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
Donmar Warehouse, London ****
Runs: 1hr 55 mins without interval
Review of perf seen Oct 18, 2019:
100 scenes, a cast of sixteen and a set of skeletal frames, each one a different room, atmosphere, ambience, telling a different story.
© Helen Maybaniks, Rosie Elnile’s set for Maria Aberg’s haunting, hard-hitting production, every space telling a different story…
Donmar Warehouse, London ***
Box office: 020 3282 3808 (No booking fees, £1 postage fee may apply) Telephone Mon-Sat 10am-6pm In person Mon-Sat, 10am-curtain up (with some exceptions, see website)
© Marc Brenner, Monica Dolan as an angry older sister, Toni, Steven Mackintosh as wry, wheeler-dealer brother Bo and Edward Hogg as the unkempt and repentant Franz amidst the rubbish of their family home…
Runs: 2hrs 30 mins incl 15 min interval Review of perf seen Aug 23, 2019: Where would American theatre be without the family drama? It seems we have been watching them forever, from Arthur Miller to good old Tennessee, to latter day versions such as Bruce Norris and Tracey Letts. And not forgetting Lorraine Hansberry whose Raisin in the Sun begat August Wilson’s African-American decology of plays, all of them centred around a family. Continue reading
Donmar Theatre, London ****
Runs: 2hrs 20 mins incl 15 min interval
Review of perf seen July 1, 2019:
© Marc Brenner; Theo Barklem-Biggs (Horse), Stephen Wight (Billy), Billy Howle (Berlin), Ron Cook (fret), Kevork Malikyan (Sava), Natalia Tena (Katia) – immigrants and residents clashing up against each other…
How fascinating to see David Greig’s Europe again twenty-five years on from its premiere. What was Greig thinking about, I wonder, when he first wrote Europe in 1994? – a landscape so far distant from our own in 2019 in terms of optimism in a play also now so prescient of the violence that immigration has unleashed on Europe reigniting the rise of neo fascism barely fifty years after the war that many must have thought had crushed it forever. Continue reading
Donmar Warehouse, London ****
© Johan Persson; Anne-Marie Duff as Charity Hope Valentine, a sweet innocent in a dark world, always looking for something better and hoping to be loved…
Runs: 2hrs 30 mins incl 15 min interval
Review of perf seen April 18, 2019:
`A sweet sexy fairy tale’ is how one critic described Sweet Charity on its opening in London in Oct 1967.
And Josie Rourke’s final production as the Donmar’s artistic director before handing over to Michael Longhurst certainly lives up to that description but also makes it something rather more and darker because of the unlikely casting of Anne-Marie Duff as Sweet Charity. Continue reading
The Convert ****
By Danai Gurira
© Marc Brenner with Letitia Wright (Jekesai/Ester) – the newest convert…
Young Vic Theatre,
The Cut,
London SE1 8LZ
Runs: 3hrs incl two 15 min intervals
Sweat ****
By Lyn Nottage
© Johan Persson, with Leanne Best (Jessie), Martha Plimpton (Tracey), Clare Perkins (Cynthia)
Donmar Warehouse,
41 Earlham Street,
Seven Dials, London WC2H 9LX
Runs: 2hrs 30 mins incl 15 min interval
Summer and Smoke *****
By Tennessee Williams
© Marc Brenner, Patsy Ferran carries the load as Alma in Rebecca Frecknall’s superb revival. Here facing the chorus of pianos and the back brick wall distinctive of the Almeida auditorium and replicated in the West End setting.
Duke of York’s Theatre
St Martin’s Lane
London WC2N 4BG
Runs: 2hrs 40mins incl 15 min interval
Review by Carole Woddis of performances seen Dec 18, 20, and Dec 22, 2018:
After something of an enforced lay-off, this week has been one of those weeks. Three shows via our three of our foremost subsidised London theatres, the Young Vic, Donmar Warehouse and the third, an Almeida Theatre transfer to the West End at the Duke of York’s. Continue reading