Monthly Archives: November 2012

An out-of-work and starving soprano is persuaded that the best way to break into show business would be to pretend to be a man whose speciality act is female impersonation. She immediately lands a job in cabaret and “he” becomes … Continue reading →

NSFW is an internet acronym for Not Safe For Work and warns viewers that they might not want to be caught looking at this particular material in the work place. Lucy Kirkwood’s satire on the media’s crude exploitation of women’s … Continue reading →

Choreographer Russell Maliphant takes his inspiration from Rodin’s magnificent sculptures and then improvises. The most obvious reference is The Gates of Hell with the dancers sliding down and off a high wall and tumbling on to angular surfaces, to provide … Continue reading →

Bram Stoker’s Gothic horror story, which has been adapted in countless films, plays, ballets and operas, came to him in a nightmare which was caused, he said, by eating dressed crab. The Polish company, TR Warszawa, by calling their version … Continue reading →

Howard Brenton writes entertainingly about a key moment in British history. King Charles I in 1649 is accused of high treason for having started a Civil War in which 190,000 were killed out of a population of 5 million. Since … Continue reading →

Jez Butterworth’s miniature 80-minute drama, tense, lyrical and enigmatic, is set in a remote cabin on a cliff near a river on a moonless night Mixing memory and desire, and skilfully directed by Ian Rickson, it feels as if it … Continue reading →

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Neurotic Medea takes a terrible and mad revenge when her husband, Jason, decides to ditch her and marry a younger woman. The story had been told many times before Euripides’ premiere in … Continue reading →

Somerset Maugham (1876-1965), probably best known these days for his cynical short stories, was once a highly popular playwright and his waspish high comedies, such as The Circle and Our Betters, are infinitely more worthy of revival than this late … Continue reading →