Category: USA
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Shipwreck at the Almeida Theatre review *****
Shipwreck Almeida Theatre, 18th March 2019 The Tourist, as this blog shows, is a nice bloke given to giving creatives the benefit of the doubt. Hence the string of positive reviews on these pages. He likes to think that he is wise in his choice of entertainment. The reality is…
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The American Clock at the Old Vic review ***
The American Clock Old Vic Theatre, 11th February 2019 All the reviews will tell you the same thing. This was not one of Arthur Miller’s finest moments. Mind you his finest moments are amongst the greatest in theatrical history so the bar is set pretty high. A series of vignettes,…
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Detroit at the Guildhall School review ****
Detroit Guildhall School, Milton Court Theatre, 5th February 2019 The Tourist has remarked before on the benefits of checking out the productions staged at Britain’s major theatre schools. Excellent actors and creatives destined to to go on to greater things, usually professional directors, interesting repertoire, often first revivals of recent…
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Sweat at the Donmar Warehouse review *****
Sweat Donmar Warehouse, 24th January 2019 Who is the greatest living playwright (in the English language). Caryl Churchill. Obviously. Who is, in the opinion of the Tourist, probably the most talented playwright under 40 in Britain today. Ella Hickson. What was the best original play the Tourist saw last year.…
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Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields at King’s Place review *****
Bang on a Can All Stars, BBC Singers, Tecwyn Evans (conductor) Kings Place Hall One, 19th January 2019 I had heard a few snippets of Julia Wolfe’s compositions but freely admit this was a bit of a leap into the unknown. Still what I had heard seemed interesting, I was keen…
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True West at the Vaudeville Theatre review ****
True West Vaudeville Theatre, 10th January 2019 The Tourist’s first viewing of a Sam Shepherd play. A couple of near misses, but this, with Matthew Dunster directing and Johnny Flynn as one of the two brothers was not to be missed. I was less sure about the acting merits of…
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Death of a Salesman at the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester review *****
Death of a Salesman Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, 12th November 2018 The greatest English language play from the second half of the C20? Waiting for Godot? All That Fall? Or maybe Beckett’s Endgame? No, too tricky by half. A Streetcar Named Desire? It just about sneaks in time-wise but too…
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Porgy and Bess at the ENO review ****
Porgy and Bess English National Opera, 31st October 2018 It has been a long time coming. This co-production, together with the Met and the Dutch National Opera, is the first time it has appeared on the Coliseum stage. The re-written version, with book by Suzanne Lori-Parks, (which attracted the ire…
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The Wolves at the Theatre Royal Stratford East review ****
The Wolves Theatre Royal Stratford East, 26th October 2018 …. or 3 stars if you would prefer the opinion of LD which may be more relevant since she should have a greater affinity with the subjects of Sarah DeLappe’s novel debut play. The SO similarly enjoyed the production but was…
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The Humans at the Hampstead Theatre review ****
The Humans Hampstead Theatre Main Stage, 3rd October 2018 Sometimes it can feel like the whole history of US theatrical drama is one long story of family dysfunctionality. Mind you you can see why. When it works, Miller, O’Neill, Williams, Albee, Shepherd, Wilson, Kushner, to name a few, it is…
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