Theatre
Angry, Southwark Playhouse review – wondrously roaring RidleylandSaturday, 17 February 2018
Monologues are very much the flavour of the start of this theatrical year. At the Royal Court, we have Carey Mulligan in Dennis Kelly’s brilliant Girls & Boys, coming hot on the tottering heels of Anoushka Warden’s My Mum’s a Twat, while at the... Read more... |
Girls & Boys, Royal Court review - Carey Mulligan is stunningly brilliantFriday, 16 February 2018
This is Carey Mulligan week. She appears, improbably enough, as a hard-nosed cop in David Hare’s BBC thriller Collateral, as well as onstage at the Royal Court in London’s Sloane Square (she’s much better live than on film). In a 90-minute monologue... Read more... |
'These star-crossed lovers are so young': adapting Brighton RockFriday, 16 February 2018
I never have the idea of adapting anything at all myself. The suggestions always come from directors or theatre companies. Someone calls me to say, Would I be interested in adapting this book… and I say… "Let me read it and get back to you”, then I... Read more... |
The York Realist, Donmar Warehouse review - a miniaturist masterpieceWednesday, 14 February 2018
Peter Gill has been a quiet if invaluable mainstay of the Donmar over time. But the Welsh playwright-director has rarely been better served than by this emotional stealth bomb of a revival of his 2002 Royal Court play, The York Realist, presented... Read more... |
'Why we understand each other': Peter Gill on The York RealistMonday, 12 February 2018
Fingers on buzzers… Question: What’s the connection between Days of Wine and Roses, Small Change, Making Noise Quietly and Versailles? Answer: They’re all past Donmar productions directed by Peter Gill.But it’s not just his directing skill – no one... Read more... |
All or Nothing: The Mod Musical, Arts Theatre - plenty of room for raversFriday, 09 February 2018
If the Small Faces weren’t quite The Beatles or the Stones, they were one of the classic British bands of their era, and their recordings are treasured by ancient Mods, Damon Albarn, Noel Gallagher and even discerning representatives of today’s... Read more... |
The Divide, Old Vic review - Alan Ayckbourn’s overblown dystopiaThursday, 08 February 2018
Playwright Alan Ayckbourn basically comes in two flavours: suburban comedies of embarrassment and sci-fi fantasies. His latest, The Divide, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival last year in a two-part six-hour version, has been... Read more... |
Gundog, Royal Court review - tedious and inconsequentialThursday, 08 February 2018
First the goats, and now the sheep – has this venue become an urban farm? Rural life, which was once so central to our English pastoral culture, is now largely absent from metropolitan stages. And from our culture. Apart from The Archers or the... Read more... |
Long Day's Journey Into Night, Wyndham's Theatre review - Lesley Manville hits ecstatic, fatal highsWednesday, 07 February 2018
Eugene O’Neill’s 1945 play Long Day’s Journey Into Night is famously a portrayal of the hellish damage that a sick person can wreak on their family, closely based on his own family. Mary and James Tyrone are images of his own parents, down to... Read more... |
Collective Rage, Southwark Playhouse review - a rollicking riotWednesday, 07 February 2018
“Pussy is pussy” and “bitches are bitches” but Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage at Southwark Playhouse smashes tautologies with roguish comedy in a tight five-hander smartly directed by Charlie Parham.The play is set in New York and follows the ad... Read more... |
Listed: Suffragettes portrayedTuesday, 06 February 2018
It was both astonishing and depressingly unsurprising that Suffragette, Sarah Gavron’s feature about the insurgent foot soldiers of the campaign for women’s suffrage, was the first fictionalised film specifically about the movement. There are more... Read more... |
Paines Plough Roundabout, Orange Tree Theatre review - too brief to really rockMonday, 05 February 2018
Hype is a dangerous thing. It often raises expectations beyond the reasonable, and disappointment inevitably follows. It also prioritises PR over artistic activity, putting the publicity cart before the creative horse, sucking energy away from plays... Read more... |
