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No food for thought
The Guilty at the Donmar sits somewhere between immersive theatre and watching an episode of a real crime drama on TV. It absolutely keeps you captivated for the very brief 60 minutes over which it plays out. Russell Tovey is compelling throughout, carrying the emotion and grounding the escalating tension in something believable. The set…
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More-al-less
I have no objection to Simon Stone taking liberties with Aeschylus. Any worthwhile adaptation should. And this, according to the publicity materials, is “after Aeschylus and others”. My objection is that he keeps adding to the play while quietly taking away what matters. In the process, the adaptation loses both focus and direction. The Oresteia…
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Bad Romance
In 2012 Shabir Ahmed, the ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang operating in Greater Manchester, was sentenced to 22 years for multiple child sexual offences and rape. Phil Davies wrote Firebird three years later and it debuted at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs in September 2015, transferring to Trafalgar Studios in February 2016. Shabir Ahmed was…
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Ceci n’est plus un misanthrope
In my country, Molière’s canonical trio of comedies, Tartuffe, The Misanthrope and The Miser, occupy a special place in the repertoire. For years, I’ve wondered why London theatres seem so reluctant to revisit them. This season, however, I’m being spoiled: both Tartuffe and The Misanthrope have returned in modernised forms. I still have Tartuffe to…
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Kathryn the Defiant
I need to be careful about what I write. White Rabbit Red Rabbit is as live as theatre gets, and an important part of what it seeks to achieve is inviting each person in the audience to examine their willingness to participate in theatre’s make-believe. Knowing anything in advance could diminish that experience. Besides, if…
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Making a meal of it
The Young Vic is generally known as the edgier, younger sibling—home to innovative productions of both classics and new writing. It follows that anything staged in the smaller spaces (The Maria, 150 seats; The Clare, 70 seats) may err on the less polished side. But this felt like rough-around-the-edges taken to a new level. The…
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Expensive cosplay
Despite being an avid theatre-goer, I hadn’t really given much thought to the calibre of female roles until recently, when I attended an event with Harriet Walter. She was promoting She Speaks: What Shakespeare’s Women Might Have Said, in which she gives voice to a range of women in Shakespeare’s plays. As part of her…
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Greek passions
I chose to see this production of Equus for slightly odd reasons. Firstly, because I had never been to the Menier Chocolate Factory. Secondly, because I was curious about the kind of role Radcliffe had chosen in order to de‑Potterise himself. Before I get my ignorance off my chest, I would like to start by…
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Unamazing Grace
Most of the plays I see come with a story I already know. So when one comes along that I know nothing about, I try to keep it that way, I don’t look it up or read around it. I go in properly blind. That was the case with Grace Pervades. We booked for Ralph…
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Flat-line
I am a massive fan of Oscar Wilde’s wit, so imagine my excitement when I saw An Ideal Husband was being staged. A holier‑than‑thou politician linked to an insider‑trading scandal buried deep in the past, unearthed by a letter. And then there’s the infamous line, “Don’t use big words. They mean so little” — a…
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