In 2010, Bruce Norris’ play wowed the Royal Court: this is a ten-year anniversary (well, plus two years lost to Covid) so forgive me for quoting what I wrote then.
‘Will surely soon be a contemporary classic’: THE GIFT – Theatre Royal Stratford East & Touring
New touring play The Gift from Eclipse is a wonderfully complex and emotionally powerful account of race and Empire.
Ought To Be Clowns’ 10 favourite shows of 2019
Ought To Be Clowns barely saw 250 shows this year, quiet by his standards. And as is the way of these things, here’s a rundown of some of the productions that moved me most…
‘An absolute masterpiece of writing’: DOWNSTATE – National Theatre
Downstate at the National Theatre is a remarkable thing. An absolute masterpiece of writing, performed so sensitively and with such bravery.
‘A quietly, utterly absorbing play about child abuse’: DOWNSTATE – National Theatre
Bruce Norris, previously best known for race drama Clybourne Park takes on social taboo issues without a pause.
‘Brilliant, necessary, questioning’: DOWNSTATE – National Theatre ★★★★★
If we accept that people are widely diverse, we have to accept that paedophiles are too. Not all the same identi-monster. Moreover, if their horrifying actions pose us questions we need to think very clearly about answers.
‘Breathtaking, brave & brilliantly acted’: DOWNSTATE – National Theatre ★★★★★
At last, Rufus Norris’ National Theatre has come of age. Breathtaking, brave and brilliantly acted, Downstate is a landmark play. It’s listed as a ‘collaboration’ between NT and Steppenwolf, but the Chicago company’s prints are all over this glistening weapon.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Downstate at the National Theatre
Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews for Pam MacKinnon’s production of Bruce Norris’ new play Downstate at the National Theatre.
‘Challenges your thinking & reactions’: DOWNSTATE – National Theatre ★★★★★
Downstate is a challenging, difficult play with humour and wit inflected with wisdom, carefully balancing entertainment without detracting from the seriousness of the subject matter.
‘Dramatically engaging but morally troubling’: DOWNSTATE – National Theatre
Whether rehabilitation is truly possible for such serious crimes committed by sex offenders, Bruce Norris never really decides, leaving only a dramatically engaging but morally troubling outcome in Downstate at the National Theatre.
NEWS: National Theatre’s new season features Andrea Levy’s Small Island, Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls & Lenny Henry as Richard Pryor
Rufus Norris has unveiled the National Theatre’s plans for 2019 and beyond. Highlights include the world premiere of Small Island adapted by Helen Edmundson from Andrea Levy’s novel, directed by Rufus Norris.
THE RESISTABLE RISE OF ARTURO UI – Donmar Warehouse
There’s something special in the timelessness of some pieces of theatre, their themes and arguments as relevant to audiences today as they were when they were written years, decades, even centuries ago. Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui falls into the middle category, written in 1941 as an allegorical response to his nation’s fall to Nazism, and was magisterially revived at Chichester a few years back.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at Donmar Warehouse
Lenny Henry makes his Donmar debut in the theatre’s revival of Bertolt Brecht’s play. Here is what critics have been saying about the production so far.
THE RESISTABLE RISE OF ARTURO UI – Donmar Warehouse
Well, to start at the end, I can’t remember a more personally `engaged’ ending than Simon Evans manufactures for the climax of Brecht’s 1940s political satire on the rise of Hitler in an American gangland setting.
PHOTOS: Lenny Henry goes full gangster as Donmar’s Arturo Ui
Take a look at all the production photos of the Donmar’s new take on Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, led by Lenny Henry, making his Donmar debut.
THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI – Donmar Warehouse
How do you get, keep and wield power? What do you use it for, and why? And, if you will stop at nothing, how can the rest of society stop you?
PHOTOS: Inside rehearsals with Lenny Henry & the Artuor Ui cast
Rehearsals are well under way for Bruce Norris’ new translation of Bertolt Brecht’s satirical masterpiece The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, directed by Simon Evans with design by Peter McKintosh. The production, led by Lenny Henry who makes his Donmar debut playing the title role, runs 21 April to 17 June 2017, with a press night on 2 May. Rehearsals photos …
NEWS: Michael Pennington joins Lenny Henry in Arturo Ui, Full cast announced
Lenny Henry is joined in the cast of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Michael Pennington, who recently played King Lear at the Royal & Derngate Northampton, as Dogsborough.
CLYBOURNE PARK – Touring
This is that finely balanced thing: a comedy built around a tragedy. Six summers ago, a new-fledged critic for the Times, I wrote about its British premiere: “Bruce Norris’ play is billed as a satire on race and property in America, in 1959 and then the present day, but it reaches wider. Norris is in fact occupying territory somewhere between Arthur Miller and vintage Ayckbourn, and holding it triumphantly.”