Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Stratford transfer makes much of contemporary resonance but fails to deliver
Because he dramatised power, Shakespeare never really goes out of fashion. Treatments of his plays do though, and…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:48AMTuesday, October 8, 2019
A self-described "performative wokeness festival" doesn't quite hit sweet spot but gets close
Shuck 'n' Jive is an hour-long two-hander about writing a play about being black in a white indu…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:48AMSaturday, September 7, 2019
A run-away child precipitates a cascade of questions with unintended consequences
With power comes responsibility. One without the other is sickening -- and both iterations are on show in Em…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:12AMThursday, July 25, 2019
Must-see show takes place in barber shops in London, Lagos, Accra, Harare, Kampala, Johannesburg
Emmanuel (Anthony Ofoegbu) runs Three Kings Barbers in London. His assistant, Samuel (Mohamme…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:36AMTuesday, June 18, 2019
Actors battle with accents and a wooden script in 1960s drama set in a New York Italian immigrant neighbourhood
According to their mother, Luda (played by Madeleine Worrall, pictured below),…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:33AMThursday, June 6, 2019
The future of education seen from 1997 and 2019
It's the 2nd May 1997, the morning after the night that swept New Labour into power. We’re in the staffroom of a school somewhere in Britain…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:33AMSunday, February 17, 2019
Engrossing English and Norwegian language production has some strong performancesEllida (Pia Tjelta, pictured top left) has a choice to make. The outcome of this choice will bind her future …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:54PMWednesday, September 19, 2018
The end of the line at the the end of a telephone lineIt’s night, and the woman (Leanne Best, pictured top) is waiting for a phone call. She’s desperate for the voice of her lover – o…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:18AMSaturday, July 7, 2018
How many deaths would you survive for a second chance?"I am dead," declares Okot (pictured below, right) before recounting the horrors he survived to reach Calais. Each time, he says, "I die…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:36AMFriday, June 22, 2018
Depressed self-sabotaging movie star failed by all around herIn the early twentieth century, Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov spliced together images of people looking at things with a bowl of …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:36AMThursday, June 7, 2018
Larger-than-life history of Charles Ignatius Sancho distilled into virtuoso one-man showOne space, one person, one story, one voice – the monologue is theatre distilled, the purest form o…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:32PMTuesday, May 29, 2018
Prolix play woodenly acted; its own satire?I’ve forgotten my wallet.
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:12AMSunday, May 6, 2018
Different Americas clash in engrossing two-hander set in Texas prisonWriter Robert Schenkkan’s Building the Wall imagines modern America in the not-too-distant future. The date is 22nd Nov…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:36AMSaturday, March 31, 2018
Race, wealth and class collide in American thriller Ros and Ray are old hippies made good. She’s a hard-bitten, hard-working teacher in an inner-city Pennsylvania school where her pupils r…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:00AMSaturday, March 17, 2018
Adulteress, mother and immigrant tell their stories in three monologuesHot on the heels of International Women’s Day come three monologues written, directed and produced by women showing a…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:22AM★★★ FEMALE PARTS: SHORTS, HOXTON HALL Women speak outAdulteress, mother and immigrant tell their stories in three monologuesHot on the heels of International Women’s Day come three m…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:22AMMonday, February 19, 2018
Hectic monologue from smoking, drinking, fast-talking psychotherapist about women's bodiesLila had breast implants at the age of eight. Karen, her mother, is required to take psychother…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:14PM★★★★ THE B*EASTS, BUSH THEATRE Monica Dolan is almost flawless in monologue about women's bodiesHectic monologue from smoking, drinking, fast-talking psychotherapist about women'…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:14PMWednesday, February 7, 2018
Absurd romp through love, lust, and friendship is a knock-out“Pussy is pussy” and “bitches are bitches” but Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage at Southwark Playhouse smashes tautology…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:30AM★★★★ COLLECTIVE RAGE, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Absurd romp through love, lust, and friendship is a knock-outAbsurd romp through love, lust, and friendship is a knock-out“Pussy is pussy�…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:30AMFriday, February 2, 2018
Play about the Cornish housing crisis isn't so swell Carry on out of London past the Finborough Theatre and you hit the A4. Follow it east as it becomes the M4, take a southern turn at …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:20AMThursday, January 25, 2018
Annie Baker magnifies the indignities of embattled partners in emotional wars of attritionOn their return home from Ohio to New York, young couple Jenny and Elias (Anneika Rose and Tom Mothe…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:25AMThursday, December 7, 2017
New York refugee drama confronts anti-semitism with humour and heartIsrael Zangwill’s 1908 play The Melting Pot characterises Europe as an old and worn-out continent racked by violence an…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:04AMThursday, November 9, 2017
Uninspired treatment of Brecht's 1939 antiwar tractOne of the questions that can be asked of Brecht is whether for a modern audience his Verfremdungseffekt — or alienation effect —…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:48AMThursday, October 19, 2017
Darkly comic two-hander opens daringly and goes nowhere In David Ireland's new hour-long two-hander – a co-production between Soho Theatre and west London's Orange Tree – two strange…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:36AM 
