-
Certainly Uncertain
I am not entirely sure why Arcadia has acquired a reputation for being overly intellectual, whilst Copenhagen has not. The former gently ranges over a variety of broadly shared humanist reference points; the latter feels like being sat down for a lesson in nuclear physics, with a rather heavy‑handed allusion to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. At…
|
-
Let’s dance
We went to see this play as a family, very early on in its run, and had the fortune to follow it up with a Q&A session with the playwright herself. It was a superb experience, and the close setting of the Royal Court added to the feeling of being part of something quite unique.…
|
-
The life never had
I had a cousin who took his life. The night before going to see Romeo and Juliet, I had a dream about him. I woke up deeply affected. I wasn’t sure what had prompted it, but it was a beautiful dream. We talked about his daughter. He was happy. That evening I went to the…
|
-
Staying sober at the Summerfolk Dacha
I like a lot of Russian classics – books, plays. There is so much lyricism in Master and Margarita, and so much longing in The Three Sisters. So I was quite excited reading on Wikipedia that Summerfolk is a play by Maxim Gorky written in 1904 (…) full of characters who “…might have stepped out…
|
-
Hysterical impotence
Broken Glass premiered in 1994 — first in New York, where it was mostly disliked, and then in London at the National’s Lyttelton, where the reaction was more mixed. It became one of Miller’s more criticised works, with many seeing it as a messy low in his career. But wanting the play to resolve itself…
|
-
Shadow Host
It isn’t a tale of two halves, really; more like one of four uneven quarters. I genuinely enjoyed the first half of the first half: the writing felt sharp, the dialogue quick, the energy alive. Things were actually happening. I wanted to know more. And, with hindsight, a good chunk of that early brilliance may…
|
-
What a load of wobble
Spoiler alert – this is a new play – do not read on if you don’t want to know about what happens There is very little positive to say about Anna Ziegler’s Evening all afternoon at the Donmar. For a play about the importance of connecting, it really does not connect. I suppose it did…
|
-
References in the round
I appreciate that conversations at my dinner table may currently be far removed from most people’s everyday experience. With two children fascinated by religion, philosophy as well as drama, and English literature A-levels and science GCSEs on the go simultaneously, our evening conversations regularly involve debates on the god argument interwoven with circle theorems and…
|
-
Not quite a musical
I am always fascinated that nowadays anything and everything is being turned into a musical. Even Silence of the Lambs, apparently. Conversely, I feel strongly that not everything should be adapted for the stage, so I was somewhat sceptical about booking this show. But having fallen in love with Denise Gough’s performance in People, places…
|
-
More than tropes
The plot is little more than a combination of wedding clichés: a series of interconnecting vignettes set minutes before a wedding is supposed to take place, complete with wedding jitters, dancing on beds, fights, and drinks. Despite the lack of a substantial storyline, I really do not regret going. It was my first “scene‑specific” performance,…
|