Category Archives: Reviews

The Incident Room

New Diorama, London ****
Runs: 2hrs 25 mins with 20 min interval.
TICKETS : 0207 383 9034
Review of perf seen Feb 26, 2020:

© The Other Richard, Charlotte Melia, as Megan Winterburn, modest, hard-working, cigarette smoking police Sergeant, a witness to five harrowing years…

The Yorkshire Ripper. Leeds 1975. Anyone reading those words might be forgiven for feeling a shiver down the spine. Notoriety comes in multifarious ways. For some it comes through misdeeds. For Peter Sutcliffe it certainly brought a particular form of `celebrity’. Continue reading →

I Cinna [the Poet]

Unicorn Theatre, London *****
Runs: 1hr 10 mins without interval
TICKETS: Box Office: 020 7645 0560
Child guidance: 11-14yrs
Review of perf seen Feb 19, 2020:

© Helen Murray, Tim Crouch/Cinna the poet, he waits for us, his audience, to start writing words. What would we die for, what would we kill for…Julius Caesar’s murder setting the context, politics and morality at stake.

Cinna, the poet, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. He is the unhappy victim of a moment of mob mentality, when a ruler has been displaced – assassinated – when the crowd are thirsting for revenge having had their heads and heart turned by the words of Marc Antony over Caesar’s body at his funeral. Continue reading →

Far Away

Donmar Warehouse,
41 Earlham Street,
Seven Dials, London WC2H 9LX

Runs: 40 mins without interval
Review of perf seen Feb 13, 2020:

© Johan Persson, Abbiegail Mills as young Joan surveying Lizzie Clachan’s apparently comforting arcadian scene until she sees what really lies inside…

By now, Caryl Churchill has become synonymous with startling experimentation. Continue reading →

Nora: A Doll’s House

Young Vic Theatre,
66 The Cut,
London SE1 8LZ
TICKETS: 020 7922 2922.
Runs: 1hr 45 mins without interval
Review of perf seen Feb 12, 2020:

© Marc Brenner, Anna Russell-Martin, Amaka Okafor, Natalie Klamar – the three Noras, walking into their house…

To those who know Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Stef Smith and Glasgow Citz/Young Vic radical reworking will come as something of a shock. Continue reading →

The Canary and the Crow

Arcola Theatre, London *****
Runs: 1hr 10 mins without interval
Box Office:  020 7503 1646
Online: www.arcolatheatre.com

Review of perf seen Feb 3, 2020:

© The Other Richard, Daniel Ward (centre), with Rachel Barnes and Laurie Jamieson (cellos and actors) – marvellous multi-skilling…

There have been many plays about racism over the past half century but I don’t remember any that hit so hard, so fluently or so entertainingly as the Hull-based company, Middle Child’s The Canary and the Crow written by Daniel Ward. Continue reading →

Persona

Riverside Studios, London ****
Runs: 90 mins no interval.
Box office: 020 8237 1010
www.riversidestudios.co.uk

Review of perf seen Jan 30, 2020:

© Pamela Raith, Alice Krige as Alma, Nobuhle Mngcwengi as Elizabet – the tables are turned from carer to be cared for…

There’s a sense of déjà vu about Persona launching a new era at Riverside Studios.

Six years after it closed for refurbishment, here is Riverside – once the home of an eclectic range of home grown and touring work, and run for a number of years with great elan by Peter Gill – back in business. Continue reading →