Monthly Archives: December 2017

Simon Gray’s spy thriller, which closed early in 1995 when Stephen Fry had a breakdown and suddenly exited the production, is successfully revived by Ed Hall. 44-year-old spy and traitor George Blake, sentenced to imprisonment for 42 years, was sprung … Continue reading →

It is ridiculous that the only play of J M Barrie that is regularly revived is Peter Pan. Dear Brutus, which many think his masterpiece, is about a group of people being given a second chance and Barrie observes the … Continue reading →

Bernard Shaw’s plays are often criticized for being all talk and no action. But who cares when the talk is so brilliant and such fun. Misalliance, directed by Paul Miller and excellently acted, is a witty, freewheeling debate about the … Continue reading →

Conan Doyle, you will remember, got fed up writing about Sherlock Holmes and killed him off and he would have remained at the bottom of the Reichenbach Falls had it not been for American actor-playwright William Gillette deciding he wanted … Continue reading →

At Charles Dickens’s funeral in Westminster Abbey in 1888 the Very Reverend Dean Stanley preached that Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was the finest Christmas Sermon in the English language. Matthew Warchus’s in-the-round production at The Young Vic with Rhys … Continue reading →

Finborough Theatre, revives two famous plays, which has not been seen in years, an invaluable service to all those interested in theatre history. Jerome K Jerome is known today only as the author of that classic comic novel Three Men … Continue reading →

Also set in 1908 is Israel Zangwill’s The Melting Pot, which is about Russian immigrants in New York and is a paean to American brotherhood. A pious Jewish father is shocked that his son (Stefffan Cennydd, excellent) should want to … Continue reading →

Liwaa Yazji’s play describes life in Syria under a dictatorship. 16-year-olds, forced to enlist, are being slaughtered in the civil war. The government offers a mountain goat for the family of each martyr. The satire is at its best when … Continue reading →