sun 03/11/2024

Theatre

The Buddha of Suburbia, Barbican Theatre review - farcical fun, but what about the issues?

Hanif Kureishi’s 1990 novel The Buddha of Suburbia begins like this: “My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost”. Almost. Yes, that's good. We are in 1970s south-east London, and this immediately introduces, despite its...

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Dr Strangelove, Noël Coward Theatre review - an evening of different parts

Even by Stanley Kubrick’s standards, Dr Strangelove went through an extraordinary evolutionary process. After starting it off as a serious film about nuclear war based on the 1958 novel Two Hours to Doom, he decided to turn it into a comedy with the...

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Guards at the Taj, Orange Tree Theatre review - miniature marvel with rich resonances

It’s 1648 in Agra, and an excitable young guardsman has come up with an idea: a giant flying platform that he calls an “aeroplat”. As he might slide off it in transit, for good measure he gives it a belt to tie him down. It would be a “seat belt”,...

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How To Survive Your Mother, King's Head Theatre review - mummy issues drive autobiographical dramedy

It is unsurprising to learn in the post-show Q&A that each audience receives Jonathan Maitland’s new play based on his 2006 memoir differently. My house laughed a lot (me especially) but some see the tragic overwhelming the comic, and the laughs...

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Reykjavik, Hampstead Theatre review - drama frozen by waves of detail

“Don’t take a piss in the house of a woman you have made a widow.” The mixture of earthy comedy and tragic pain in this piece of parental advice is typical of the tone of Richard Bean’s Reykjavik, his new work play which explores the lives of the...

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The Forsyte Saga Parts 1 and 2, Park Theatre review - if Chekhov did soap operas

The misadventures and misbehaviours of the English upper-middle class is catnip for TV executives. All those posh types on which us hoi polloi can sit in delicious self-righteous judgement, as we marvel at their cut glass accents, well-tailored...

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The Wild Duck, The Norwegian Ibsen Company, Coronet Theatre review - slow burn, devastating climax

“I think this is all very strange,” declares 14-year-old Hedvig Ekdal at the end of The Wild Duck’s third act, just as everything is about to plunge into a terrifying vortex. Alan Lucien Øyen's’s production is pointedly strange from the start, a...

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Autumn, Park Theatre review - on stage as in politics, Brexit drama promises much, but loses its way

Theatre is a strange dish. A recipe can be stacked with delicious ingredients, cooked to exacting standards, taste-test beautifully at the halfway mark, yet leave you not quite full, not exactly satisfied, disappointed that it didn’t come out quite...

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The Fear of 13, Donmar Warehouse review - powerful analysis of a gross injustice

There is star casting, and there is casting the right star – not the same thing. The Donmar’s new production, The Fear of 13, succeeds in the latter category, in spades. The star in question is Adrien Brody, a child actor who left stage work...

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The Duchess [of Malfi], Trafalgar Theatre review - actors imprisoned by confused time travelling

John Webster’s sour, bloody tale of brotherly greed and vice has been updated by the playwright Zinnie Harris, who also directs her own text at the Trafalgar. The title has a handy [of Malfi] added. But do we really know where we are? Or which...

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What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Marylebone Theatre review - explosive play for today

An incendiary play has opened at the Marylebone, the adventurous venue just off Baker Street. Bigger houses were apparently unwilling to stage it, fearing anti-Israeli protests. Their loss.Nathan Englander has expanded his short story of the same...

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Land of the Free, Southwark Playhouse review - John Wilkes Booth portrayed in play that resonates across 160 years

Straddling the USA Presidential elections, Simple8’s run of Land of the Free could not be better timed, teaching us an old lesson that wants continual learning – the more things change, the more they stay the same.We open on the Booth family kids...

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