ECHO BEACH at Cooper’s Loft at the Bristol Old Vic

” . . Her personal style is engaging and fluid and not without a sense of humour. . . . It’s a brave thing to do to think you can entertain a bunch of people in this way, but Hannah Sullivan does it in some style. Here is novelty and innovation on the unclaimed land between dance and mime presented with confidence and skill – rare talents. Where she goes next we shall have to wait and see and content ourselves for the time being with this little nugget.”

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THE WINDOW at the Bristol Old Vic Studio

“. . . Charlotte Melia, as the storyteller, turns in a commanding performance. Her style is the very lack of style in that she could be any intelligent, opinionated woman suffering anguish at what some may describe as low-level sexual harassment. She is in that sense, ‘everywoman’. However, what Semerciyan successfully succeeds in showing is that ‘even’ this kind of behaviour is not without consequences. . . Melia’s no frills, matter-of-fact, woman-next-door approach, provide the necessary ballast in the character’s journey from, ‘a kind of love’, for lonely neighbour, Ted (seen originally through ‘the window’), to a kind of hate after the sequence of events she relates.”

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SOLOMAN AND MARION at Birmingham Rep Studio

“. . . [Suzman] is an undeniably accomplished stage presence, emanating warmth in even her steeliest moments . . . it is Anthony who makes the greater impression here. Charming yet volatile, the speech in which Solomon finally gives “Miss Marion” full disclosure for his reasons for watching her is a masterclass in emotive storytelling . . . Quiet and disquieting, Solomon and Marion is a story of discursive revelation, one where a pineapple atop a television makes a strong case for hopefulness.”

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Regeneration on tour

“The story centres on the relationship between war-poets Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen, but it is much more than that . . . Stephen Boxer was excellent as the psychiatrist Captain who treated the poets and it was he who was the mortar that held the play together. I really liked the music by Stuart Earl that played over the scene-changes and Alex Eales’ design and Lee Curran’s lighting, although drab and monochrome, had a simple beauty and optimism to them. . . Regeneration was a beautifully presented production with some outstanding performances and poignant moments. . .”

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OTHELLO on tour

Violent and vulgar, amongst the villainy male testosterone pervades keeping the audience on the edge of their seat waiting for the next damaging interlude to be played out. Within this ruinous setting Shakespeare’s play is surprisingly not devoured by the extreme physicality, grit and gore, its central themes and tensions come through, and instead it thrives for a modern audience.

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THE FATHER at the Ustinov, Bath

“. . . To the final, wrenching, reversal of the roles of father/daughter and the ultimately unbearable last plea in the arms of his nurse this is a magnificent performance (I weep now at its recall). If Mr. Cranham wants to play Lear this is his calling card . . . The Ustinov continues to produce theatre, which by any standard is of the highest order and in this gem of a play has dealt a full hand of relevant, entertaining and moving. “

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