Anger can appear in various forms, but is it always justified? After all, most would see anger as a destructive force. Occasionally, it is so strong that it amounts to a wild outburst: this is what Penelope Skinner’s Linda is. It subjects us to the life of Linda Wilde, a middle-aged, award-winning marketing director for […]
It is rare a director is so sympathetic to their chosen text; therefore, remember Liz Stevenson’s name. Too often a classic work is smothered by conservatism and theatrical brocade—this production of Barbarians is the opposite, where every direction furthers the purposes of the source. Stevenson’s interpretation is a great symbiosis of text and performance. Of […]
An enjoyable evening of roasting the current crop of West End shows, Jest End is amusing, loud, well executed—if not slightly under-polished at times—and a whole load of fun for anyone who is up to speed with London’s musical theatre. The structure is simple: take the music of any song from a West End show […]
Bridewell Theatre offers a very entertaining evening about the struggle between reality and stories. The musical adaptation of Cervantes’ novel, Don Quixote de La Mancha, directed by Roger Harwood and Dawn Harrison-Wallace, portrays this beautifully. Unlike Cervantes’ novel, Man of La Mancha is about both the author and the characters. Dale Wasserman’s adaptation keeps every […]
Did this play deserve its Olivier Award nomination last year? Absolutely. Its development of character, slow revelation of plot and bitingly black humour make James Fritz’s work a triumph of new writing. The story revolves around two parents, Di and David (Kate Maravan and Jonathan McGuinness), whose son Jack has been beaten up on his […]
Belarus Free Theatre can claim that not only is it underground in form but also in substance. What it discusses in its plays is subversive: it challenges basic principles that constitute modern society. Of course, the substance of the underground exists on a spectrum, all the way from Dostoevsky to VICE magazine. After seeing four […]
The Screenwriter’s Daughter is a compelling piece of theatre: a humorous, entertaining and historically enlightening new play currently showing at the Leicester Square Theatre. It revolves around the later life of Ben Hecht, a relatively unknown yet prolific and successful screenwriter during Hollywood’s Golden Age, and his increasingly tearaway daughter, Jenny, a counter-cultural revolutionary and […]
Adapted from a 1980s film that is credited for being the reason ‘Worst Film of the Year’ awards exist and taking its score from the songs of Olivia Newton John, I wasn’t expecting Brecht from this production of Xanadu but did approach the show with an open mind and the hope that it would live […]