How many plays pass the Bechdel Test? Originally featured in a comic strip, and popularised in film criticism, it simply states that to pass this test your story has to have: 1) at least two women in it; 2) who talk to each other; 3) about something other than a man. Well, one of the brilliant things about Irish writer Margaret Perry’s new dark comedy, Paradise Now! is that it passes this test with an A Plus grade.
‘Okonedo more than delivers’: ANTONY & CLEOPATRA – National Theatre ★★★★
Or Cleopatra and Antony as it turns out. Ralph Fiennes is plenty good in Simon Godwin’s modern-dress production of Antony & Cleopatra for the National Theatre, but Sophie Okonedo is sit-up, shut-up, stand-up amazing.
‘Something deeply emotive about the work here’: THE WINTER’S TALE – National Theatre
What could merely be dismissed as make-believe in The Winter’s Tale gains real significance in what it can achieve for social cohesion, planting seeds in the minds of future theatremakers.
THE SCAR TEST – Soho Theatre
Khalil has turned her focus to the experience of female detainees at the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre and the many, many indignities suffered by those trying to work their way through the knots and prejudices of our immigration system.