Theatre
Laughing Boy, Jermyn Street Theatre review - impassioned agitprop dramaThursday, 02 May 2024
On the morning of the press show of Laughing Boy, the BBC news website’s top story was about the abuse of children with learning disabilities by the staff at a special school.The undercover investigation had revealed a catalogue of distressed... Read more... |
Minority Report, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre review - ill-judged sci-fiWednesday, 01 May 2024
Towards the end of David Haig’s new adaptation of Philip K Dick’s 1956 science fiction short story, someone asks if three humans who have been symbiotically connected to a massive AI computer for a decade can survive the experience.Yes, she’s told... Read more... |
Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York), Criterion Theatre review - rueful and funny musical gets West End upgradeTuesday, 30 April 2024
Small-scale shows, nurtured in offbeat places, are becoming all the rage in the West End. Red Pitch, Operation Mincemeat, For Black Boys… have already made their mark, and now this quirky musical for just two performers joins them.It’s been a long... Read more... |
Testmatch, Orange Tree Theatre review - Raj rage, old and new, flares in cricket dramedySaturday, 27 April 2024
Cricket has always been a lens through which to examine the legacy of the British Empire. In the 1930s, the infamous Bodyline series saw the new nation, Australia, stand up to its big brother’s bullying tactics. In the 1970s, the all-conquering West... Read more... |
Banging Denmark, Finborough Theatre review - lively but confusing comedy of modern mannersMonday, 22 April 2024
What would happen if a notorious misogynist actually fell in love? With a glacial Danish librarian? And decided his best means of getting this woman’s attention was to ask his worst enemy, a leading feminist academic, for help?These probably aren’t... Read more... |
London Tide, National Theatre review - haunting moody river bluesSaturday, 20 April 2024
“He do the police in different voices.” If ever one phrase summed up a work of fiction, and the art of its writer, then surely it is this description, by Charles Dickens in his 1865 novel, Our Mutual Friend, of his character Sloppy’s ability to read... Read more... |
Machinal, The Old Vic review - note-perfect pity and terrorFriday, 19 April 2024
Virtuosity and a wildly beating heart are compatible in Richard Jones’s finely calibrated production of Renaissance woman Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal. It hits hard as a 1920s mechanical symphony with a lyrical slow movement and words/cliches used... Read more... |
An Actor Convalescing in Devon, Hampstead Theatre review - old school actor tells old school storiesWednesday, 17 April 2024
One can often be made to feel old in the theatre. A hot take in a snappy 90 minutes (with video!) on the latest Gen Z obsession (is it even Gen Z, or were they last year, Daddio?) can leave one baffled or wondering whose gripe is it anyway.... Read more... |
The Comeuppance, Almeida Theatre review - remembering high-school high jinksTuesday, 16 April 2024
I’ve never been one for school reunions, but even if I had kept in touch with former classmates I think that American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s The Comeuppance might, just might, lead me to reflect on the wisdom of revisiting the... Read more... |
Richard, My Richard, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmund's review - too much history, not enough dramaTuesday, 16 April 2024
History is very present in Philippa Gregory’s new play about Richard III. Literally - History is a character, played by Tom Kanji. He strides around in a pale trenchcoat, at first rather too glib and pleased with himself, but quickly sucked into the... Read more... |
Player Kings, Noel Coward Theatre review - inventive showcase for a peerless theatrical knightMonday, 15 April 2024
Shakespeare’s plays have ever been meat for masher-uppers, from the bowdlerising Victorians to the modern filmed-theatre cycles of Ivo Van Hove. And Sir John Falstaff, as Orson Welles proved in Chimes at Midnight, can be the star of his very own... Read more... |
Cassie and the Lights, Southwark Playhouse review - powerful, affecting, beautifully acted tale of three sisters in careThursday, 11 April 2024
"In care". It’s a phrase that, if it penetrates our minds at all, usually leads to distressing tabloid stories of children losing their lives at the hands of abusive parents (“Why oh why wasn’t this child in care?”) or of loving parents separated... Read more... |
