family relationships
Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play, Young Vic review - committed and important play let down by heavy-handed writingWednesday, 27 September 2023
Seldom can a title have given so much away about the play to follow, not just in terms of the subject matter but also in terms of the sledgehammer approach to driving home its points. Kimber Lee, who won the inaugural Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting... Read more... |
The Little Big Things, @sohoplace review - real-life story movingly realised onstageTuesday, 19 September 2023
It's rare that a new musical or play opens in the West End with as much positive word-of-mouth as The Little Big Things. Social media has been ablaze over the last few weeks, with critics and bloggers sneaking into previews and authoritative big... Read more... |
That Face, Orange Tree Theatre review - in-yer-face family dramaFriday, 15 September 2023
Playwright Polly Stenham MBE had a meteoric rise with this play, her award-winning 2007 debut which she wrote aged 19 and whose original Royal Court cast featured Lyndsay Duncan and Matt Smith, and earned a much-lauded West End transfer. I remember... Read more... |
Infamous, Jermyn Street Theatre review - Lady Hamilton challenges the patriarchy and losesThursday, 14 September 2023
Towards the end of the 18th century, Lady Emma Hamilton (like so much in this woman's life, hers was a title achieved as much as bestowed) was the “It Girl” of European society.They’ve always been around – women who have the combination of... Read more... |
Blue Beetle review - radical rehashSunday, 20 August 2023
Blue Beetle is DC’s first screen Latino superhero, a recent development in the history of a D-grade character summed up here in his own film as “like the Flash… or Superman… but not as good”. Scraping the character barrel and first meant for cable,... Read more... |
Makeshifts and Realities, Finborough Theatre review - Edwardian dramas with a pinch of ChekhovFriday, 18 August 2023
We’re in (pretty much literally so in this most intimate of venues) an Edwardian sitting room, time hanging heavily in the air, gentility almost visibly fading before our eyes. Two sisters (young, educated, attractive) bicker with each other. But... Read more... |
La Cage Aux Folles, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - 40 years on, the drag show still entertains and educatesWednesday, 16 August 2023
Forty years ago, the world was very different for gay men. AIDS was devastating their communities, especially in the big cities where hard-won enclaves of acceptance were being hollowed out, one sunken-eyed friend after another. Media screamed “Gay... Read more... |
The SpongeBob Musical, QEH review - musical based on popular kids' animation sinks for lack of focusSaturday, 12 August 2023
There are many things that you are not told about being a parent, a vast landscape of details that batter you with unwelcome difference from that comfortable life of Friday night prosecco and pizza. One is a whole new palette of garish colours... Read more... |
You Hurt My Feelings review - Manhattanite comedy with a characterful castWednesday, 09 August 2023
Popped straight out to the streamers, Nicole Holofcener’s new film has apparently been labelled as insufficiently marketable for a theatrical release against the juggernaut of Barbenheimer. Surely by now a movie that doesn't feature either Ryan... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: The Death and Life of All of Us / Anything That We Wanted To Be / ChickenSaturday, 05 August 2023
The Death and Life of All of Us, Summerhall ★★★★Victor Esses was 16 when he first discovered his grandmother had a sister – someone the family had never discussed. It was just a year after his own first illicit visit to a gay sauna.Esses’s... Read more... |
Lorrie Moore: I am Homeless If This is Not My Home review - between this world and the nextThursday, 27 July 2023
Lorrie Moore’s brief but haunting I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home is a bizarre, unsettling read. At times it’s a road trip, at others a romance, then supernatural horror, Greek tragedy, or an epistolary short story nestled within the larger... Read more... |
Everybody Loves Jeanne review - charmingly weird romantic comedyWednesday, 26 July 2023
Céline Devaux, known for her award-winning short films, wrote, directed and drew the animations for her charming, funny debut feature, which takes the concept of the critical inner voice and runs with it.Blanche Gardin is brilliant as Jeanne, whose... Read more... |
