For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy review: Vital, frenetic storytelling April 12, 2022 Ryan Calais Cameron’s urgent new play is a worthy bedfellow to the seminal theatre show which inspired its name, 1970s breakthrough piece For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. It features seven men on stage in a set up that’s something like a group therapy session, with the men [...]
The show goes on: Olivier awards return in sign of West End comeback April 10, 2022 The West End’s biggest stars donned their gladrags to walk the ‘green carpet’ tonight at the 2022 Olivier’s following a three-year pandemic-forced gap. Cabaret was among the big winners of the day, with Rebecca Frecknall winning best director for the London Playhouse production and Eddie Redmayne taking best actor for his performance as The Emcee. [...]
Review: Football: Designing the Beautiful Game at the Design Museum April 10, 2022 A photo emerged last summer of beaming England footballer Bukayo Saka leaping into a swimming pool astride an inflatable unicorn. Such was the pure joy captured by the image that it quickly attained cult status and, as these things do, spawned a thousand memes. Well, anyone who quipped on social media to “Hang it in [...]
The Lost City review: Bullock and Tatum shine in lowbrow comedy April 10, 2022 Like her Speed co-star Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock is a star who never seems too far from a hit. There’s something about the girl-next-door charm of the Oscar winner that keeps people coming back even in an era where brands are more popular than stars. Having found success with Gravity, Birdbox, and Ocean’s 8 over [...]
Compartment No 6 continues a fine lineage of train-based romance movies April 10, 2022 If TikTok celeb Francis Bourgeois has taught us anything, it’s that trains can be exciting. Cinema shares that sentiment, with memorable classics including Brief Encounter and Strangers On A Train giving the everyday form of transport a sense of romance. Juho Kuosmanen’s drama Compartment No 6 may not have the same sweeping sentiment, but it [...]
Fever Syndrome at Hampstead Theatre: A family drama with lofty ambitions April 9, 2022 Fever Syndrome has lofty ambitions. It wants to exist in the same space as the great family dramas of Sam Shepard but feels more apiece with the middlebrow family dramas of Sunday evening on the BBC. It is neither a great play nor a terrible one, comfortably carrying its 2 hour 40 minute running time [...]
To Kill A Mockingbird review: Aaron Sorkin breathes new life into Harper Lee’s novel April 9, 2022 Following its critically acclaimed run on Broadway, Hollywood screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s retelling of this classic of modern American literature hits the West End, and it is not to be missed. Sorkin takes a fresh look at the illustrious tale of defence lawyer Atticus Finch, his children, the mysterious Boo Radley and the falsely accused black [...]
Daddy review: Queer ecstasy and vulnerability in ambitious play with uneven script  April 8, 2022 Wearing Versace as he greets ticket holders outside the Almeida theatre, Jeremy O’Harris looks and acts like the star playwright he’s fast becoming. He has the cultural cache to boot: He’s the burgeoning writer who consulted on the script for Euphoria and broke onto Broadway with the controversial Slave Play, nominated for Best Play at [...]
George the Poet interview: George Mpanga on how to change the world April 7, 2022 It seems almost unbelievable that Harry and Megan’s wedding – global audience: 1.9 billion – was opened by… a podcaster. But George Mpanga, better known as George the Poet, is no ordinary podcaster; he’s a musician and a thinker, pushing the boundaries of the medium so far he’s created a genre all of his own. [...]
The Bad Guys review: Better than average animated fun April 7, 2022 Once the home of giants including Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and How To Train Your Dragon, Dreamworks has played it safe over the last few years, with competitor Pixar disappearing into the distance. Films like Boss Baby, Trolls, and The Croods are enjoyable, but they are glossy distractions for children rather than something worth remembering. [...]