Monthly Archives: March 2016

Jessica Swale’s jolly, bawdy and very lively Restoration romp, seen last year at Shakespeare’s Globe, has now transferred to West End. Playwright Aphra Behn (the first English woman to earn her living by writing) said of Nell, the famous actress … Continue reading →

Phil Davies’s drama is about sex-trafficking. There are currently 16,500 children at risk of sexual exploitation in England. The script is inspired by criminal activities committed by British Pakistanis in Rochdale. I am not sure who will actually want to … Continue reading →

Actresses have, quite rightly, been complaining that there are more roles for men than there are for women. One way to address the problem in classic plays is to change the sex of the character. Another way, not so successful, … Continue reading →

You may have seen the sweet little movie with Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. Henderson was the first producer to be allowed to introduce nudity on the London stage. She promised the Lord Chamberlain, who was stage censor, that her … Continue reading →

Eimear McBride wrote A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing when she was 27. It took her nine years to find a publisher. If you have read (or tried to read) the novel, you will know why she took so long. … Continue reading →

Jeff Wayne has been touring his musical version of H G Welles’s The War of the Worlds in large arenas since 2006. The show re-invented for the Dominion Theatre remains a hybrid, a concert with spectacular animation and video footage. … Continue reading →