This week the London theatre bloggers discuss Cymbeline at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, The Rolling Stone at the Orange Tree, The Picture of Dorian Gray at Trafalgar Studios and The Long Road South at the King’s Head.
My theatre diary: 4000 Days, Hangmen, The Dazzle, Jane Wenham, The Long Road South
I’m well overdue for a theatre diary, aren’t I? So here goes with a quick one on more new plays I’ve seen in recent (and not-so recent) weeks that I’d recommend catching and haven’t yet managed to squeeze in to separate blogs.
THE LONG ROAD SOUTH – King’s Head Theatre
The Civil Rights movement in America was a time of turbulence and violence, but both black and white activists retaliated with their passion for equality. The issue divided individual families across generations, recreating the conflict on a microcosmic level. Paul Minx’s The Long Road South recreates this excruciating tension through close examination of the dysfunctional Price family in suburban Indiana.
THE LONG ROAD SOUTH – King’s Head Theatre
The Civil Rights movement in America was a time of turbulence and violence, but both black and white activists retaliated with their passion for equality. The issue divided individual families across generations, recreating the conflict on a microcosmic level. Paul Minx’s The Long Road South recreates this excruciating tension through close examination of the dysfunctional Price family in suburban Indiana.
THE LONG ROAD SOUTH – King’s Head Theatre
Whenever reviewers can’t readily categorise a new play they reach for a mixture of comparisons – so The Long Road South could be ‘half Far From Heaven, half Death of a Salesman’ in that it’s about a proud man who loses the job by which he defines himself, and a quietly dignified black gardener sexualized by a white woman. It’s a lazy trick we all employ, but here I think it pays tribute to the wide range of literary and historical sources which colour Paul Minx‘s careful, considered writing.
FEATURED SHOW: The Long Road South at the King’s Head, Reviews are in!
Have you seen the reviews for our current Featured Show, Paul Minx’s new play The Long Road South, starring Michael Brandon and Imogen Stubbs? Plenty of comparisons are being made with Tennessee Williams… Scroll down for links and pull quotes from some of our favourite reviews.
THE LONG ROAD SOUTH – King’s Head Theatre
The 31st August 1965 is not a really notable day in history. True, it is Independence Day in Trinidad and Tobago and is also the Saint’s Day for Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, San Abbondio, Saint Raymond Nonnatus, but otherwise not that much to write home about. However, for the family at the centre of Paul Minx’s play The Long Road South at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington 08-31-65 is a day none of them will ever forget.