This play’s subject is alienation, at work and in the home. (But mainly at work.) In contemporary society, office work seems to symbolize a life of modern drudgery.
HARROGATE – Royal Court & touring
Al Smith’s debut play about love, perversion and memory is both electrifying and emotionally satisfying.
BLUE HEART – Orange Tree Theatre
Great revival of Caryl Churchill’s classic 1990s double bill is theatrically thrilling and emotionally true.
TORN – Royal Court Theatre
Experimental family drama is very powerful, but its theatrical form is too complicated for its own good.
FURY – Soho Theatre
New drama about a desperate single mother is powerfully written and raises some disturbing issues.
FAITH HEALER – Donmar Warehouse
Revival of the late Brian Friel’s 1979 classic is brilliantly acted, beautifully directed and haunting in its ambiguity.
ELEGY – Donmar Warehouse
New one from Nick Payne explores brain science and female relationships, but is just a bit too superficial.
MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER SHOULD – St James Theatre
Spirited revival of the 1980s feminist classic is a bit too shrill, yet also quietly moving when it matters.