Category: Reviews
The Comedy of Errors
This brilliantly funny production of Shakespeare’s comedy of separation anxiety and mistaken identity – set in modern times and part of the RSC’s ‘Shipwreck Trilogy’ – is a bright splash of colour flung across the Roundhouse stage with assuredness and a keen eye by director Amir Nizar Zuabi. Antipholus and … Continue Reading The Comedy of Errors
The Witness
The photo of a badly burned Kim Phuc running naked and screaming as napalm rains down on her destroyed village turned the American public against the Vietnam War and is still shocking now. In one frozen moment it captures the human cost of conflict in a way that no statistic … Continue Reading The Witness
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
CS Lewis’s beloved tale of four wartime evacuees who – thanks to a magic wardrobe – find themselves in a land of fauns and talking animals, has been turned into an IMAX-style theatrical rollercoaster ride, staged in a huge, purpose-built tent with a hi-tech domed interior akin to something from … Continue Reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Krapp’s Last Tape
Samuel Beckett’s one-man play hauntingly evokes how time and age makes us strange to ourselves. Aidan Stephenson’s one-off performance captured this achingly well, shading between slapstick and quiet tragedy. The Lectern’s small stage was the perfect setting for Beckett’s unflinching exploration of personal loss. Under the harsh light of an … Continue Reading Krapp’s Last Tape
Interference Pattern
Gary Mepsted’s psycho-sexual comedy drama about the twisted consequences of an affair comes with a warning that it is only suitable for over 18s. But it isn’t as grown-up as it thinks it is. The title refers to a physics phenomenon whereby the interference of two or more waves produces … Continue Reading Interference Pattern
The Importance of Being Earnest
What’s in a name? Everything for hapless Jack, whose decadent alter ego Ernest pays him a surprise visit courtesy of his mischievous friend Algernon. Hi-jinks ensue and romance blossoms as everyone learns the importance of being earnest. Skylight Theatre sets this much loved comedy of manners and identity confusion in … Continue Reading The Importance of Being Earnest
Rachael’s Cafe
Friendly, mini-skirted Rachael spends her days serving home-cooked food and tea in the café she owns in Bloomington, Indiana. But her life isn’t as straightforward as it sounds – because Rachael was born Eric. This one-hour solo show comes to the Brighton Fringe after a successful run at last year’s Edinburgh Festival. … Continue Reading Rachael’s Cafe
Land’s End
Borders are fascinating, in part, because of the possibility of space in between. What could exist between two things? And what would it mean for identity, cultural or moral, to live there? This is the subject of Belgian theatre company Berlin’s latest project, a mix of media, technology and live … Continue Reading Land’s End
Motor Show
The walk from Brighton’s busy city centre to Black Rock, a patch of wasteland butting onto the coast, shadowed by a multi-storey car park, feels long – particularly late in the evening on a cold, windswept Thursday. As the Palace Pier twinkles into the distance and white seafront terraces give … Continue Reading Motor Show
White Rabbit, Red Rabbit
This intriguing piece of political meta-theatre frames its exploration of the complicity inherent in conformity in terms of the relationship between playwright, performer and audience. Devoid of a director, a set and acted by a different person each evening, it strips back the stage magic to ask: what’s really going … Continue Reading White Rabbit, Red Rabbit
The Rest is Silence
dreamspeakthink’s latest piece achieves the near Herculean task of bringing something fresh to a play that has been constantly and exhaustively re-staged, most recently with Michael Sheen as the eponymous Dane. Set in the present day, it snips and reconnects the threads of Shakespeare’s text in unexpected ways, resulting in … Continue Reading The Rest is Silence
The Conquering Hero
Last year’s rare revival of Allan Monkhouse’s ‘Mary Broome’ was a success for the Orange Tree. But this staging of the writer’s state-of-the-nation play from the early ’20s fails to shake off the dust of the archive. The large-scale recruitment demanded by World War I divided British society at a … Continue Reading The Conquering Hero
South Downs/The Browning Version
In this superb double-bill, which shares a cast and has transferred to London following an acclaimed run in Chichester, order is everything. Not just to the characters at the two public schools that provide the setting but in terms of our appreciation of both plays. It’s a brave writer who … Continue Reading South Downs/The Browning Version
Barbarians
The volume of ‘Barbarians’ rarely drops below a shout. But Barrie Keeffe’s searing late-’70s depiction of a Britain that chews up its young and spits them out into a brutalising wasteland of broken promises and joblessness works best at high volume. Three linked plays about three lads explore with bruising … Continue Reading Barbarians
The Overcoat
Bank clerk Akaky McAkay has lived a low-key life. Since his birth during Elizabeth II’s coronation, his greatest joy has been to re-type loan applications and read Russian literature in bed. But the world is changing, even for the quiet man in the corner. When new management threatens his livelihood, … Continue Reading The Overcoat
Big and Small
Cate Blanchett is superb in Sydney Theatre Company’s new interpretation of German playwright Botho Strauss’s Brechtian exploration of alienation. Unlike some of the big names to tread the boards in London recently, she knows how to capture an audience. But she does so in a production that feels disjointed and … Continue Reading Big and Small