier and marching on the banquet table. It’s very funny, hinging in many ways on the comic chemistry with Polonius, which is perfectly timed.

    During his many speeches there’s clever choreography and lighting to make it seem like the rest of a scene is carrying on in slow motion while he performs soliloquies in the spotlight, which means the play loses none of its momentum. His soliloquies have, of course, been at the centre of heated debate in theatreland over the past weeks.

    The play’s multiple re-writes and length (in full it’s four hours and 4,000 lines) mean most productions cut it down, making the text more than usually open to interpretation. Not too much though, it seems, with the production u-turning on its experiment with putting Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy into Act 1.

    One of the biggest stars of the show has to be Es Devlin’s set. It takes advantage of the sheer size and scope of the Barbican’s performance space to house two-storey royal palace rooms at Elsinore in which the play opens. There are striking visualisations of the “unnatural” death of the rightful king and imagery of corruption that underpin the play, including entire blanched trees with dead white flowers hanging suspended upside-down over the new King’s banquet table and dead creepers choking the staircase.

    In the second act the entire stage scene is demolished, making Ophelia’s grief and unravelling wits all the more poignant as she treads barefoot in the smoking remains of the castle. Later the same rubble mountain landscape becomes a graveside during the ‘Alas, poor Yorick’ scene and a bleak battle camp as Fortinbras’ men march toward Elsinore. The use of video projection and lighting is particularly striking here, played out across Devlin’s epic designs.

    There are moments of breath-taking stagecraft, including the tumultuous close of Act 3 and the bloodbath of the fencing match that will see most remaining characters die. The last, especially, is a masterpiece of choreography and stagecraft that sees the cast swirling in a whirl of light and shadow as Hamlet finally avenges his father.

    A triumph all told.

    Hamlet is at The Barbican, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS until 25 October

    hamlet-barbican.com

  • Ceviche Old Street – review: Peruvian food to suit beginners and aficionados

    Inside of Ceviche Photograph: Paul Winch-Furness
    Inside of Ceviche. Photograph: Paul Winch-Furness

    Ready to shake off the torpor of winter with the cool hiss of a pisco sour and zingy platefuls of ceviche? Then look no further than Martin Morales’ latest East End restaurant as he continues to pioneer his native Peruvian cuisine in the city.

    Located in the old Alexandra Trust Dining Rooms, opened during Queen Victoria’s reign, the menu pulls together the Criollo, Chifa and Nikkei influences of Peruvian food with playful tributes to its surroundings.

    Highlights include the sublime scotch egg-like huevo criollo – a runny golden yolker rolled in a crunchy shell of quinoa and black pudding-like sangrecita sausage. There’s also a nod to an East End classic with jalea de anguila – a beautiful plate of crispy fried eel and seabass belly with chilli tartare sauce and salsa criolla.

    Overall, the menu caters deftly for both the ardent Peruvian cooking fan and patrons that aren’t yet up to fried lamb brains and barbecued chicken hearts (both delicious incidentally). Safer options include the steak with a fried egg, plantain, beans and cured pork – or the classic pollo a la brasa rotisserie chicken with chips and amarillo chilli, one of the core flavours of Peruvian food.

    Ceviche, unsurprisingly, is the signature dish and we picked a beautiful plate of silky tuna slices with tiny emerald green roquito peppers that burst open in your mouth and radish-like daiko. The crispy vermicelli on top didn’t really add anything, but nor did it detract from the plate.

    Dishes arrive as small plates and they recommend three to four, which is probably on the generous side given the state we waddled out in, but with so many good things to choose from over-ordering is no bad thing.

    Arguably the beauty of Peruvian food isn’t about complicated techniques, it’s about matching high quality, fresh, flavours and textures and my favourite dish was also one of the simplest – crispy twists of marinated beef heart skewers in hot sauce from the big open charcoal grill, a hat tip to Lima street food. Also don’t leave without trying the pumpkin picarones (doughnuts) with honey and cinnamon that proved a hit at Andina.

    With lusty Latin American beats playing over a packed 130-cover space, frothy pisco pouring by the pint load and splashes of bright contemporary Peruvian art for sale on the walls, it’s a big and busy place for brunch, lunch, dinner and take-out.

    Ceviche Old Street
    2 Baldwin Street
    Old Street, EC1V 9NU
    cevicheuk.com/oldst

  • Argentine film festival returns to Hackney

    Living Stars
    Two to tango: Real people were filmed dancing in Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat’s documentary Living Stars

    Winter is finally sinking its fangs in, but citizens come warm yourselves in some Argentine sunshine this week as Hackney plays host to some of South America’s hottest cinema.

    The Argentine Film Festival, now in its third year, returns to London from 27–30 November, with screenings at Hackney Picturehouse and at Brixton Ritzy, kicking off with black comedy Relatos Salvajes (Wild Tales) this Thursday.

    A hit at Cannes a couple of months ago, the film is produced by the Almodóvar brothers and directed by Damian Szifron, already selling two million tickets back in Argentina and sure to get the festival off with a bang.

    Movies & Malbec

    Meanwhile, for those of you familiar with some the country’s more widely-known exports such as Malbec and Tango (or anyone that needs an extra incentive for watching sub-titles), this year will see a dedicated wine hub set up shop at the Gallery Bar in the Hackney Picturehouse.

    It sounds like Punto Argento will be the perfect place to rendezvous to talk about the films, with the Tango Light troupe performing between screenings for a real taste of Argentine culture. “We’re delighted to be back for our third edition with a knock-out programme that includes three of Argentina’s highest-grossing films from the last 18 months, as well as some amazing gems from the international festival circuit and some unique documentaries,” says the festival’s director, Sofia Serbin de Skalon.

    El Cine Argentino

    The fact that we can now go to a festival of Argentine films at all is of course, in itself, notable. Forty years ago the country’s movie industry was still muzzled by a paranoid military junta, which chased some of the most promising filmmakers of a generation underground or into exile.

    When democracy returned to the country in the 1980s films like La historia oficial, which deals with the horrors of the regime, received critical acclaim, but like many foreign-language films at the time did not gain mainstream traction outside of Latin America. However, there’s no doubt films from this region are beginning to resonate with international audiences, with high-profile movies such a Walter Salles’ Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and Fernando Meirelles’ City of God (2002) helping pave the way for Spanish language movies in non-Spanish speaking countries.

    The Oscar win for El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in their Eyes) in 2010, however, can be seen as a significant inflection point for Argentine cinema, with Hollywood shining a spotlight on the country’s rich film heritage. It was by no means the country’s first big prize, but its surprise box office success did much to win over new audiences.

    What’s On

    Over the weekend you’ll have the chance to see 10 contemporary films from and about Argentina. As ever, there’s a rich sweep of styles and genres, from Death In Buenos Aires about a detective solving a 1980s high society homicide in the country’s shaky first steps of democracy to Cerro Torre, which explores the ethics of mountaineering and the ascent of Patagonia’s most-dangerous mountain.

    Also not to be missed is the Nuevos Talentos section, where you can watch seven short films from some of the country’s most-promising young directors. This is well worth checking out for a flavour of the sharpest talent in Argentina right now, with films exploring everything from Argentina becoming a safe haven for Nazis after WWII to beauty queens.

    Argentine Film Festival is at Hackney Picturehouse and Brixton Ritzy from 27–30 November.

    www.argentinefilmfestival.co.uk

     

  • Restaurant review: DF Mexico

    DF Mexico
    Joys of Mex: DF Mexico

    If, like me, the promise of ‘bottomless soda refills’, frozen margaritas on tap and burritos the size of your face has you reaching for your Oyster card and checking the elastic of your waistband, DF Mexico might be the place for you.

    Launched by the team behind Wahaca, this is nothing like Wahaca. Instead of trying to synthesise street food in a restaurant, which can inevitably miss the mark, this place is a very happy marriage of American diner fare and traditional Mexican food.

    Named after Districto Federal, or Mexico City as it’s known to outsiders, the idea was born on a road trip that Thomasina Miers and Mark Selby, founders of the Wahaca empire, took around Mexico and the US. And it really works.

    There are tortas – gorgeous great burger-style stacks filled with pork pibil, chile beef or ancho mushrooms and jammed with cucumber pickle, pumpkin seed mayonnaise and avocado.

    There’s soft-whip ice cream in flavours like dulce de leche with peanut butter brittle smashed on top that may or not make you salivate even as you type the words 24 hours later. There’s even passionfruit flavour with popping candy on top.

    Highlights include the fish tacos – a nightmare to negotiate from plate to face, but a dream to eat: fat ingots of crumbed cod (sustainably sourced) with a zippy red slaw and sweet chipotle mayonnaise zigzagged on top. If I’m not still wearing that dish somewhere on my person I’d be surprised.

    Another surprise might be that one of the best things we ate was the ‘cup of corn’ – labelled with a modesty that belies its utter perfection: a little pot of delicately-seasoned chowder with translucent little cubes of sweetcorn and a scoop of something that tastes like quesa fresco, but is actually a mixture of Lancashire cheese and mayonnaise.

    I loved the huge glass coolers of icy margarita and hibiscus-flavoured agua fresca swirling mesmerisingly above the tables. I loved the textures and flavours of food that tasted like it had been left to luxuriate on a stove for hours. I loved the super-sized, money’s-worth feeling of the diner experience.

    Tucked into the Old Truman Brewery, there’s a nod to its surroundings too, with the bar stocking local brew and ales from Brixton and Gipsy Hill, as well as Mexican brands like Pacifico.

    Another place looking to buck the dizzying merry-go-round of week-only pop-ups, DF Mexico has an 18-month residency here. It’s fun, the people are lovely and the food is great, but not pricey. Definitely worth a visit.

    DF Mexico, Old Truman Brewery, Hanbury Street, E1 6QR
    www.dfmexico.co.uk

  • Hackney Wick Food Assembly sweeps away the supermarkets

    Break the chain: food producers and
    Break the chain: food producers meet shoppers at Number 90 in Hackney Wick

    I recently went to Hackney Wick and ate handfuls of flowers from Sussex, buttery cheese made in Tottenham and a delicious lamb stew cooked by people who didn’t know what ingredients they had to work with until hours earlier.

    A Dutch fruit farmer from an orchard in Sussex was walking around stuffing nasturtiums into people’s mouths. There was music, there were dogs, there were kids. There was art on the walls and people sipping drinks out by the water.

    In short, it was glorious. But where was I? It was the massively over-subscribed and hugely successful launch of Hackney Wick Food Assembly, and I can’t wait to go back.

    What is a Food Assembly? First launched in France, there are now chapters all around the world. Members simply browse through a list of local produce online, pre-order and pay for what they want. Then they come along to the assembly every other week to pick up their groceries and have a chat.

    The idea behind Food Assemblies is to re-connect people with food and the people that produce it, as well as their own communities. It’s about giving a fairer deal to farmers, bee keepers, fish mongers and bakers.

    It’s about realising Sainsbury’s and Tesco don’t get to control the way we shop.

    The emphasis is on local, seasonal food with none of the produce allowed to travel more than 150 miles. The idea is that as more local assemblies start flourishing, we won’t need to keep schlepping food around the world in lorries and boats and planes.

    It’s a great example of e-commerce technology being leveraged to boost local economies and help loosen the chokehold big supermarket chains have on the food we eat.

    The first to go live in the UK, Hackney Wick assembly is based at Number 90, and producers include the Better Health Bakery in Haggerston, Lockie’s Shellfish in Greenwich, Wilde’s Cheese, Dalston Cola, Brambletye Fruit Farm, Marsh Produce, Brockman’s Farm Produce and the London Jam Factory.

    Massimo Zepetelli, Hackney Wick’s assembly leader, says the idea is to give not just food producers a spotlight, but also local artists. Every week there will be a different guest chef in the kitchen, different DJs on the desks and work from artists on the walls.

    “I don’t think anyone anticipated 500-plus people to walk through the doors on a Tuesday evening, but this all shows a clear demand for locally sourced food in Hackney Wick and this is the biggest aim of the Food Assembly.”

    It’s surely a telling sign that even as all the last crumbs of taster foods were eaten the place was still buzzing with chatter and people were still spilling out on to the deck. This isn’t just about re-connecting with local producers, it’s about re-connecting with our communities.

    This is just one of three assemblies opening in London this summer and I’ll raise a toast to many more following in their wake.

    www.thefoodassembly.com
    @hackneywickFA

  • Mezcal mania at 184 Hackney Road

    Choose your poison: Mezcal at 184 Hackney Road
    Choose your poison: lining up the Mezcal at 184 Hackney Road

    Amigos, have I got a great new place for you. It’s open late, there are mezcal Paloma slushies on tap, shelves stacked with fine drinks and you can even have a decent conversation with the bartender.

    Down a dark stairwell behind the Golden Grill they’re playing loud music and serving liquor – but not just any tipple. Jose Cuervo isn’t welcome and nor is his cousin Jack Daniels.

    There are pale Icelandic ales, stouts from Manchester and a shelf glittering with scotches. Stagg & Barber know a thing or two about delicious drinks while Symonds is a mezcal specialist, to the extent that she imports her own brands.

    Like tequila, mezcal is made from agave and is gradually becoming more popular in the city. The first one I try is made with espadin agave and produced in Santiago Matatlan – billed as the world capital of Mezcal. It doesn’t disappoint, with the classic smoky flavour of the spirit lifted with a toffee-like sweetness and a peppery earthiness that comes from the volcanic soil in the lush lowlands where this particular agave grows. It is produced by master mezcalero Zosimo Mendez, the latest in his family to produce the spirit.

    Like wines and whiskeys the flavour will vary from batch to batch. There are a million different variables – not just those affecting the agave – such as the wood it’s roasted in and, of course, the recipe. In a world where the Ugly Vegetable Campaign even needed to exist, there’s something pleasant about that.

    The second I try is made from agave grown on the river bank of the San Juan del Rio, where Don Modesto Hernandez is the fourth generation in his family producing the spirit. This mezcal tastes totally different – it’s floral and nutty and a bit sharper. The agave that goes into this bottle grows in a cooler highland climate, which – I’m told – tends to produce fruitier flavours.

    With tastings, World Cup screenings and what promises to be the booziest pub quiz on the cards, number 184 is beckoning.

    184 Hackney Road, E2 7QL
    @184hackneyroad

  • Hackney Empire cafe reopens as the latest food and music venture by Platterform

    Revamped Hackney Empire cafe is now
    The Hackney Empire cafe has been revamped

    Did you like the Skylodge pop-up over by London Fields before Christmas? And the Sea Adventure dining experience? If so you’re going to love immersive food and music crew Platterform’s latest venture.

    After a succession of temporary installations the creative collective is setting up shop permanently – in Hackney Empire’s cafe no less – with an exotic new venue called Stage 3.

    From 12-course Indonesian feasts and art installations to Tai-chi masters, bands and DJs, Stage 3 promises to be an ambitious affair, with the usual cocktails, craft beers and food, only this time the emphasis is on music.

    The team is collaborating with a network of local artists, musicians and DJs for a programme of live performances this summer. Director Jules Bayuni says: “This is Hackney’s cultural quarter – with the museum, the cinema and the theatre. We’re the missing puzzle piece: music.”

    Inside, it’s a nod to both the building’s thespian history and Bayuni’s Indonesian heritage, with beautiful tropical prints patterning the walls and brightly-coloured puppet masks strung up over the bar.
    So what can we expect? Thursdays will be supper club night up on the mezzanine floor, with a different theme each week – ranging from French Creole to New Orleans to Caribbean nights.

    “The food is what we’ve collectively grown up on – it’s our soul food,” says Bayuni. Fridays will see art collectives like Unity take over the walls and DJ decks, Saturday is for more partying and Sunday is for hangovers, when you can drag yourself down for a day of healing or hedonism –the choice is yours.

    You’ll be able to pick from detox and retox cocktails, gorge on oriental-style duck and pork roasts and even take part in some tai-chi to restore the natural order after a heavy night. Sounds like you’re in safe hands.
    Watch out for updates about what’s on each week, it’s already looking excellent and this imaginative bunch have plenty of surprises up their sleeves.

    Stage 3
    Hackney Empire
    291 Mare Street, E8 1EJ

  • Efendi review – ‘Like you’re sitting down to dinner at a friend’s house’

    Fine homely fare at Efendi
    Homely Turkish fare at Efendi

    My favourite restaurants are restaurants that don’t feel like restaurants. They have good, simple food, nice people and a well-stocked bar. They feel more like you’re sitting down to dinner at a friend’s house. Just with waiters.

    That’s why Efendi popping up in the neighbourhood was such a pleasant discovery. It’s the latest venture from the team behind This Bright Field, which used to stand in its place on Cambridge Heath Road.

    This time owner Emel Sumen is going back to his roots and serving authentic Turkish food. It’s billed as a neighbourhood kitchen and is just that – a light and airy restaurant full of scrubbed wooden tables and a long serving bar where you can see the chefs at work.

    One wall is floor-to-ceiling windows, so it’s full of light all year round and outside there are plenty of tables to take in the evening air and watch the bustle as the days get warmer.

    We took too long picking, so they started bringing out heaped platefuls to try.

    We kicked off with a very decent carafe of house red, mopped up with some freshly baked bread and lemony, garlicky hummus goodness.

    Next was a mezze plate laden with everything from sigara boregi – warm little cigars of crispy filo pastry stuffed with feta and herbs – to sucuk – grilled discs of spicy Turkish sausage, to crunchy falafel.

    The icli kofte was another highlight – moist little balls of bulgar wheat with minced meat, herbs and walnut – as were the fried squares of juicy halloumi-like hellim from Cyprus. I fear there is no upper limit to how much of that grilled cheese I could eat.

    Luckily the mains came out before I could find out for certain. We had an impressive platter of morsels from the grill including gently spiced chicken shish – and lamb too for good measure – as well as lamb ribs.

    Emel says nothing goes on the menu without his approval and that’s clear. The food is simple, but delicious.

    This is a wonderful, homely Turkish kitchen that will draw you in and post you back out into the night well-fed, well-watered and well looked after.

    Efendi
    270 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 9DA

     

     

  • Waiting for Godot to get modern makeover for Arcola production

    Waiting for Godot
    Waiting for Godot: Tom Stourton as Estragon and Tom Palmer as Vladimir. Photograph: Chloë Wicks

    Citizens, the wait is over. Waiting For Godot, by common consent one of the most significant English language plays to emerge from the twentieth century, is coming to a theatre near you as the Arcola prepares to raise the curtains on Beckett’s absurdist masterpiece.

    Traditionally casting older actors in the lead roles of Vladimir and Estragon, this performance will see comedy duo Totally Tom – which you may recognise from viral YouTube hit High Renaissance Man – take up the mantle, in a move aimed at turning traditional treatment of the text on its head and engaging a broader audience.

    The Hackney Citizen caught up with director Simon Dormandy for a peek behind the scenes. So what can we expect from the show?

    “It’s very funny, extremely sad, deeply weird and completely wonderful,” says Dormandy. “Everyone should see the play at least once in their life, and a good production is something you never forget.”

    Written after the end of the Second World War, I ask if the play is still timely.

    “It has in recent years started to feel like a period piece, at risk of becoming choked by its 1950s roots. Audiences at the Arcola production will see it set free from those roots and played as a completely contemporary play, about two young rough sleepers and the mad world they find themselves in once all sense of direction is lost.

    “By casting two brilliant young comedians [Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton] in the roles normally reserved for elderly classical actors, we hope to bring out the play’s immense humour and show that it is absolutely of our time,” Dormandy says.

    So how true does it stay to the original exactly? Very, by the sounds of things, though I wonder how they have made the play relevant to contemporary audiences.

    “By setting it in a recognisable contemporary world, with clothes, settings, props and verbal rhythms that are absolutely of this moment, by treating it as if it were a play written yesterday and allowing ourselves to respond freely to what it suggests, while honouring the text to the letter, and by casting two brilliant young comedians in the leading roles,” says Dormandy.

    So is this aimed at Beckett fans who are familiar with the play, or is it accessible to newcomers?

    “Both. I’m a Beckett fan, as is everyone involved in the production, and I hope we will flush out and throw up some new ways of seeing this magnificent play through our approach,” says Dormandy.

    “But I also want people who have never seen a Beckett play and are a bit put off by all the white wigs, inch-thick make-up and grey clothing normally associated with productions of his plays to feel confident they’ll get a completely accessible and thoroughly entertaining evening.

    “Yes, Beckett can and should be highly entertaining as well as profoundly challenging and, ultimately, life-enhancing.”

    Waiting For Godot
    7 May –  14 June 2014
    Arcola Theatre
    24 Ashwin Street
    E8 3DL