Theatre
Pah-La, Royal Court review - complex ideas, wild storytellingTuesday, 09 April 2019
Theatre can give a voice to the voiceless – but at what cost? Abhishek Majumdar, who debuted at the Royal Court in 2013 with The Djinns of Eidgah – about the situation in Kashmir – returns with his latest play, Pah-La. Just as his debut was... Read more... |
After Edward, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - delightfully riskyMonday, 08 April 2019
A loo with fuschia-pink carpet to catch splashback; an Archbishop of Canterbury who’s in it for the skirts; a gobbing Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. A Jacobean theatre like the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse will have witnessed most extremes of human... Read more... |
Wilderness, Hampstead Theatre review - stark portrait of modern divorceFriday, 05 April 2019
“We don’t love you any less.” A natural sentiment to express to your child when you’re separating from your partner, but the very fact of saying it plants doubts in the child’s mind as to whether you really mean it. As the audience of Wilderness at... Read more... |
Top Girls, National Theatre review - dazzlingly perceptive classicThursday, 04 April 2019
Caryl Churchill is a phenomenal artist. Not only has she written a huge body of work, but each play differs in both form and content from the previous one, and she has continued to write with enormous creative zest and flair well into her maturity.... Read more... |
The Crucible, The Yard Theatre review - wilfully over-stirredWednesday, 03 April 2019
The Crucible is a play that speaks with unrelenting power at times of discord, most of all when the public consciousness looks ripe for manipulation. Never more appropriate than now, you might think – and in a year in which the work of Arthur Miller... Read more... |
Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, Barbican Theatre review - Cillian Murphy soars and sweepsFriday, 29 March 2019
Wow, what a collection of talent: this show stars Peaky Blinder Cillian Murphy, and Enda Walsh's adaptation, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, is based on Max Porter's award-winning novel of the same name. From the first this seems like a good fit:... Read more... |
Fiddler on the Roof, Playhouse Theatre, review – energetic production whips up an emotional stormThursday, 28 March 2019
In an age where political, social, and gender norms seem to be in perpetual meltdown, it should be pretty much impossible for a musical that begins with a song celebrating ‘Tradition’ to strike a chord. Yet from the moment that the cast of Trevor... Read more... |
Local Hero, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh - captivating musical with a harder edgeWednesday, 27 March 2019
“Cult” is probably an over-used adjective, especially when it comes to movies. But there’s undoubtedly something truly special about Bill Forsyth’s 1983 film – about a Texan oil executive on a mission to buy up a section of the Scottish coast for a... Read more... |
The Phlebotomist, Hampstead Theatre review - thought-provoking dystopian thrillerTuesday, 26 March 2019
Contemporary British theatre loves time travel — and not just to the past. It also enjoys imagining the future, especially the bad stuff ahead. So Ella Road's debut play, The Phlebotomist, is set in a convincingly coherent dystopia where genetic... Read more... |
Mary's Babies, Jermyn Street Theatre review - rollercoaster investigation of early fertility treatmentTuesday, 26 March 2019
Obstetrician Dr Mary Barton had the best of intentions. As a missionary in India she had observed the poor treatment of childless women and, back home in England, she took positive action to help women who wanted babies. This being the... Read more... |
The Life I Lead, Park Theatre review - pleasant enough but lacks biteMonday, 25 March 2019
I am deeply jealous of Miles Jupp's dressing gown in The Life I Lead, the solo play at the Park Theatre. It's a silky-grey patterned number of exquisitely comfortable proportions, and just the sort of thing a chap should wear to tell the story of... Read more... |
Blood Knot, Orange Tree Theatre review - defining apartheid-era drama delivers afreshSaturday, 23 March 2019
London's impromptu mini-season devoted to the work of Athol Fugard picks up real steam with Blood Knot, Matthew Xia's transfixing take on one of the benchmark titles of the apartheid era and beyond. I first encountered this play during its Tony-... Read more... |
