Translations at the National Theatre review – a smart look at British imperialism on the island of Ireland Calling on the fearsome technical resources of the National Theatre, Ian Rickson’s new production of Brian Friel’s Translations is accomplished if not revolutionary. Set in Ireland’s County Donegal in 1833, it deals with the overwriting of landscapes by empire and the entwining of language with identity. It’s the tale of a “hedge-school” in the community [...]
Seventeen review: An exploration of the quirks of pissed up post-exam youngsters Premiered in Australia and reproduced for the Lyric Hammersmith, Matthew Whittet's tale of smalltown British teens getting sozzled after finishing their A-levels is a gentle love-letter to the clumsiness of adolescence, as portrayed by a cast of middle-aged actors. The characters should be immediately familiar, from coming-of-age fiction if not firsthand experience – a prancing [...]
Promises, Promises at Southwark Playhouse review: a badly dated comedy that’s a gilded celebration of lechery I can’t think of a more appropriate start to the Trump era than revisiting Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s 1968 Broadway hit – a breezy chronicle of workplace sexism in which Boys Will Be Boys, whatever the cost, and women are either brutalised angels awaiting Mr Right or mouthy broads lounging in the clutches of [...]
Peter Pan at National Theatre: this off-kilter adaptation is as as bewildering as it is beguiling December 9, 2016 The National Theatre’s adaptation of Peter Pan is a hectic, colourful experience that should appeal to young and old alike. It’s also all over the place in terms of its treatment of JM Barrie’s long-serving fairytale, by turns reactionary and radical. Director Sally Cookson leaves the barrier between story and stage machinery engagingly fluid – [...]
This lively adaptation of Pride and Prejudice squeezes twenty characters out of two actors December 8, 2016 Jane Austen’s novels are about the macrocosm in the microcosm. They are about the discreet play of agendas that turn a regency drawing room gathering into an epic battle of wills, for those lively enough to read between the lines. Johannah Tincey’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice explores this polite, compact ferocity by casting two [...]
The Dresser at the Duke of York Theatre: a savage but loving tribute to ham theatre October 20, 2016 Dementia, Shakespeare and the Blitz collide gloriously in Ronald Harwood’s tragicomedy The Dresser. Set in wartime 1940s, it tells the tale of a deteriorating actor known as “Sir” and the theatre’s dresser, Norman, whose job it is to coax and bully the ailing grandee through his 227th rendition of King Lear. A reflection on Harwood's [...]