Safe Haven. Review by Barbara Lewis. “Oh enemy, the Kurdish people live on,” is how the Kurdish National Anthem defiantly begins. In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the survival of many of them was helped by Operation Safe Haven, an initiative pushed through by then Prime Minister John Major.
plays
Gerry & Sewell. Review by Barbara Lewis. Gerry and Sewell are two friends who have little beyond their loyalty to each other and to their team: Newcastle United. Their one dream is to have the money to buy a season ticket.
The Wanderers. Review by Julia Pascal. This is a fascinating mess of a play which engages on every level. Anna Zeigler’s conceit is literary as the narrative plays out two parallel timelines within designated chapters.
Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B. Review by Barbara Lewis. Popular wisdom maintains that the appeal of the traditional whodunnit is in its reassuring message that problems will be solved and justice will be done. But what if there are no easy answers, asks Tendai Humphrey Sitima.
The Wind and The Rain. Finborough Theatre. Review by Barbara Lewis. A wistful story of Edinburgh medical students tussling with exams and affairs of the heart was one of the biggest international hits of the 1930s and a staple of British repertory theatre for decades after.
As You Like It. Review by Barbara Lewis. The line “ripeness is all” from Shakespeare’s tragedy of old age Lear could easily be the motto of the RSC’s latest joyful version of one of his most youthful comedies of love.
THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN – Under Milk Wood seventy years on: an appreciation by Kevin Saving
Pussycat in Memory of Darkness. Review by Barbara Lewis. Kristin Milward’s performance of Pussycat in Memory of Darkness in Kyiv in December was the first visiting foreign production in the capital since the Russian invasion began in February last year.
The Human Voice, Charing Cross Theatre. Review by Barbara Lewis. It’s surely a temptation for today’s directors of Poulenc and Cocteau’s La Voix Humaine, or The Human Voice in this English version, to transpose it to the world of mobile phones. It’s one director Alejandro Bonatto wisely resists.
Love Goddess. Review by Barbara Lewis. Rita Hayworth was considered one of the most beautiful women of her day, was Fred Astaire’s favourite dance partner, and was married five times, including to Orson Welles, the man she is believed to have truly loved. She also suffered from Alzheimer’s for two decades before being diagnosed.
The Coral by Georg Kaiser. Review by Julia Pascal. The work explores the concept of the doppelganger and the fascination for the new science of psychiatry as well as interrogating capitalism itself.
A Grain of Sand. Review by Barbara Lewis. We tell stories when reality becomes unbearable. We may also tell them to remember those who have not lived to tell the tale. Both statements pertain to the one-woman show created by Elias Matar that deftly combines fabulous Palestinian myths with the horrors experienced as children live and die through war in Gaza.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2026 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre