Break My Fall

Originally published by So So Gay Magazine The streets of London aren’t so much paved with gold in writer, producer and director Kanchi Wichmann’s first feature, Break My Fall, as they are with vomit, rubbish and the lovely-sounding ‘squat-juice’. Nevertheless, Wichmann has succeeded in making a film that shines, downplaying the indie-beat vibe … Continue Reading Break My Fall

Betrayal

For a play about adultery, Betrayal is pretty light on between-the-sheets action. There’s no cat-and-mouse seduction over dinner or heart-racing quickie among the office filing cabinets; not for Harold Pinter the titillation of playing away. He’s more interested in the vulnerability of infidelity, what’s at stake when you hinge your happiness on … Continue Reading Betrayal

Luise Miller

It’s often said that the Devil has the best lines; and this is certainly the case in Michael Grandage’s staging of Friedrich Schiller’s early piece of political melodrama. However, in this swipe at the inequities of the eighteenth-century German aristocracy, man is the demon and God is a spoilt prince cosseted away in … Continue Reading Luise Miller

Tom Jones

First published by Time Out Ross Ericson’s knockabout adaptation of bawdy eighteenth-century novel ‘Tom Jones’ is more ‘Carry on Clarissa’ than social or literary satire. But while it may not be the classiest show on the fringe it’s a lot of fun. In the spirit of Henry Fielding’s original, we … Continue Reading Tom Jones

The Four Stages of Cruelty

Adapting William Hogarth’s coruscating vision of a vice-filled London is an attractive proposition. Substitute crack for gin, and his depiction of broken families and corrupt politicians could be ripped from today’s headlines. But Adam Brace and Sebastian Armesto’s interpretation for the stage of ‘The Four Stages of Cruelty’ reveals that … Continue Reading The Four Stages of Cruelty

Lord of the Flies

Since its publication in 1954, Lord of the Flies has lost some of its shock value. At a time when our headlines are filled with stories about teenage gangs and knife-crime, its tale of British schoolchildren who descend into savagery comes across as prescient but unhappily commonplace. And in a post-9/11 world … Continue Reading Lord of the Flies

The Lady of Burma

Aung San Suu Kyi, guest director of this year’s Brighton Festival, has been such a potent absent-presence in the public imagination that it’s almost jarring at the start of The Lady of Burma to find her given voice. But thanks to the beautiful concision of Richard Shannon’s writing, Owen Lewis’s careful direction … Continue Reading The Lady of Burma

Midsummer

The lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream are surely among the most irritating characters in theatre. Self-important and humourless, they’re a cringe-worthy reminder that love’s young dream really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Midsummer, written and directed by David Greig with music by Gordon McIntyre, borrows a name, Helena, and the solstice … Continue Reading Midsummer

Kingdom of Earth

There’s an exquisite cruelty to Tennessee Williams’s work; a lacerating nostalgia for a seamy and corrupted South that pities no one. The rarely-performed Kingdom of Earth, which condenses this sneering despair into a claustrophobic three-hander, offers as little respite to the audience as the pile of earth on stage does to … Continue Reading Kingdom of Earth