On the stage
Confronting sex trade horrors
Wednesday 24 October 2007
HELPED in no small part by the ITV serialisation of Belle de Jour, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, the sex trade is endlessly sensationalised and glamorised in equal measure.
Damning indictment of capitalism
Wednesday 24 October 2007
FOUR Chicago salesmen in real estate are fighting to keep their jobs. It's tough. The first prize is a Cadillac. The second prize is you're fired.
Water fails to make a political splash
Wednesday 24 October 2007
WATER is a timely look at global warming and human relationships devised by Filter and directed by David Farr. Coming from a company whose last production was a masterly Caucasian Chalk Circle and a director whose interpretation of Kafka's Metamorphosis was a highlight of 2006, expectations for this new work were certainly high.
Interesting satire is ruined by hysterical, over-the-top second half
Wednesday 24 October 2007
CHRISTIAN Slater made his London stage debut in One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, in which he had to compete with the memory of Jack Nicholson's definitive performance. Now, he is competing with the memory of one of Kevin Spacey's finest performances.
Reclaiming the fight
Wednesday 17 October 2007
KEIR WINTERTON sees a play that'll put the fire back in your belly.
When monstrosity is normality
Wednesday 17 October 2007
WHY not become a rhinoceros? Who is to say when normality ends and abnormality begins? What could be more natural than a herd of rhinoceros charging down the street trampling on everybody? It's amazing how quickly you get used to it.
Coward needs a little more camp
Wednesday 17 October 2007
NOEL Coward said that he wrote Present Laughter "with the sensible object of providing him with a bravura part."
Plumbing the dark and murky depths of a discontented king's soul
Wednesday 17 October 2007
RICHARD Duke of Gloucester is portrayed as such a black-hearted villain of murderous intent, a man whose quest to seize the crown of England and become King Richard III leaves many a bloodied corpse in its wake, that you can't help but feel sorry for him.
All about the power
Wednesday 10 October 2007
JOHN COURTENAY O'CONNOR puts Ionesco's The Lesson in perspective.
Goold reimagines Bard's king
Wednesday 10 October 2007
ON HIS first entrance, sporting modern battle fatigues, Patrick Stewart's Macbeth cuts an unimpressive figure. The performance, however, quickly grows and his coarse and vulgar behaviour in the unexpectedly grubby banquet scene is electrifying.