kingston

Teen drama revives 0
- Arts
- 3rd February 2023
Twenty years ago, Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses book series was published, aimed squarely at teenagers. Now it’s a stage play at Kingston’s Rose, set in an oppressive world where our heroes, Callum and Sephy (we’re encouraged to think Romeo and Juliet) come from different sides of the tracks – where the colour of your
READ MORE
Farce feels newly minted 0
- Arts
- 5th November 2022
Oscar Wilde’s witty farce The Importance of Being Earnest has been given a vigorous twist at Kingston’s Rose, with a black cast directed by Denzel Westley-Sanderson. Lady Bracknell is played like a pantomime dame by drag queen Daniel Jacob, whose exaggerated camp gestures and mobile eyebrows almost seem superfluous in a show in which Wilde’s
READ MORE
Epic saga sweeps Rose stage 0
- Arts
- 7th October 2022
There’s a spectacular scale and scope to the Rose Theatre’s revival of Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, once a mainstay of drama groups the world over but now performed less frequently. This is a big, bold, epic production, with the performers taking on dozens of different roles in a flurry of costume changes –
READ MORE

Repelling the invaders 0
- Environment
- 6th July 2022
A conservation day is being held at The Wood and Richard Jefferies Bird Sanctuary off Oakhill Grove, behind Surbiton station, on Sat, July 9, tackling invasive species such as cherry laurel, bamboo and self-sown sycamores, as well as picking litter. Kingston biodiversity officer Elliot Newton explains: “It’s an area of beautiful mature native woodland which
READ MORE
The power of Monsters 0
- Arts
- 2nd April 2022
Kingston’s Rose Theatre is cementing its reputation for bold, energetic and innovative drama with its latest stage show, A Monster Calls, which tackles a string of challenging issues in an accomplished way. The production is on a grand tour, but anyone who catches it at the riverside theatre in the High Street is likely to
READ MORE
A night of ‘awesome’ Austen 0
- Arts, News
- 4th March 2022
Were Jane Austen to have sat through the Rose Theatre’s stage adaptation of her novel Persuasion she would, artistic director Chris Haydon suggests, have thought it “awesome”. She’d certainly have been bemused by signs outside the auditorium warning of strong language; probably racking her brain to recall any effing or blinding. Yet ‘awesome’ is an
READ MORE