Someone at the Globe may have sold their soul to the devil after all because it is the companion piece to Doctor Faustus, Dark Night of the Soul, that is exactly the kind of successful initiative they need.
‘Wholly new & refreshing’: DOCTOR FAUSTUS – Shakespeare’s Globe ★★★
I love Christopher Marlowe. I love the raciness and rebel in him. And sometimes, particularly in Paulette Randall’s reframed version here at Shakespeare’s Globe with Doctor Faustus.
‘Fails to entirely convince’: DOCTOR FAUSTUS – Shakespeare’s Globe
Paulette Randall’s gender-swap, colour-blind, version of Christopher Marlowe’s fiendish morality tale Doctor Faustus succeeds in ticking a lot of trendy boxes but fails to create innovative, or even interesting, theatre.
‘Rather silly but good fun’: DAISY PULLS IT OFF – Park Theatre
“Buck up kiddies”Theatres that aren’t putting on pantomimes face something of a dilemma – what do you do to ensure you capture audience attention in this most lucrative of seasons? Some theatres like the Almeida programme counter-intuitively whilst oth…
‘Delicious, deliberate irony’: DAISY PULLS IT OFF – Park Theatre
Daisy Pulls It Off only works if the performers get the tone right. In Park Theatre’s production, they do it perfectly – it’s hilarious… If you’re after a ripping laughing this Christmas, but one with a tiny bit of bite, it’s hard to think of a better show than Daisy Pulls It Off.
DAISY PULLS IT OFF – Park Theatre
This spirited, age-blind revival at the Park Theatre of Denise Deegan’s 1983 girls’ boarding school classic is a bit too boisterous for its own good.
CYMBELINE – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
In that little wooden candlelit nest of magic and wonder that is the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Sam Yates directs a dreamy, fairytale-like Cymbeline. Originally written to be performed across the river at the Blackfriars playhouse (and now playing in that venue’s simulacrum), the play is a tragicomedy with heavy dark elements (jealousy, betrayal, poisoning, the list goes on) none of which appears to do much harm to this reassuring and family-friendly Globe production.
EAST IS EAST – Touring
A story about identity, packaged as a comedy but addressing some very real and hard-hitting issues, East is East is a slick production. Simon Nagra’s George Khan is a Pakistani immigrant, a staunch Muslim married to a Salford woman and the father of seven children. The play captures the life of his family as he does everything he can to cling on to his heritage and culture and we witness just how difficult this is.