As with last year, there were too many brilliant performances to restrict this to one combined list – so once again I’ve split them up into male and female performances.
‘Vital & vibrant contribution to contemporary theatre’: CHIAROSCURO – Bush Theatre
Chiaroscuro is a relevant, moving production, addressing issues of sexuality and identity & focusing on characters that are often left out of theatrical narratives. It is a vital and vibrant contribution to contemporary theatre.
‘Sometimes rhapsodic & always beautiful’: CHIAROSCURO – Bush Theatre
Chiaroscuro succeeds as a celebration of how the lives of different black women are thriving, whatever their sexuality.
‘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.
‘Extremely empowering piece’: CHIAROSCURO – Bush Theatre ★★★★★
Lynette Linton brings together this story in a beautiful and explosive manner through her direction of Chiaroscuro.
‘Breath-takingly powerful & inventive’: SMALL ISLAND – National Theatre
Andrea Levy’s novel Small Island comes to life most beautifully in this adaptation by Helen Edmundson at the National Theatre.
‘One of the most thrilling nights I’ve spent in the theatre for a long time’: MISTY – Trafalgar Studios ★★★★★
Sometimes you just know you’ve seen the future. I missed seeing Misty at the Bush. I can only imagine that for once, the transfer has settled it into an even better, more appropriate venue.
SHAKESPEARE TRILOGY – Donmar at King’s Cross
What you do get from the trilogy day though is a huge sense of occasion, and the undeniable truth of the significance of what has been achieved here. Unabashedly all-female productions of Shakespeare, shaking up a (male dominated) establishment that still can’t quite let these things happen without a range of think-pieces.
THE TEMPEST – Donmar at King’s Cross
A slightly odd one this, the Donmar’s all-female adaptation of The Tempest opened at the King’s Cross Theatre in late September, but from what I can tell won’t be officially reviewed until 22nd November.