★★★★☆ When the curtain rises on English Touring Theatre’s Equus, a featureless stage is revealed, surrounded by tall, white curtains. It’s a sterile space, well-suited for the clinical examination of a mentally disturbed patient. In one corner a figure lies huddled, as if hiding from some torment. When he stands up, we see that he is not an inmate of this psychiatric unit, but the psychiatrist himself.
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★★★★☆ The show opens in a grim girls’ orphanage. The walls tower up into darkness, and huge doors and tall lamps accentuate the tininess of the occupants, lying on their starkly function beds. The laundry boy tells them that they get ‘clean sheets once a month, whether they need them or not’. Everything is bathed in a blue-green, sepulchral light.
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★★★★★ There is far more to Bourne’s Swan Lake than mere gender-juggling. In many ways, a more interesting aspect of Bourne’s achievement is that he has taken the central idea of the story back to its dark, mythic origins.
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★★★☆☆ This is a new story, written specifically for the stage by Ian Rankin and Rona Munro. Having previously played John Rebus in the BBC Radio series, Ron Donachie again takes on the role. We see that this hard-bitten, Edinburgh detective has now retired and lives alone in his dusty flat, with only a few old case files for company.
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★★★★☆ Some of the issues they raise are relevant to any couple considering having a child: Is it an ecologically defensible step to take when the planet is already so overcrowded? Is caring for a child compatible with our lifestyle?
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