family relationships
The Son, Kiln Theatre review - darkly tragicThursday, 28 February 2019
Well, you have to give it to French playwright Florian Zeller — he's certainly cracked the problem of coming up with a name for each of his plays. Basically, choose a common noun and put the definite article in front of it. His latest, The Son, is... Read more... |
Capernaum review - sorrow, pity and shame in the Beirut slumsThursday, 21 February 2019
An angry little boy, in jail after stabbing someone, stands in a Beirut courtroom and tells the judge that he wants to sue his parents. Why? For giving birth to him when they’re too poor and feckless to care for him. And he wants them to stop having... Read more... |
All in a Row, Southwark Playhouse, review - soapy and shrill pity partyWednesday, 20 February 2019
Time once again to roll out that line about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. The creators of All in a Row, a new play at Southwark Playhouse about the last evening at home for an autistic non-verbal 11-year-old before his... Read more... |
Jellyfish review - life on the edge in MargateWednesday, 13 February 2019
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside – well perhaps not, if Jellyfish is anything to go by. Set in Margate, this independent feature paints a picture of a town and people that have been left behind. Cut from the same cloth as Ken Loach’s I, Daniel... Read more... |
The Price, Wyndham's Theatre review - David Suchet stands supremeTuesday, 12 February 2019
There’s a rather sublime equilibrium to Arthur Miller’s 1968 play between the overwhelmingly heavy weight of history and a sheer life force that somehow functions, against all odds, as its counterbalance. But in purely dramatic terms the scales of... Read more... |
Trevor Nunn: 'I'm amazed by Harley Granville Barker's prescience and extraordinary modernity'Sunday, 10 February 2019
So here we are with another edition of IQ, and the subject this week is theatre. Question one: which actor originated several leading roles in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, including Marchbanks in Candida, Dubedat in The Doctor's Dilemma, and... Read more... |
Blue, Chapter Arts Centre review - heartbreak in the family homeFriday, 08 February 2019
What's worse than grieving? That all-consuming loss. For those that have experienced it, nothing really comes close. It starts to bug Thomas (Jordan Bernarde, main picture second right) during his visit to the Williams household. Recently bereaved... Read more... |
Home, I'm Darling, Duke of York's Theatre review - Katherine Parkinson rules the roostThursday, 07 February 2019
The Fifties? They were terrible: bone-cold houses where people huddled round the fireplace for heat, empty Sundays that lasted a month, drawn-out rationing, bread you could build houses with. It was all making do and mending and "grey meat, grey... Read more... |
Boy Erased review - gay vs God drama treated with empathyWednesday, 06 February 2019
Joel Edgerton’s second turn as a director is the second film in a year to treat the subject of gay conversion therapy. The first was Desiree Akhavan’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post, whose victory at Sundance a year ago confirmed, symbolically not... Read more... |
Beautiful Boy review - well-acted but a slogFriday, 18 January 2019
The tortuous road to addiction and back again – or maybe not – makes for a faintly tedious experience in Beautiful Boy, notwithstanding the committed performances of an A-list cast. On the road to his second consecutive Oscar... Read more... |
The Daughter-in-Law, Arcola Theatre review - searing simplicityThursday, 17 January 2019
There’s a stark power to Jack Gamble’s production of DH Lawrence’s The Daughter-in-Law, which has transferred to the Arcola’smain stage after an acclaimed opening run in the venue’s downstairs studio last May. It still plays with a concentrated... Read more... |
Cold Feet, Series 8, ITV, review - mortality liteTuesday, 15 January 2019
How much more is there to say about the thrills and spills of midlife? Cold Feet made a surprisingly nimble return to ITV a couple of series ago after a long furlough. There was little evidence of stiff joints or saggy bottoms in Mike Bullen’s... Read more... |
