race issues
Wuthering Heights, National Theatre review - too much heat, not enough lightFriday, 11 February 2022
“If you want romance,” the cast of Emma Rice’s new version of Wuthering Heights say in unison just after the interval, “go to Cornwall.” They’re using the modern definition of romance, of course – Emily Brontë’s novel is full of the original meaning... Read more... |
Conundrum, Young Vic review - inscrutable and ungraspableTuesday, 01 February 2022
Conundrum is a tricky play. Written and directed by Paul Anthony Morris, founder of Crying in the Wilderness Productions, it’s an extended meditation on Blackness and what it means to live in a racist society. Anthony Ofoegbu is the star of the show... Read more... |
Death of England: Face to Face, National Theatre at Home review - anti-racist trilogy ends with a bangTuesday, 23 November 2021
One of the absolute highpoints of new writing in the past couple of years has been the Death of England trilogy. Written by Roy Williams and Clint Dyer, these three brilliant monologues have not only explored vital questions of race and racism,... Read more... |
Get Up, Stand Up!, Lyric Theatre review - knockout performance, undercooked bookFriday, 22 October 2021
Can we turn off the script and simply leave the music to do its soul-stirring bit? That's likely to be a not uncommon response to Get Up Stand Up!, which gives Bob Marley much the same biomusical treatment currently on view in Tina across... Read more... |
Rice, Orange Tree Theatre review - whip-smart, but unsure where it standsTuesday, 19 October 2021
“Careful, there’s a hole in the floor.” The warning’s an unusual one, passed along conscientiously by the stewards at the door of the tiny Orange Tree Theatre.The hole in question is long and angular and will soon be filled with water, stretching... Read more... |
White Noise, Bridge Theatre review - provocative if not always plausibleFriday, 15 October 2021
"I can't sleep": So goes the fateful opening line of White Noise, the Suzan-Lori Parks play disturbing enough to spark many a restless night in playgoers who are prepared to take its numerous provocations on board. To do so requires various... Read more... |
First Person: Andrea Levy's husband recalls her path toward becoming a novelistThursday, 07 October 2021
The opening sentence of Andrea’s 2010 historical novel The Long Song is in the voice of Thomas Kinsman, who is introducing the reader to his mother, July."The book you are now holding in your hand was born of a craving," Kinsman declares. "My mama... Read more... |
Extract: The Breaks by Julietta SinghWednesday, 06 October 2021
How do we mother “at the end of the world”? Among the ruins of late capitalism, climate catastrophe, and entrenched white state violence?Julietta Singh “admit[s] that at a conceptual level there is a crucial part of me that wants to throw in the... Read more... |
Curious, Soho Theatre review - a young playwright puts herself centre-stageMonday, 04 October 2021
Jasmine Lee-Jones has a hard act to follow – namely, herself. Her award-winning 2019 debut play, seven methods of killing kylie jenner, announced the arrival at the Royal Court of a blistering writing talent whose two sparring women made... Read more... |
Is God Is, Royal Court review – blister, flare and burn, baby, burnThursday, 16 September 2021
God is a tricky one. Or should that be One? And definitely not a He. So when she says take revenge, then vengeance is definitely not only hers, but ours too. American playwright Aleshea Harris’s dazzlingly satirical 2018 extravaganza is about two... Read more... |
Shorta review - Danish police dramaSaturday, 11 September 2021
This Danish police drama attempts to tackle the country’s uneasy relationship with the immigrants it’s allowed into its cities over the last 30 years. The result is a somewhat clumsy attempt at fusing social commentary with the visceral thrills of... Read more... |
Leopards, Rose Theatre, Kingston review - a no-thrill thriller about sex and powerThursday, 09 September 2021
Is it a thriller? Is it a character study? Leopards, Alys Metcalf’s two-hander about a middle-aged white charity executive – male – and a young job applicant of mixed race – female – goes under the colours of both, but falls short of either genre.A... Read more... |
