Tag Archives: family drama

the end of history

Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs ***
Runs: 1hr 50 mins without interval
TICKETS 020 7565 -5000
In person: Mon–Sat, 10am-start of perf or 6pm if no show
On-line: www.royalcourttheatre.co.uk

© Johan Persson, David Morrissey as a sympathetic David, husband to Lesley Sharp's dynamic Sal - a loving couple...

© Johan Persson, David Morrissey as a sympathetic David, husband to Lesley Sharp’s dynamic Sal – a loving couple…

Review: of performance seen July 4, 2019:

Even the best of intentions can sometimes end up messily.

You’d think the combo of Jack Thorne and John Tiffany (Harry Potter and The Cursed Child and before that, Hope, and the brilliant adaptation of the Swedish gothic tale, let the right one in) would be a brilliant reunion. Continue reading

Death of a Salesman

Young Vic Theatre, London ****

Review of perf seen May 10, 2019:
Runs: 3hrs with a 15 min interval

© Brinkhoff Mogensburg, Sharon D Clarke (Linda Loman), Wendell Pierce (Willy Loman) - a loving couple but unhappy household...

© Brinkhoff Mogensburg, Sharon D Clarke (Linda Loman), Wendell Pierce (Willy Loman) – a loving couple but unhappy household…

This is the third production of that titan of a play, Arthur Miller’s semi-autobiographical reworking of his own family history, Death of a Salesman, I’ve seen in the past four years.

Miller is having something of a renaissance just at the moment with All My Sons, The American Clock and The Price all having been recently seen in the West End.  Continue reading

The Great Wave

Dorfman, National Theatre ****

© Mark Douet, Rosalind Chao, as the mother of abductee, Hanako and Tom Piper's set of screens and video projections of the coastal environment...

© Mark Douet, Rosalind Chao, as the mother of abductee, Hanako and Tom Piper’s set of screens and video projections of the coastal environment…

The great Yukio Ninagawa apart, South East and North East Asia have not figured greatly on our main stages. So Francis Turnly’s Korean/Japanese political/family drama comes as something of a shock. Indeed, it is a shocking tale, carrying with it intimations of past histories and global spheres of influence about which we, in the West, are quite literally shockingly ignorant. Continue reading

Buried Child

Trafalgar Studios, London (****)

© Johan Persson, Ed Harris as Dodge, in the dying throes of...

© Johan Persson, Ed Harris as Dodge, in the dying throes of…

There are some classic lines in Sam Shepard’s brilliant 1978 Pulitzer prize winner, Buried Child. `We can’t not believe in something – we just end up dying if we stop. Just end up dead’. Continue reading

Things I know to be true

Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, then touring (*****)

© Manuel Harlan, the company

© Manuel Harlan, the company

If only more theatre companies could take a leaf from Frantic Assembly’s Scott Graham and State Theatre Company Australia director, Geordie Brookman! This I know to be true. They’ve found a way with Andrew Bovell’s heartfelt family drama to make every word count, every word audible – even the silences in between. And that, I can tell you, is a rare thing these days. Continue reading