Tag Archives: James Macdonald

What If If Only

Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs ****
Sloane Square
London SW1
Runs: 17 mins without interval
Review of perf seen Oct 1, 2021:

© Johan Persson. Linda Bassett as the ghost of things past and what is to come and John Heffernan, harrowed by grief…

WHAT IF IF ONLY – how many times must that have been said of a best beloved who has died. If only I had, what if this or that hadn’t happened? Continue reading

Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp.

Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, London ****
Runs: 2hr 20 mins incl an interval
TICKETS 020 7565 -5000
In person: Mon–Sat, 10am-start of perf or 6pm if no show

© Johan Persson, Louisa Harland, Kwabena Ansah, Rebekah Murrell, Patrick McNamee - red rubber dog, a clock, a glass girl, a vase - with human feelings...in Glass

© Johan Persson, Louisa Harland, Kwabena Ansah, Rebekah Murrell, Patrick McNamee – red rubber dog, a clock, a glass girl, a vase – with human feelings…in Glass

Review: of perf seen Sept 26, 2019:

Remarkable. At 81, Caryl Churchill is still producing new plays as daring in form and treatment as any. She’s now brought not one but four new plays to the Royal Court, in many ways her alma mater where so many of her plays have seen the first light of day.  Continue reading

The Children

Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs (****)

&copy' Johan Persson, Deborah Findlay as domestic `goddess', Hazel...

&copy’ Johan Persson, Deborah Findlay as domestic `goddess’, Hazel…

Dystopian scenarios are becoming ever more frequent. And for good reason. Writers and artists are often the ones who can see further ahead than the rest of us, who can predict the coming storms. Continue reading

#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei

Hampstead Theatre, London

The Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei’s iconic face stares out of the Hampstead theatre programme. One of the most famous profiles in western Art, he has become a symbol for the struggle for human rights and freedom of expression the world over. Cultures seem to throw up personalities from time to time who personify their age. One thinks of Nelson Mandela, the writer Solzhenitsyn. Weiwei’s hooded eyes and beard etched in grey now looks marbled. Unmoving. Continue reading

Wild

Hampstead Theatre, London (****)

© Stephen Cummiskey, Jack Farthing as Andrew

© Stephen Cummiskey, Jack Farthing as Andrew

Wild by name and wild in execution. The prolific Mike Bartlett (credits and awards piling up, most recently for the clever, futuristic King Charles III, currently in film production and on tv, Doctor Foster), has done it again. Continue reading

Escaped Alone

Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs (****)

© Johan Persson

© Johan Persson

Theatre’s pre-eminent Cassandra, the title of Caryl Churchill’s latest play comes from the quote prefacing Moby Dick, from the Book of Job. Continue reading