The Nether, Royal Court Theatre – Not utopia after all

July 19, 2014.Reading time 7 minutes.

Jennifer Haley’s new play The Nether takes us into a very believable future world where most people live online. In the Nether, students attend classes online, people tend virtual gardens (I assume because we have killed all vegetation) and some have even elected to live on life support to remain permanently connected to their avatar […]

The Crucible, Old Vic – Steal or beg to go and see this production of Arthur Miller powerful play

June 29, 2014.Reading time 9 minutes.

This is my month of standing ovations, first Skylight and now Yaël Farber’s Crucible. As anyone who attends the theatre in London will know (as oppose to our US cousins who are more effusive in their theatre appreciation), standing ovations are as rare as hen’s teeth in these parts of the world. We reserve those […]

The Valley of Astonishment, Young Vic – It’s a reminder to us all that whatever our experience at any moment, there is, in Shakespeare’s terms, ‘a world elsewhere’.

June 22, 2014.Reading time 7 minutes.

In a recent article in the FT, Brook is quoted as saying that his “only aim in the theatre is that people, after the experience of one or two hours together, in some way leave more confident with life than when they came in”. It is a worthwhile goal and no one could accuse the […]

Skylight, Wyndham Theatre – A fantastic night of political and emotional jousting between the sexes

June 14, 2014.Reading time 5 minutes.

Skylight, first staged at the National in 1995, is being revived for the second time in the West End and it is easy to see why the play has had such endurance and received such accolades (Olivier Award for Best New Play and Tony Award for Best Play). David Hare takes us into the world […]

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