★★★★☆ With The Crucible Miller steps out of his Brooklyn milieu, out of his comfort zone and away from the trials and tribulations of men failing to retain their grip as their world crumbles around them . . . When the play first saw the light of day America was in the throes of a metaphorical witch hunt as the House Committee for Un-American Activities sought to weed out and destroy what it perceived/believed to be the threat of Communism.

★★★☆☆ I suppose you could say the stage version of Anita and Me was a long time coming. It is more than twenty years since Meera Syal’s debut novel first appeared and fifteen years since the film version. Tanika Gupta’s adaptation is now on tour after premiering at Birmingham Rep, before a run at Stratford East, a couple of years ago.

★★★★☆ The play will be familiar to many, having been staged with some regularity since 1992 and with a BBC adaptation aired in 2010. But for those not in the know, A Passionate Woman concerns Betty, (Liza Goddard) who ends up reflecting on her life and a particular past love as she tidies in the attic on the day of her son’s wedding.

Mr Sellman-Leava has in mind the corrosive nature of the tiny cuts, malicious or simply thoughtless, which flow from the labels we apply to ourselves and to others . . . Too agreeable to be a polemic, the overall impression is of a rather slick and entertaining TED talk, but without any resounding ‘aha’. I’m guessing the audience was pretty much onside with much of what was said which was mostly ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’ . . .