To the credit of Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba – and maybe Tori Allen-Martin and Sarah Henley – you can feel the urge to find a healing of all sides in a conflict between black and white South Africans that persists to this day.
Mates blogger: Carole Woddis
Carole Woddis is one of over 45 theatre bloggers who are part of the MyTheatreMates collective. This page features Carole's posts on MyTheatreMates. Take a look at our full list of theatre bloggers and our aggregated feed of all our Mates' posts. We’re always looking for new theatre bloggers. Could that be you? Learn about how to join us.
Carole Woddis has been a theatre journalist and critic for over 30 years. She was London reviewer and feature writer for Glasgow’s The Herald for 12 years and for many other newspapers and magazines. She now review for websites including The Arts Desk, Reviews Gate and London Grip and blogs independently at woddisreviews.org.uk. Carole is also the author of: The Bloomsbury Theatre Guide with Trevor T Griffiths; a collection of interviews with actresses, Sheer Bloody Magic (Virago), and Faber & Faber’s Pocket Guide to 20th Century Drama with Stephen Unwin. For ten years, she was a Visiting Tutor in Journalism at Goldsmiths College and for three years with City University. Earlier in her career, she worked with the RSC, National Theatre, Round House and Royal Ballet as a publicist and as an administrator for other theatre and dance organisations.
The latest from Carole on MyTheatreMates
‘A battle cry against those who govern the USA’: The Time Of Our Lies – Park Theatre ★★★★
In Ché Walker’s dynamic, scarlet splashed, viscerally staged production, The Time of Our Lies is nothing if not a battle cry against those who govern the USA and its militaristic and foreign policies.
‘Packs a fierce climactic punch’: EUROPE – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★
Michael Longhurst’s terrific, visceral debut production of David Greig’s Europe at the Donmar Warehouse packs a fierce climactic punch.
‘An impressive debut’: SUMMER ROLLS – Park Theatre ★★★★
In Kristine Landon-Smith’s accomplished production, Tuyen Do’s Summer Rolls emerges as not just a saga of one individual family and effects of War on individuals but one that carries a broader, critical political comment.
‘You can’t help feeling Mamet’s real joy is in the gags’: BITTER WHEAT – West End ★★★
It could be said that Bitter Wheat lifts the lid on the exploitation of power in the film industry, but it eaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth. Perhaps that was also part of David Mamet’s intention.
‘A truly remarkable, rather wonderful small gem retrieved’: COUNTRY MUSIC – Omnibus Theatre ★★★★
Marie McCarthy’s Clapham Omnibus venue never ceases to surprise. Dedicated, as befits its previous life as a library, to storytelling in all its various forms, Scott Le Crass’ revival of Simon Stephens’ Country Music is itself a revelation.
‘A production of highs & lows’: PICTURES OF DORIAN GRAY – Jermyn Street Theatre ★★★
It was a bold idea on Tom Littler’s part to think of adapting Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray into a multi gender-swapping stage production.
‘One of the most joyous experiences you’ll encounter in the theatre’: COME FROM AWAY – West End ★★★★★
Come From Away, the story of how one small town, Gander in Newfoundland, responded to events of 9/11 when 7,000 passengers from 38 diverted aircraft landed in their midst, is one of the most joyous experiences you’ll encounter in the theatre.
‘Tense, beautifully calibrated revival’: VINCENT RIVER – Trafalgar Studios ★★★★
Philip Ridley and Robert Chevara’s production of Vincent River emerges as a masterful depiction of oppositional but mutual need unexpectedly producing a healing catharsis.
‘Impressive, even dynamic evening’: DEATH OF A SALESMAN – Young Vic ★★★★
For Death of a Salesman, one of Arthur Miller’s greatest plays about the hollowness of the American Dream, Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell and their cast make it an impressive, even dynamic evening that lacks some subtleties but is never less than gripping.
‘A sobering, haunting journey’: AVALANCHE – Barbican Theatre ★★★★
Avalanche is a sobering, haunting journey that carries as much warning as it does perhaps solace to those thinking of having IVF or have had it as well as a kind of delight in the sheer beauty and bravura of Maxine Peake’s performance.
‘A cracker of an evening’: ROSMERSHOLM – West End ★★★★
It could all go horribly wrong but Ian Rickson’s production of Rosmersholm in Duncan Macmillan’s new adaptation brings Ibsen’s dense moral and political tragedy safely into port.
‘The show sparkles with invention’: SWEET CHARITY – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★
‘A sweet sexy fairy tale’ is how one critic described Sweet Charity on its opening in London in October 1967. And Josie Rourke’s final production as the Donmar’s artistic director before handing over to Michael Longhurst certainly lives up to that description, but also makes it something rather more and darker because of the unlikely casting of Anne-Marie Duff as Charity.
‘The spell this production casts is compelling’: THREE SISTERS – Almeida Theatre ★★★★
The achievement of Rebecca Frecknall’s new production, as with her recent mega success with Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke is to speak to modern sensitivities with a clarity of vision that struck this viewer anyway as turning Three Sisters into a young person’s rite of passage.
‘Delicately meticulous with detail’: ROOMS – Barbican Centre
Don’t go to Rooms if you want an easy, escapist 75 minutes, but do go for language, atmosphere, the darkest corners of your own psyches touched with raw beauty.
‘Philip Bretherton gives a barnstorming performance’: TONY’S LAST TAPE – Omnibus Theatre ★★★★
Even if you weren’t a card-carrying Labour Party member, you’d be hard put not to come away from Tony’s Last Tape at the Omnibus Theatre with the light of idealism burning a little bit brighter in the heart and soul.
‘A timely reminder of the cost of political principles’: THE RUBENSTEIN KISS – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★
All in all, Joe Harmston’s production brings James Phillips’ extraordinary empathy with his subject to a tender and sensitive conclusion in The Rubenstein Kiss whilst weighing up the noble aspirations of idealism with its harsh legacies for those who inherit them.
‘A counter-balance to the usual women-in-prison scenarios’: INSIDE BITCH – Royal Court Theatre ★★★
Inside Bitch is a messy but enjoyable counter-balance to the usual women-in-prison scenarios. Roll on Clean Break.
‘The grandest ‘immersive’ theatrical experience in London’: WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION – County Hall ★★★★
It was a stroke of marketing genius on the part of director Lucy Bailey and her producers to decide to stage one of Agatha Christie’s best-loved court room dramas in something approaching a court room. Setting Witness for the Prosecution within London’s abandoned County Hall becomes as much the grandest ‘immersive’ theatrical experience in London as much as a revival of an old stage thriller.
‘Engaging, entertaining & brilliant’: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS – New Diorama Theatre ★★★★★
It’s a dangerous world out there but this engaging, entertaining and brilliant War of the Worlds couldn’t come at a better time as a reminder to practise caution and scepticism before buying into any hyped up scenario.