Category: Reviews

Here (says a press release over-optimistically) is an opera for our times about our search for belonging, understanding the incomprehensible, and how charismatic leaders can exploit our longing for connection. An American high school teacher (Nicole Heaston) fears she is going out of her mind. She hears a mysterious and constant low frequency hum. She… Continue reading The Listeners

This world première production of Frank McGuinness’s 70-minute new play, which opened in Dublin, now comes to London. It offers the unlikely pairing of movie star comic genius Groucho Marx and acclaimed poet and publisher T S Eliot. In fact, these men from different ends of the artistic spectrum did meet after a correspondence that… Continue reading Dinner With Groucho

Fun and feisty, Life’s a Drag reveals the parallel lives of an awkward young Queer. Maxine struggles to resolve the tension between family pressures and her identity, something that itself remains unreconciled. Her outlet is Drag Diva, a say-it-how-it-is alter-ego who can be, and can do, all the things that 18-year-old Max cannot. In its… Continue reading Life’s a Drag

Hugh Moncrieffe has written his autobiography, he is home after the launch party. There are copies around and he puts up the publisher’s poster, perhaps to impress guests he is expecting. He is even more pleased with himself when, among a succession of mobile phone calls, there’s some pretentious Franglais, a reference to a wager… Continue reading The Critic

My first encounter with Cornwall’s James Wilton Dance and it is easy to see what all the fuss is about. Innovative and mesmerising. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is recomposed by Max Richter with extensions by Michal Wojtas leaving only whispers of the original as Wilton’s choreography redefines the seasons as stages of the universe’s genesis and… Continue reading The Four Seasons

Fun and feisty, Life’s a Drag reveals the parallel lives of an awkward young Queer. Maxine struggles to resolve the tension between family pressures and her identity, something that itself remains unreconciled. Her outlet is Drag Diva, a say-it-how-it-is alter-ego who can be, and can do, all the things that 18-year-old Max cannot. In its… Continue reading Life’s a Drag

Revved, Patrick Quinn’s debut play at the Lyric Belfast, depicts a dark rite of passage set against the background of the annual Donegal International Rally in which surging emotions compete with supercharged cars. Set in a petrol station stockroom in Letterkenny, home to the “three-day bender” that takes over roads and lives in the town… Continue reading Revved

Prison drama has a long history. If we take two TV extremes, there’s the three highly successful 1970s series of Porridge, written by Clements & Le Frenais and starring Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale. This was quality stuff, if soft-centered. Roy Minton’s 1991 TV depiction of borstal life Scum, which as far as I can recall didn’t go… Continue reading One Off

The tone of Pickle is set from the off; as the audience make their way to their seats, they’re invited to dance and enjoy sweets, the more confident leaping into action, the more reserved looking on with gentle amusement. This upbeat and welcoming atmosphere creates an inclusive and relaxed environment for a one-woman play that… Continue reading Pickle