At best Baghdaddy at the Royal Court Theatre is a surreal trip into traumatic memory, at its worst it’s a self-indulgent mess. If you think that American crime are worse than Saddam’s you’ll love this show; if you like playwrights wagging their finger at you, you’ll love this show; if you believe that parental trauma can be inherited and then self-consciously joked about, you’ll love this show.
‘Inspiring & acutely relevant’: CHASING HARES – Young Vic
With its energetic arguments, moments of great charm, gritty humour, and mix of filth and idealism, Sonali Bhattacharyya’s Chasing Hares at the Young Vic is both relevant and contemporary.
‘Experiments with its theatrical form’: CHASING HARES – Young Vic
Exploitation can take many forms and sometimes it even begins with a creative opportunity. Sonali Bhattacharyya’s lead character in new play Chasing Hares at the Young Vic takes a while to find themselves confronting a major moral dilemma but the road to it begins with storytelling, imagination and character creation.
‘The controversy has generated more heat than the play itself’: RARE EARTH METTLE – Royal Court Theatre
Al Smith’s new play was jinxed before it started – and, bogged down in cartoonish detail, it never really recovers.
‘Bright, warm & occasionally wonderfully joyous’: CHIAROSCURO – Bush Theatre
Lively gig theatre revival of Jackie Kay’s Chiaroscuroa, a 1980s account of the black lesbian experience doesn’t quite work.
‘Mildly interesting, mildly well written & mildly amusing’: WHITE PEARL – Royal Court Theatre
White Pearl at the Royal Court Theatre, a new satire about the cosmetics industry and race, plays with stereotypes but is only mildly funny.
ROUNDELAY – Southwark Playhouse
Sonja Linden’s Roundelay sticks two fingers up to this generalisation whilst sticking two fingers down its pants for a good old rummage around.