The Sound of Music review – charming musical nourishes the soul | Theatre
ELizabeth Newman’s six-year tenure as Pitlochry’s artistic director was marked by a generosity of spirit and an urge to connect. As Mother Abeth says of Maria in The Sound of Music, Newman has “a great capacity to love.” Which makes it all the more appropriate that her farewell shot before moving to Sheffield Theater is […]
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank review – charged chat explores Jewish identity | Theatre
NAsan Englandershort stories, First published in New Yorker magazine in 2011,track four jews arguing in a room. The room is Debbie and Phil's stylish Florida kitchen. The other Jews are Debbie's former school friend and her husband, visiting from Israel. While Debbie's life is now secular, Lauren has become Shoshana and lives an ultra-Orthodox life […]
Brace Brace review – high-stakes plane hijack drama is bumpy ride | Theatre
IThe setting is a frighteningly realistic, high-stakes drama about a honeymooning couple boarding a hijacked plane. We watch the plane's carrier on the ground in what they consider their final moments. Olly Forsyth's play thrillingly depicts the horror of a falling plane. The traverse stage, shaped like a boarding bridge, is raised at one end […]
Foreverland review – dystopian drama probes ethics of life extension | Theatre
IIf you want to live longer, exercise, eat well, and sleep more. But the couple in Emma Hemingford's play embark on a rather radical alternative to ensure they have decades to live. Jay, an aspiring biotech entrepreneur, and Alice, a slightly lost elementary school teacher, sign up for gene therapy. With a few consent forms, […]
The week in theatre: Giant; Roots; Look Back in Anger – review | Theatre
HThat's what happened on stage one night. Incendiary subject matter, extraordinary debut play, fleet direction, top-notch acting. Everything is on the wing. At the heart of Mark Rosenblatt giant The towering John Lithgow is as imposing as Roald Dahl, passionate and temperamental, a mischievous bully. Tall and stooped, his long face resembles a magic lantern […]
Never Let Me Go review – fresh life found in Kazuo Ishiguro’s school dystopia | Theatre
Dramatic adaptations of famous stories always have the problem of tension. How can a script keep people who already know the ending? On the opening night of this stage version of Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro's “Never Let Me Go,'' one could feel the uneasy charm of Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro's first-time audience watching […]
Waiting for Godot review – Beckett’s classic tragicomedy is more comedic than tragic | Theatre
SAmuel Beckett's 1953 tragicomedy about two sad men waiting by a willow tree for a mysterious figure to appear strikes a delicate balance between the absurd and the bleak, the funny and the terrifying. In James MacDonald's production, the drama between Estragon (Lucian M'Samati) and Vladimir (Ben Whishaw), who form an unspoken bond while waiting […]
Why Am I So Single? review – dating debacles from the duo behind Six | Theatre
TTwo musical theatre writers are trying to write a new show around the musical, and to complicate things further, they appear to be modelling their work on Toby Marlowe and Lucy Moss, the creators of Why Am I So Single? “Write what you know,” agents suggest. But that truism didn't apply when Marlowe and Moss […]
The Band Back Together review – witty reflections on youth and middle-age | Theatre
BRumors of a reunion seem to be circulating — at least, for one band — and here's another song that, while it may not have been as era-defining, speaks to a similar estrangement between members of a once-tight-knit group. The last time Joe (James Westphal), Ellie (Laura Evelyn) and Ross (Lois Cronin) performed together was […]
Death of England: The Plays review – Brexit-voting bailiff electrifies this post-Boris revamp | Theatre
TThe world has changed since Clint Dyer and Roy Williams’ foul-mouthed, dysfunctional inner circle first delivered a fast-paced, dramatic monologue about how their lives have been shaped by Brexit. As a triptych, it begins with Michael, the son of a racist flower seller played by Rafe Spall, telling his strange story at his father’s funeral. […]