Adapted from the original 1937 novella, Of Mice and Men follows “bindlestiffs” George Milton (William Rodell) and Lennie Small (Kristian Phillips) as they seek casual farm work in Soledad, California during the Great Depression. George is smart and strapping, but restless, while Lennie is mentally disabled, large, and physically strong. Together they dream of one day living “offa the fatta the lan’” and tending to rabbits.

Performed in French, with English surtitles, Mohamed El Khatib’s A Beautiful Ending might be described as theatrical (auto)biography, or as journalistic experimentation, or an approximation thereof . . . I hesitate to throw an easy tagline at this knotty, sometimes variable account of a mother’s death. I can say, in spite of a few misgivings, that I am glad that it is on stage here in Birmingham . . .

Sarah Hamilton Baker is as good an advert to get involved with the REP Foundry as one might imagine. Her onstage persona (if it is indeed a persona) feels at once easy and improvisational, yet calibrated perfectly for this kind of show. She is effusive but never shambolic. . . She compels the audience to consider their own relationship to sex and pornography, educating them a little in the process, sharing her own experience, and all the while making them hoot, holler and occasionally snigger . . .

Chris Thorpe and Rachel Chavkin have developed a show in which ‘confirmation bias’ demonstrates the inbuilt tendency in people to observe and understand the world through a lens that seeks to reinforce their pre-established beliefs. Thorpe explains that the effect of ‘confirmation bias’ is often more powerful for emotionally charged issues. . . The show is an investigation, of sorts, into this phenomenon . . .