Monthly Archives: March 2013

Terence Rattigan (1911-1977), cruelly reviled and unjustly neglected during the last twenty years of his life, is now, thank goodness, firmly back in the fold and rightly much admired for his stagecraft and his characteristic British understatement. Here he manages, … Continue reading →

Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect. Franz Kafka’s novella has had many interpretations. The latest is a dance theatre piece by choreographer /director Arthur Pita to live music and a pre-recorded soundscape by … Continue reading →

G B Stern’s play was last seen in the West End in 1931. On the death of her father and elder brother in World War 1, a 20-year-old girl (delightful performance by Deidre Mullins) becomes the breadwinner of the family. … Continue reading →

Emma Rice, artistic director of the innovative Cornish company, Kneehigh, stages four scripts from Ray Galton and Alan Simpson’s popular sit coms of the 1960’s and 1970’s as if they were music hall sketches and adds song and dance. It’s … Continue reading →

David Bintley, artistic director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, has said that his family dance show has nothing to do with either pantomime slapstick or Walt Disney schmaltz and that it is “the least deep ballet I have ever made.” Now … Continue reading →

Christopher, a 15-year-old with Asperger Syndrome, has serious behavioural problems and attends a school for pupils with special needs. His parents find it very hard to cope. He has a photographic memory and is brilliant at mathematics. He is taking … Continue reading →

August Strindberg’s play, which premiered in 1889, still has the power to shock. Director playwright Yael Farber sets her adaptation in present day South Africa on a remote Karoo homestead. This raw and erotic production, which premiered in Cape Town, … Continue reading →

Novelist William Boyd’s first play merges two short stories by Anton Chekhov – My Life and A Visit to Friends – to produce an enjoyable pastiche which has all the Russian writer’s instantly recognizable and characteristic comic-tragic ingredients. Nina Raine’s … Continue reading →