Love at the National Theatre: an important play about welfare in Britain that’s appropriately unenjoyable December 14, 2016 Love, at the National Theatre, is not the poverty porn that so often clutters the London stage, but a powerful indictment of the shocking state of social housing, social care, and social welfare in Britain today. Writer-director Alexander Zeldin presents a group of disparate people forced to live side-by-side in emergency housing, and the grinding [...]
Aladdin at Lyric Hammersmith is the playful reinvention that combines flying carpets with Brexit jokes December 6, 2016 Some pantomimes rely on hiring former celebrities to lure in the crowds – “Where are the best years of my career?” “Behind you!” This production has no need for such gimmicks, having instead a tight script that playfully reinvents a classic, high-energy dancing, inventive use of pop songs, engaging performances, and lots of audience participation. It [...]
An Inspector Calls at the Playhouse theatre: good, cosy fun, but lacking spleen November 17, 2016 An Inspector Calls returns once again to the London stage. A whodunnit in which a police officer investigates the causes of a young woman’s suicide should be an excoriating critique of the indifference of the upper-middle classes, but here it is repackaged as cosy entertainment for the descendants of the very people it originally sought [...]
The Nest at the Young Vic: this play with a PJ Harvey soundtrack never quite clicks November 4, 2016 The Nest is the story of a couple preparing for the birth of their first child. It has slick dialogue, fine acting, simple but effective sets, and an impressive original score by PJ Harvey, but somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Based on a 1975 German work by Franz Xaver [...]
The Mountaintop play at Young Vic review: a searing, sexy, devastating imagining of Martin Luther King Jr’s last night October 13, 2016 Martin Luther King Jr is one of the towering figures of the 20th century. A champion of African-American culture and people, a religious leader, a community organiser, a crusader for civil rights, an exemplar of non-violent resistance, a model of masculinity, a moral touchstone, an icon, a martyr, a secular saint. A play about his [...]
The Libertine at Theatre Royal Haymarket starring Dominic Cooper fails to deliver on its salacious promises September 29, 2016 The Libertine begins with a promise. Dominic Cooper, as Restoration rake the Earl of Rochester, delivers a swaggering prologue, directly informing the audience that although they may like some of what he does, they will not like him. This speech is an implicit bargain; that he will behave appallingly, and the audience will be thrilled [...]
Cradle baby alligators and zoom along the Everglades in a weird boat – it’s Florida baby! September 23, 2016 F lorida has a fearsome reputation for hurricanes, alligators and hanging chads, but in this vast sea of crazy, there is an island of tranquility. Its name is Fort Lauderdale. Long established as a place to go for fun in the sun, with a long sandy beach, the wild beauty of the Everglades, and easy [...]
The Alchemist at the Barbican review: this brilliant 17th century morality play still feels searingly relevant September 15, 2016 Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist is an invigorating blend of clever script and silly performances, in which three con artists make an uneasy alliance to fleece the unsuspecting citizens of 17th century London. First performed in 1610, The RSC’s revival at the Barbican reveals a play that’s still funny, and not just in the way you [...]
The Entertainer at the Garrick: Kenneth Branagh is on top form again in this perfect post-Brexit play September 2, 2016 In 1956 the Suez Crisis signalled the end of Britain as a world power, and its demise on the global stage is mirrored in the lives of Archie Rice and his family. Television and rock ‘n’ roll threaten to eclipse the traditional English music hall, and Kenneth Branagh’s Archie, scion of a vaudevillian dynasty, is [...]
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips is an utterly refreshing family drama August 18, 2016 The extravagantly titled 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, is a conventional tale of wartime Britain, made extraordinary by an unusual approach. Stripped-back staging and exaggerated performances create a heightened reality, and pervasive humour means that when tragedy inevitably strikes, it’s blindsiding. Based on real-life events – and a novel by Michael Morpurgo – [...]
