Kelleher energetically conjures up the many voices that invade the woman’s thoughts as she struggles to rewrite Hamlet. There’s a grandly orotund Polonius, an East End Jack-the-lad Claudius, a cackling skull-tossing gravedigger and the ‘poncey privileged Prince’ himself. She plays these parts in an appropriately crazed, unrestrained manner, though she lowers the volume and conveys a moving vulnerability as Ophelia, ‘weeping in her saturated gown’.
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” . . . is the fourth and final production of this year’s Directors’ Cuts season from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School . . . Harry Egan is wonderfully weird as receptionist Jim, and Karl Wilson delivers Donald’s sales patter with a powerful mix of warmth and menace. Most impressive of all is Dominic Allen as the dangerously unpredictable William. Director Laura Jasper has created a fast-moving, energetic production, and her actors do her proud. The 2015 Directors’ Cuts season has yet again shown that year on year the BOVTS produces graduates of the very highest quality.”
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” . . . Since its first performances in 2000 The Car Man has become justly famous for its energetic and unrestrained sexuality, but there are also quieter and subtler scenes of tenderness and poignancy, particularly between Rita and Angelo, that are among the most memorable moments in the show. Katy Lowenhoff gives Rita a touching vulnerability, while Dominic North skillfully conveys Angelo’s transition from hapless victim to grim avenger. . . The Car Man is brilliant dance-theatre. ”
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Somewhere in Ireland ‘Woman’ lies dying, and the cause appears to be her own bitterness and spite. She is accompanied by the taunting figure of Scarecrow, who we come to suspect is her conscience, reminding her of all the dreams and passions that she has failed to explore in a life tied to the raising of eight children, having been abandoned by a serially unfaithful and largely absent husband. . . this is a thought-provoking and imaginative play about the regret that comes with a life only half-lived.”
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“A woman in a woolly hat is sat reading on a bench outside a block of expensive apartments . . . In a very engaging performance Joanna Smith skillfully conveys Penny’s sharp intelligence and warm humanity, and she is well-matched by Nigel Jones as Richard, all tension, stress and misanthropy. In their quick-fire banter there are many sharply-honed comments about wage-slavery, and quite a few laugh out loud jokes – there’s a particularly good one involving a turkey sandwich. . . ”
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