Despite the combined skills of its performers, The Cutting Edge lacks pace and drive and the key moment of crisis, which always seems around the corner, never arrives.
Mates blogger: Tom Bolton
Tom Bolton is one of over 45 theatre bloggers who are part of the MyTheatreMates collective. This page features Tom'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.
Tom Bolton is an author and researcher, based in London. He comes from Stratford-upon-Avon, where Derek Jacobi in The Tempest got him hooked on theatre. He sat on the Olivier Awards judging panel, and started reviewing for Londonist in 2010. He is particularly keen on disinterred classics, new writing and physical theatre, and spends a week at the Edinburgh Festival every year looking for more. Tom blogs independently at tombolton.co.uk and tweets @teabolton.
The latest from Tom on MyTheatreMates
‘Dramatic & engrossing’: THE INCIDENT ROOM – New Diorama Theatre
The Incident Room is a multi-layered and satisfying drama, a proper assessment of a story that gripped, terrified and obsessed the nation. This excellent production confronts our dark past head on.
‘Cuts to the heart of what it is to have a voice’: CINNA – Unicorn Theatre
I, Cinna is a small masterpiece of unshowy writing and performance that is some of the best small-scale theatre of its time, equally satisfying to audiences of young people and adults.
‘Pitch perfect’: FAR AWAY – Donmar Warehouse
Caryl Churchill wrote Far Away in 2000 and, 20 years on, it feels more current by the moment.
‘No lack of inventiveness in the evening’: PEOPLE SHOW 137 – Southwark Playhouse
The company in People Show 137 has an admirable ability to conjure moments that capture the audience’s attention and to deliver about turns that keep the audience intrigued.
‘The simplicity of Rackza’s writing is masterful’: ANTIGONE – New Diorama Theatre
Holy What’s version of Antigone is about the two teenage girls at the heart of the play, Antigone herself (Annabel Baldwin) and her sister Ismene (Rachel Hosker).
‘Endlessly fascinating’: MEASURE FOR MEASURE – Barbican Theatre
Gregory Doran’s RSC production of Measure for Measure is a subtle and absorbing account of a play that gets weirder with every viewing.
‘Shines a harsh light on contemporary Indian culture’: WHEN THE CROWS VISIT – Kiln Theatre
When The Crows Visit is a powerful new play, and Indhu Rubasingham’s production is a notable success for the Kiln Theatre.
‘Friel’s characters are allowed to blossom’: TRANSLATIONS – National Theatre
Brian Friel’s Translations is a rich and complex play and, in Ian Rickson’s production which returns for a second run in the Olivier, its layers are drawn out through the performances of a high class ensemble ensemble.
‘Churchill’s fine writing has the cast to match’: GLASS. KILL. BLUEBEARD. IMP – Royal Court Theatre
Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp creates an essential piece of new writing – edgy, haunting and disconcertingly relevant and Caryl Churchill, at the age of 81, is still the playwright for our times.
‘Gets the atmosphere right’: BARTHOLOMEW FAIR – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Bartholomew Fair is full of energy and highly entertaining throughout, while making no attempt to glamorise the city’s underbelly.
‘Too many issues for any one play to carry’: THE DOCTOR – Almeida Theatre
Robert Icke’s final production for the Almeida, after spectacular successes including Mary Stuart, Andrew Scott’s Hamlet and The Wild Duck, is a complete reworking of a play by Arthur Schnitzler. He rips the original play, Professor Bernhardi, out of its turn-of-the-century Vienna setting, and drops it into the information age in The Doctor.
‘A deeply alarming message’: SEA SICK – Edinburgh Fringe
In Sea Sick Alana Mitchell tells, in an engaging lecture, the story of how she, as a journalist, came to be investigating this little known, devastating climate change phenomenon.
‘Gives a voice to those who need it most’: WHO CARES – Edinburgh Fringe
A fierce indictment of cuts and callous indifference, Who Cares? comes straight from the mouths of young carers in Salford.
‘An entirely compelling evening’: EQUUS – Trafalgar Studios
Ned Bennett has created an entirely compelling evening, which reveals new layers to Peter Shaffer’s play Equus that we can now only see because we have changed as a society since it was first performed – a sure sign of a classic.
‘Does not fully live up to its clever concept’: WIFE – Kiln Theatre
Samuel Adamson’s take on A Doll’s House is an ambitious play, sometimes overly so, which delivers fascinating moments but has a tendency to fall short.
‘Startling & exceptional piece of theatre’: FREEMAN – Touring
Freeman is a startling and exceptional piece of theatre and its run in Streatham was a coup for the still relatively new Streatham Space Project theatre.
‘Ingenious, chaotic & highly enjoyable’: HUMAN JAM – Camden People’s Theatre
Human Jam is precisely the type of show Camden People’s Theatre should be producing: fully engaged with its community, angry but imaginative, chaotic and messy, and shining a strong, searching light on those in power.
‘A succession of distinctive performances’: THREE SISTERS – Almeida Theatre
Rebecca Frecknall’s rich production of Three Sisters takes place in a bubble of unreality, both alluring and doomed to burst.
‘Remarkably funny & unexpectedly painful’: DIE! DIE! DIE! OLD PEOPLE DIE! – Battersea Arts Centre
Ridiculusmus is at the top of their game and Die! Die! Die! Old People Die!, complete with fart jokes, is an absolute must-see for anyone who wants to be awed by what two men on a small stage can achieve.