★★★★☆ This is comedy of manners toughened up for the twenty first century. The tone is set by Jean Chan’s bleak modernist set against which, like animals pacing out their neuroses in an old fashioned zoo, the characters are paraded for our amusement . . . The Ustinov has done it again in presenting us with outstanding European theatre that deserves and ought to get, wider public recognition.
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★★★★☆ Penned in the mid-1930s by Patrick Hamilton, the story explores the mental abuse of a woman by her husband, a psychological practice now known as ‘gaslighting’ because of this very play. Although it is set in 1871, the subject matter is as relevant now as then and would not be out of place on a prime time television thriller.
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★★☆☆☆ Shaun Richie was perfectly cast and entirely convincing in a not terribly demanding role which played to his strengths, allowing his comic timing to supplement his dramatic interventions . . . There were moments of genuine horror in set pieces when the audience physically shuddered
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★★★★☆ I can remember on first reading The Winter’s Tale, weeping at the description of the reunions between sundered friends and lost family. For a decidedly chilly, at times bleak and brutal play there were seams here of deep emotion, to which we might add (mixing our metaphors) the complex web of themes, Shakespeare, in the glory of his late harvest had freely woven into his reworking of Greene’s prose romance.
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★★★★☆ The notion of a one-person show can go either way. When I’m looking for ideas for a show to see, I usually prefer something with more than one person on stage – I like a bit of dialogue; the way two or more people play off each other. However, I had faith in Bea Roberts. Having seen last year’s excellent and memorable And Then Come the Nightjars, I knew that she could write something that would hold a room in thrall
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★★★★☆ Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory’s Othello is beautifully acted and full of fresh invention. Right from the start Othello’s ‘otherness’ is seen to be more significant than a mere difference in skin colour. Director Richard Twyman has drawn on the expertise of creative adviser Abdul-Rehman Malik to give us an Othello who is first and foremost a Muslim, even though the crucifix he wears might suggest otherwise.
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