Tim Wright - Page 4

"They sentenced me to life, not to death" is the cry from an increasingly broken Winston in this new production of Fugard's The Island. Set on the notorious Robben Island (the infamous place that held Nelson Mandela) during apartheid The Island offers a glimpse into the lives of two inmates- John and Winston who face impossibly long stretches of time under the unspeakably harsh regime.

'Welcome to my home, well it's not actually my home but for tonight it is' says Asha Jain at the top of A Brimful of Asha. Asha and her son Ravi are inviting us to share an evening with them to tell us a story about Asha's desire for her son to marry a nice Indian girl and settle down. They've even brought samosas.

Oh dear. It's hard to know where to start with this confused and disjointed version of Euripides' tragedy.  Based on a concept by director George Mann, this new production weaves the Greek myth of Medea with the story of Maddy - a modern woman who is cheated on and suddenly divorced by her husband.

So why have I picked 'Solidarity' as my favourite song from a musical? I mean, it's hardly the best known - you won't find people on Britain's Got The X Factor singing it or countless YouTube covers of it. It won't even be on Michael Ball's new album and he really must be running out of tunes now. It's just not that sort of number.

"You'd let everyone have the vote? Imagine what idiots would get elected then" is one of many knowing jokes from Richard Bean's latest farce The Hypocrite. We're following the roguish Sir John Hotham, Governor of Hull and MP for Beverley as he tries to sense which way the wind is blowing on the eve of the English Civil War.

It's eight months since Mike Tweddle took over from Ali Robertson as Artistic Director of Tobacco Factory Theatres in Bristol. In the surrounds of the theatre bar, I caught up with him to ask about his time so far.

Caryl Churchill has rightly claimed her spot as one Britain's greatest living playwrights but her latest work Escaped Alone, falls short of her best.

'I'm the greatest star, I am by far, but no one knows it' is the claim by aspiring vaudeville music show actress Fanny Brice at the top of Funny Girl.  Fanny is no ordinary showgirl- no 'Miss Atlantic City'. Her gift is to use that backstreet Brooklyn wit on the stage and tear up the rulebook set by the shows impresarios.

As a nation, we spend a lot on entertainment. But whether it's premier league football, tickets to your favourite band or even the humble cinema ticket, all have seen price increases. West End theatre is certainly no exception. But is it sustainable?

It's ironic that this first production of The Ustinov Studio's German season should be concerned with that most British of subjects- class. British theatre has a rich history of playwrights poking our sensitivities about guilt, entitlement and shame. Marius von Mayenburg's Plastic does it with wit, ingenuity…and a mud-slinging machine (no, that's not a metaphor).  

We're in Dublin and it's 1986. Jimmy and his musician friends are fed up of art school synth music and want to bring soul music back to the people. The Commitments is adapted from Roddy Doyle's novel of the same name (that in turn was made into a cult hit film). However, for a show that proclaims on countless occasions that soul is 'the music of the people' and eulogises about it's importance- it is evening strangely devoid of that very thing.

This seasons offering from Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory is a story of politics, love and being an outsider in a world that mistrusts you.

This show is the perfect antidote to the celebrity stuffed pantos offered up by more commercial outfits. The show demonstrates that Christmas shows don't have to be formulaic or even familiar. They can be wonderfully inventive pieces of storytelling every bit as worthy as the rest of the years programming.