Monthly Archives: February 2014

One hundred years ago the lights were going out all over Europe. This legendary musical entertainment, based on the songs and statistics of the First World War, was created by Joan Littlewood, Charles Hilton, Gerry Raffles and members of the … Continue reading →

The South African Handspring Company made their name in the UK with War Horse, one of the most brilliant and unforgettable productions of modern times. Now they turn their attention on Shakespeare’s most famous comedy. The puppeteers, as in Japanese … Continue reading →

A married couple, living on the 47th floor of a tower block, wake one morning to find the computer, the TV, the phone and the lift are not working. They have no electricity and no water. They panic. Australian playwright … Continue reading →

What do men want? What do women want? Abi Morgan’s two-hander is based on a memoir, which was based on tape recordings made over a thirty year period by an anonymous middle-aged couple, who turned their love-affair into a sexual … Continue reading →

Samuel Beckett has produced some unforgettable images; and none more so than the woman who spends the first act buried up to her waist in earth and the second act buried up to her neck. When I first saw this … Continue reading →

Between 1938 and the outbreak of World War 2, 10,000 Jewish children, aged between 5 and 17 arrived in Britain from Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia, refugees from Nazi persecution, seeking asylum. Most of them never saw their parents again. … Continue reading →

Lope de Vega’s farce, written in 1613, is part of an admirable season of plays from Spain’s Golden Age. A father has two marriageable daughters, both beautiful. The eldest is far too intelligent and arrogant for her own good. The … Continue reading →

The plays of Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) deserve to be revived more often. In Britain he survives mainly in Verdi’s operas. The Robbers, an overblown romantic melodrama, is a young man’s work and was begun when he was 19 and still … Continue reading →