Review: LAUGHING BOY, Jermyn Street Theatre
When Connor dies whilst in the care of the NHS, his mum, Sara, wants answers. Premiering under Stephen Unwin’s taut direction, Sara Ryan’s Laughing Boy is a bittersweet docu-play about brutal neglect and apathy. While it’s a damning inquiry into the shortcomings of public health, is it a good play or is it a great production of a rather mediocre one? In our opinion, it's the second.
Review: JEKYLL AND HYDE, Royal Lyceum
Gary McNair's one-man adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde faces a daunting obstacle: most of us know how it ends. Consequentially, the piece's challenge shifts from the story itself to how it is told - it not only needs to be immensely engaging, it needs to present a new perspective to combat overfamiliarity. It achieves the former, but the latter is less convincing.
Review: FARM HALL, Jermyn Street Theatre
After Hitler’s death and the German defeat, the Führer’s top nuclear scientists are being held in the English countryside while the Pacific continues. With nothing to do but read redacted newspapers, skim through familiar books, and write censored letters, the six men wallow in their boredom, unaware that they’re being recorded.
BWW Review: THE TAXIDERMIST'S DAUGHTER, Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre welcomes their 60th Anniversary season with The Taxidermist’s Daughter, a gothic tale of revenge set across the Sussex marshes in 1912. Adapted from her best-selling novel, author Kate Mosse has transported her literary vision to the stage in the very heart of the town that she grew up in. The novel is oozing with narrative potential and moody landscape, but surprisingly Chichester’s adaptation felt underwhelming.
Photo Flash: On the Green Carpet at Opening Night of THE BOY IN THE DRESS
Last night (Thursday 28 November 2019), the Royal Shakespeare Company celebrated the opening night of the new musical, The Boy in the Dress, based on the novel by David Walliams, adapted by Mark Ravenhill, with music and lyrics by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers and directed by RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran.