Monthly Archives: May 2013

Henrik Ibsen’s play is the classic confrontation of one man against authority, fighting the lies, the hypocrisy and intolerance of vested interest. Written in anger in 1882, it was based on a true incident and is still germane. Richard Jones’s … Continue reading →

A brand new 2.5 million theatre has just opened in North London which is good news. The Park Theatre, unsubsidized, has two auditoriums. One has a thrust stage, seats 200 and looks like a smaller Donmar. The other is a … Continue reading →

There have been so many attempts to stage and film Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. None of them has ever succeeded. Last year the whole novel, literally word for word, was read aloud by American actors on stage, an 8-hour endurance test … Continue reading →

When Harold Pinter was a young man and short of cash he had volunteered to be a guinea pig for some tests at the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital. In 1958 he used this experience in a flawed play which remained in … Continue reading →

A wife discovers her husband is having an affair with a widow who is no older than their daughter and is absolutely devastated. What gives Peter Nichols’s 1981 play its originality and raison d’etre is its construction. The couple’s alter … Continue reading →

Helena Kaut-Howson has adapted, updated and directed Anton Chekhov’s first play, which he wrote in 1881 when he was a 21-year-old university medical student. It was not discovered until 1920 and not performed in Russia until 1960. The rough draft … Continue reading →

Alexander Ostrovsky (1823-1886), one of Russia’s most popular and prolific playwrights has not had the exposure in Britain that Chekhov, Gorky, Gogol and Turgenev have had. Hopefully, Jacqui Honess-Martin’s highly enjoyable production of Sam Adamson’s version of this 1878 comedy … Continue reading →

Adrian Lester’s most recent performance was in Red Velvet, a play about the 19th century African-American, Ira Aldridge, a famous Shakespearian actor, who came to England and performed in Europe and Russia. The play allowed Lester to act brief extracts … Continue reading →