Review: This old pals' act is a riotous reunion DONKEYS' YEARS

DONKEYS' YEARS (Rose Theatre, Kingston-on-Thames)
Verdict: A tour de farce  
Rating:
There used to be a cricket writer, Alan Gibson, whose despatches invariably included a description of his calamitous train journey to the county ground from which he was reporting. I thought of Gibson on my way to see Michael Frayn’s ace 1976 farce Donkeys’ Years.
Farce preceded the farce. My head full of politics and cobwebs, I clambered aboard the wrong train, which then crawled at the pace of a slug. When I finally realised my error, it took a while to find a connecting train. That, too, made slow progress.
On reaching Kingston I found no taxis to speed me to the Rose Theatre, so had to run. I arrived with a stitch, bathed in sweat. And I had missed the start.

No matter! Director Lisa Spirling has come up with such a cracking production, I was laughing within a minute. What with my stitch, this hurt. It also brought on a threat of asthma.

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Review: THE HOTEL PLAYS

THE HOTEL PLAYS (Langham Hotel)

Verdict: Suite idea
Rating:

Three Tennessee Williams playlets, with all set in hotel rooms, are being performed at a central London hotel, the Langham (opposite the BBC).
This is a neat little effort. Each scene lasts less than half an hour and is staged in a  different bedroom suite.
The audience is limited to about 30 (it is surprising how many you can squeeze on to benches in a small room) but there are three ‘sittings’ a night.
Playwright Williams had a thing about hotels — he even died in one. Hotels capture a certain transient glamour, a suggestion of the flaky rendezvous. Yet intimate. Sitting in these rooms, watching actors play characters in their night clothes, one feels almost voyeuristic.
The Pink Bedroom features an adulterous couple having an argument. She (Helen George) is in a pink nightie. He (Gyuri Sarossy) has come from his bickering wife, only to find yet more grief. He becomes oppressed by the pinkness of the room. Does she want him to stay or is she playing emotional games?

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Ferne McCann recreates Dirty Dancing with TOWIE co-star Elliot Wright

With the new series of The Only Way Is Essex recently begun filming, Ferne McCann is preparing to return to the small screen as a single lady as splitting with Charlie Sims off-camera.
And it looks like she's revealing in her single status as she's been posing for flirty photos with co-star Elliott Wright.
After recreating a pose from a particularly racy scene from The Wolf Of Wall Street last week, Ferne and Elliott took on a saucy sequence from Dirty Dancing.

With Elliott taking on the Patrick Swayze role as Johnny Castle, he holds up Ferne, who wraps her legs around him as she leans back as Jennifer Grey's Baby.
Hairdresser Ferne posted their attempt on Twitter alongside the original shot from the classic 1987 movie.

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