At the Ambassadors, Joanna Murray-Smith’s new play Switzerland arrives in the West End for the first time, putting Patricia Highsmith in the spotlight with an intriguing duologue about the nature of the authorial voice.
‘Rather brilliant’: SWITZERLAND – West End ★★★★
Joanna Murray Smith’s Switzerland, about the author Patricia Highsmith, is a creepy, funny, transgressive, impertinent tour-de-force of a 90-minute two-hander.
Top recommended London openings for November
Here’s Love London Love Culture’s guide to some of the best shows opening in the capital in November.
NEWS: Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland joins Honour & Songs for Nobodies in London
Lucy Bailey’s Theatre Royal Bath production of Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland will transfer to the West End next month, running for a limited season at the Ambassadors Theatre just ahead of another Murray-Smith play, Songs for Nobodies, transferring from Wilton’s Music Hall. The West End transfers come hot on the heels of Paul Robinson’s star-studded London revival of Murray-Smith’s Honour, starting at the Park Theatre next week.
‘A twisting tale of solitude, doubt & indeed love’: SWITZERLAND – Bath ★★★★★
In Switzerland, Joanna Murray-Smith has written an intricately woven script so intense that 1 hour 40 minutes without an interval is thoroughly necessary.
Year in Review: Helen McWilliams’ top 5 touring shows of 2016
Touring productions are the vast majority of shows that I go along to review, so whittling down a shortlist of the top ones from 2016 is no mean feat. The task has been eased somewhat as a few of my personal idols have been treading the boards this year and their appearances were highlights in themselves.
INTERVIEW: Spotlight On… Present Laughter’s Rebecca Johnson
Rebecca Johnson is an actress whose work I was already familiar with, having seen her last Christmas as Mrs Darling in Wendy and Peter Pan at the RSC in Stratford. I rated her performance, then, and she has continued to impress me now that she is starring as Liz Essendine, alongside Samuel West as Garry Essendine, in Noel Coward’s Present Laughter.