★★★★☆ As with any Laurence Boswell production we enjoy the interplay of characters. Rubin looks daggers and spits blended scotch – being a malt man – and like any halfway decent spider knows exactly where the prey is in his web. Considered in his movements, Mr. Abraham is an actor who knows exactly what his body is doing and when and how to use it; there’s no waste and nothing lacking.
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★★★☆☆ A synopsis would read like a Shakespearean tragedy. Twin brothers are separated shortly after birth because their single mum, Mrs Johnstone, is struggling to provide for an already large family, and her employer, the wealthy Mrs Lyons, sees an opportunity to gain the baby she cannot have herself. A pact of secrecy is sworn between them.
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★★★☆☆ This small theatre is an ideal venue for a little company like the Tobacco Tea Company that had loads of energy and was putting on a relatively new play needing intimacy and directness. The piece is a new take on an old and well-worn story, known to most people now because of the Benedict Cumberbatch version on television.
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★★★★☆ Contemporary relevance to the AIDs crisis aside, the reputation and legacy of Rent is based on its music. What’s most interesting about these tunes is that they straddle the anthem-quality of classic show tunes whilst being inflected by a considerably more modern sensibility.
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★★★★☆ An anniversary is as good a reason as any for mounting a revival of a popular success. Willy Russell’s one woman hit is now thirty years old and re-emerges into a changed world that has made huge strides in some areas whilst stubbornly dragging its feet in others . . . Jodie Prenger delivers an impressive piece of acting that hints at much more to come.
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★★★★★ The ‘Messiah’ becomes ‘The Beloved’ and his followers, a crestfallen bunch of activists, rummage around looking for some meaning and direction following his death. The chorus, much loved by Handel who was very sweet on the English choral tradition, particularly following the waning of our love affair with Italian opera, here takes a role similar to that of the chorus in classical Greek theatre . . .
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