★★★★☆ The Everyman’s opening performance is Jenny Wren Productions’ small scale adaptation of Little Women. The setup is an immediately interesting and ambitious take on the sizeable novel with its large cast of characters, as the play is a sort of two-hander

★★★☆☆ Gina is in a tight spot. Having thrown out her thug of a husband, she now has a loan shark breathing down her neck because her job flogging makeup won’t pay. Without any other options that do not involve exposing her and her daughter to violent men, Gina is taken under the wing of the local sex workers who might at least help her out of debt.

★★★☆☆ Being a one-hander, the success of the drama rests on Claire Sweeney keeping the audience rapt throughout and this she certainly manages. Willy Russell’s scripts are of course renowned for capturing the humour of everyday life, the frustrations of class, and the rhythm of speech and nattering.

★★★☆☆ Laura arrives at her father’s croft with her older lover Suzanne, determined to have a romantic break. Isolated from the modern world, the couple’s squabbling soon gives way to dredging up the hidden history of the croft which seems to linger in its foundations.

★★★★★ With strong performances both in acting and on-stage musical accompaniment, which one has come to expect, Under the Greenwood Tree is a reflective and nuanced Christmas play