Monthly Archives: November 2013

Reginald Rose’s awarding-winning drama, initially written for television in 1954, was made into a memorable film in 1957 by Sidney Lumet with a brilliant cast, headed by Henry Fonda and including Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, … Continue reading →

Jeeves and Bertie Wooster are one of the great English comic double acts. The surprise is that P G Wodehouse, who wrote so many plays and books for musicals, never got round to writing a play about them himself. The … Continue reading →

Jez Butterworth, author of the highly successful Jerusalem, won the prize for most promising playwright in 1995 when Mojo was premiered at the Royal Court. The play, raw and violent, was written in the era of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs … Continue reading →

In Homer, Ovid and Shakespeare, Ajax is portrayed as boastful and brainless, a comic butt. In Sophocles he is seen as a tragic figure, suffering a massive mental breakdown. The play, written in the 5th century BC, is rarely performed … Continue reading →

Michael Morpurgo, the former children’s laureate and award-winning author, has always been interested in the relationship between Man and animal and the brilliant stage adaptation of his novel, War Horse, has proved to be one of the National Theatre’s greatest … Continue reading →

The full story, the truth of South Africa’s secret involvement during the Angolian war in the 1970’s, has still to be told. The war dead continue to wait for justice. In the aftermath there may be remorse, sorrow and shame; … Continue reading →

Michael Hasting’s 1966 play is revived for the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy. Oswald comes across as deeply disturbed and thoroughly unlikeable chap who shouts a lot. The verbatim dialogue is based on transcripts from … Continue reading →

An appalling miscarriage of justice would seem to be a most unlikely subject for a Broadway musical, and yet John Kander and Fred Ebb, whose 40-year musical stage partnership has produced such modern classics as Cabaret and Chicago, have brilliantly … Continue reading →