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.
‘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.
Best of the Blogs: The Mates give their verdicts on Adrian Mole, Noises Off, The End of History & more
Carrying on a new series, our editor Lisa Martland has picked out her Top Picks including three musicals: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ The Musical at the Ambassadors Theatre (Libby Purves), Fiver at Southwark Playhouse (Emma Clarendon) and The Color Purple at Curve Leicester (No Billington).
‘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.
How the Mates Rate: Death Of A Salesman at the Young Vic Theatre
Directors Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell have brought their unique vision to one of the greatest plays of the 20th century by Arthur Miller, seen through the eyes of an African American family. So what did the Mates think of this Young Vic production of the American drama classic?
‘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.
How the Mates Rate: Sweet Charity at the Donmar Warehouse
Sweet Charity, Josie Rourke’s farewell production at the Donmar Warehouse which stars Anne-Marie Duff as Charity and Arthur Darvill as Oscar, appears to have charmed the majority of our Mates, with a few reservations here and there. The musical continues until 8 June 2019.
‘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.
Best of the Blogs: Toast, A German Life, Tony’s Last Tape, Top Girls & Queen of the Mist
Carrying on her new series, our editor Lisa Martland picks out five of her Top Picks from the last week of theatre (8-14 April 2019).
‘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.