All stories by Arifa Akbar on BroadwayStars

Thursday, June 28, 2018

The Winter’s Tale review – Blanche McIntyre celebrates the play's problems by Arifa Akbar

Shakespeare’s Globe, LondonA superb cast deliver striking performances in a production that is knowingly dissonant, from the costumes to the climaxThe perennial question of this “problem…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:42PM
Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Jerusalem review – Jez Butterworth's Rooster Byron is back for Brexit Britain by Arifa Akbar

Watermill theatre, NewburyRave music thumps as Jasper Britton plays the refusenik in an intimate revival of the drama about Albion’s dark heartIt takes courage to revive a play that was de…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:54AM
Sunday, June 17, 2018

Notes from the Field review – searing exposé of the school-to-jail pipeline by Arifa Akbar

Royal Court, LondonAnna Deavere Smith’s powerful one-woman show highlights the shocking injustices faced by African Americans ‘This is American history, not African American history,” …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AM
Friday, June 15, 2018

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest review – McMurphy’s misogyny laid bare by Arifa Akbar

Sheffield Crucible There are strong performances in an adaptation that gets closer to Ken Kesey’s novel than the popular film versionWhen Ken Kesey’s novel was first staged in 1963, he t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18PM
Thursday, June 14, 2018

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives review – a swaggering spectacular by Arifa Akbar

Arcola, LondonFemi Elufowoju Jr directs an arresting version of Lola Shoneyin’s novel about marital power-play and sexual envy“Sir, you will deposit your sperm inside,” a hospital nurs…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:36AM
Sunday, June 3, 2018

The Chalk Garden review – Penelope Keith sparks a twee rebellion by Arifa Akbar

Chichester Festival theatre Despite its pitch-perfect lead, this version of Enid Bagnold’s class comedy lacks the emotionally charged edginess that gives it biteThe Chalk Garden is Enid Ba…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:24AM
Thursday, May 31, 2018

Polly Stenham on rewriting Strindberg: 'I wanted to go for the jugular' by Arifa Akbar

As her explosive update of the sex-and-class classic Miss Julie hits the stage, playwright Polly Stenham explains why liberal hypocrisy is her new target‘We think we are super ‘woke’,�…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:24AM
Sunday, May 6, 2018

The Fall review – millennial angst supplies short, sharp shock by Arifa Akbar

Southwark Playhouse, LondonThe mood grows ever darker in James Fritz’s play about a young generation increasingly burdened by their wealthy eldersThe Fall opens with a glee club-style choi…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AM
Monday, May 25, 2015

Steven Berkoff: Rise of an 'up and coming nobody' by Arifa Akbar

Steven Berkoff may be among the most acclaimed playwrights and actors of his generation but he revealed he would much rather have been a tailor, like his father, given a choice between the t…

SOURCE: The Independent at 05:58PM