Category: Identity
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Peer Gynt at the National Theatre review ****
Peer Gynt National Theatre Olivier, 1st October 2019 I know what I need. A bit more Ibsen. There are reasons why theatre-makers keep returning to the master and the slew of high profile productions in London this year alone is a reminder of why. I would probably plump for Ian…
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The Doctor at the Almeida Theatre review *****
The Doctor Almeida Theatre, 13th September 2019 He’s only gone and done it again. Robert Icke, the departing Associate Director at the Almeida, has ended on a high. Like that is any great surprise. Once again he has taken a classic text, this time Arthur Schnitzler’s dissection of anti-Semitism in…
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Wife at the Kiln Theatre review ****
Wife Kiln Theatre, 3rd July 2019 How difficult can it be to get to Kilburn? Very it would seem if you are the Tourist, this being the second time this year that he has missed the start of a matinee performance, (and having cut it perilously fine on another occasion).…
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Sancho: An Act of Remembrance at the Orange Tree Theatre review ****
Paterson Joseph – Sancho: An Act of Remembrance Orange Tree Theatre, 30th June 2019 OK. So let me get this out of the way at the beginning. Paterson Joseph’s one man homage to Charles Ignatius Sancho, the first Black Briton to vote, sometimes comes across as just a little too…
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Out of Water at the Orange Tree Theatre review *****
Out of Water Orange Tree Theatre, 9th May 2019 The Tourist was much taken with Zoe Cooper’s last play, Jess and Joe Forever, also at the Orange Tree, in 2016. A coming of age story which charted the relationship of Joe, Norfolk born and bred, and Jess, posh and up…
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Small Island at the National Theatre review *****
Small Island National Theatre Olivier If you know Andrea Levy’s Small Island either from the original 2004 book, (not me I confess), or the 2009 Two part BBC adaptation with script from Sarah Williams and Paula Milne and starring the inimitable Ruth Wilson and Naomie Harris then you will know…
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The Magic Flute at the ENO review *****
The Magic Flute English National Opera, 28th March 2019 I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. When opera works there is no other art form to touch. But when it doesn’t it can be mystifyingly dull. What’s more it can be the very same opera which is both…
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Blood Knot at the Orange Tree Theatre review ***
Blood Knot Orange Tree Theatre, 19th March 2019 To date I have only seen two plays by Athol Fugard. Both bravely examine racial politics in a South Africa divided by apartheid. Both are two-handers examining the relationship between two men, John and Winston, two prisoners on Robben Island practicing for…
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Cyprus Avenue at the Royal Court Theatre review ****
Cyprus Avenue Royal Court Theatre, 4th March 2019 From one black comedy which imagines taboo breaking violence to make a political point (here big as well as small “p”) to another. Having seen the Ladykiller from The Thelmas at the Vault Festival it was off next evening with the SO,…
At Home He Feels Like A Tourist 