Theatre
The Seven Pomegranate Seeds, Rose Theatre, Kingston review - misogynist Euripides stands correctedSaturday, 13 November 2021
The resurrection of female voices from ancient Greek myth is so common now that one might imagine a grand panjandrum behind the scenes had set down a long-range mission – rather as they do in the fashion industry – which makers and producers... Read more... |
Sessions, Soho Theatre review – intense, but inconclusiveSaturday, 13 November 2021
After lockdown, the stage monologue saved British theatre. At venue after venue, cash-strapped companies put single actors into simple playing spaces to deliver good stories for audiences that just wanted to visit playhouses again. But this theatre... Read more... |
Milk and Gall, Theatre 503 review - motherhood in the age of TrumpThursday, 11 November 2021
Tuesday, 8 November 2016. Vera is in a New York hospital room giving birth to a son. On anxiously checked phones, the votes are piling up for Hillary, but the states are piling up for Trump. Vera’s world will never be the same again.Mathilde Dratwa’... Read more... |
The Choir Of Man, Arts Theatre review - old school hits in an old school pubWednesday, 10 November 2021
Like a previous occupant of this venue, Six, The Choir Of Man started life as a quirky Edinburgh show and has gone on to be staged around the world to adoring audiences, tapping into a vibe that’s as much about participation as viewing, the show as... Read more... |
The Sugar House, Finborough Theatre review - appealing but uneven family dramaMonday, 08 November 2021
The complex history of capital punishment in Australia may not be familiar to many Londoners, but the Finborough Theatre turns out to be a good place to find one’s bearings around the subject. Set against this historical backdrop, playwright Alana... Read more... |
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Duke of York's Theatre review - pure theatrical magicSaturday, 06 November 2021
This show has been a long time coming. Neil Gaiman had the first inklings of The Ocean at the End of the Lane when he was seven years old and living near a farm recorded in the Domesday Book. Several decades later, he wrote a short story for his... Read more... |
Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of), Criterion Theatre review - bursting with wit, verve, and loveThursday, 04 November 2021
“We haven’t started yet!” Hannah-Jarrett Scott, dressed in Doc Martens under a 19th-century shift, reassures us as she attempts to dislodge a yellow rubber glove from a chandelier in the middle of the set of Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of).... Read more... |
Old Bridge, Bush Theatre review - powerful, poetic and profoundWednesday, 03 November 2021
Is the Bosnian conflict of 1992–95 the war that Europe forgot? Maybe, although most fans of new writing for the British stage will remember its massacres as the inciting incident for Sarah Kane’s 1995 modern classic, Blasted. Certainly, this... Read more... |
Brian and Roger: A Highly Offensive Play, Menier Chocolate Factory review - not for the squeamishWednesday, 03 November 2021
What counts as offensive in these days of cancel culture? Ham-fisted pronoun usage? Culturally appropriated hairstyles? To remind us that other options are still available, the Menier’s new space, the Mixing Room, is staging a world premiere of a... Read more... |
'Night, Mother, Hampstead Theatre review - despair in sotto-voceTuesday, 02 November 2021
‘Night, Mother remains a play of piercing pessimism, something that’s not necessarily the same as tragedy, though the two often run congruently. The inexorability of the development of Marsha Norman’s 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner certainly recalls the... Read more... |
The Magician's Elephant, Royal Shakespeare Theatre review - family musical doesn't fully deliverSaturday, 30 October 2021
Trigger warnings have become commonplace in theatres these days, but few chill the blood like the description "a new musical" on a playbill. There are so many things to go wrong, so few ways to get things right and, never far away, the dissenters... Read more... |
albatross., Playground Theatre review - interconnected intimaciesWednesday, 27 October 2021
"You need to get better at communicating", says one character to another in Isley Lynn’s albatross. Indeed, the same advice would fare well with many of those in the Anglo-American Lynn’s new play, where miscommunication plagues a range of... Read more... |
