religion
Rags: The Musical, Park Theatre review - a timely, if predictable, immigrant taleMonday, 20 January 2020
“Take our country back!” is the rallying cry of the self-identified “real” Americans gathered to protest the arrival of immigrants. It could be a contemporary Trump rally – or, indeed, the nastier side of current British political discourse – but in... Read more... |
The Wind of Heaven, Finborough Theatre review - a welcome, if strange, Emlyn Williams rediscoverySaturday, 30 November 2019
This is the third Emlyn Williams piece to be presented here in a decade: The Druid's Rest in 2009 was followed by the enormous success of Accolade, directed by Blanche McIntyre, two years later.If it's a truism that neglected plays may well have... Read more... |
God's Dice, Soho Theatre review - overlong and overblownSunday, 03 November 2019
David Baddiel is a very fine comic, and over the past few years has become an acclaimed author of children's books. So I'm genuinely sad to say that his debut play at Soho Theatre really isn't very good. God's Dice does have its moments, for sure,... Read more... |
By the Grace of God review - a dark, meticulous drama from François OzonSaturday, 26 October 2019
This is a departure in every sense for François Ozon. The prolific French director has established himself as a master of ludic style in past dramas played out by predominantly female casts, the exceptions, among them his sad black-and-white period... Read more... |
Verdi Requiem, LPO, Gardner, RFH review – beyond the big noiseMonday, 14 October 2019
You seldom expect to feel the breath of apocalypse and the terror of the grave amid the modestly rationalist architecture and passion-killer acoustics of the Royal Festival Hall. In fact, before Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra... Read more... |
Our Lady of Kibeho, Theatre Royal Stratford East review - heaven and hell in Rwandan visionsFriday, 04 October 2019
The American dramatist Katori Hall has created a work of rare accomplishment in Our Lady of Kibeho, a play that combines a beautifully established picture of a particular world – a church school in rural Rwanda, in the early 1980s – with profound... Read more... |
Hail Satan? review - the detail of the devilSaturday, 24 August 2019
As Penny Lane’s documentary shows, America and Satanism have a long history. From the Salem Witch trials to the moral panic triggered by the Manson murders and films like William Friedkin’s The Exorcist in the 1970s, mass panic in America of the... Read more... |
Jesus Christ Superstar, Barbican review - Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical lives againWednesday, 10 July 2019
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1970 musical had a heavenly resurrection at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre three years ago, with an encore run the following summer. It’s soon heading off on a US tour, but first there’s another chance for... Read more... |
Mike Jay: Mescaline - A Global History of the First Psychedelic review - multiple perspectivesSunday, 12 May 2019
Humans have been consuming mescaline for millennia. The hallucinogenic alkaloid occurs naturally in a variety of cacti native to South America and the southern United States, the most well known of which are the diminutive peyote and the... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: playwright William NicholsonSaturday, 27 April 2019
It is 30 years since Shadowlands, William Nicholson's much-loved play about CS Lewis's unexpected love affair with Joy Gresham, an American poet, was first seen on stage. The famous academic and author of the Narnia books, apparently content in his... Read more... |
Brockes-Passion, AAM, Egarr, Barbican review - fleshly Handel for our earthbound timesSaturday, 20 April 2019
Whips, scourges, sinews, blood and pus: where Bach’s two Passions lament from a contemplative distance, Handel’s plunges right to the bone, to the cruel, tortured death that is the heart of the Easter story.Perhaps that explains the work’s recent... Read more... |
Fleabag, Series 2 finale, BBC Three review - Phoebe Waller-Bridge's miraculous situation tragedyTuesday, 09 April 2019
The problem with Fleabag (BBC Three/BBC One) is that it makes almost all television look pedestrian. It’s like the difference between Fleabag’s scummily inadequate boyfriends and the unattainable perfection embodied by the cool sweary priest. Earth... Read more... |
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