The Trumpeter. Review by Barbara Lewis. Mariupol, where Ukraine for nearly three months in 2022 resisted Russia’s determination to create a land bridge between Crimea and Donbas, became a byword for horror.
plays
The Comedy of Errors. Review by Barbara Lewis. This is the HandleBards’ uplifting summer tour, which after 935 miles of pedalling, brought the cycling players to a picnicking audience in the grounds of Horace Walpole’s Gothic revival mansion at Strawberry Hill, west London.
Kyoto. Review by Barbara Lewis. If Shakespeare put the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon on the global map, the Kyoto climate treaty arguably did the same for an ancient Japanese capital.
May Be at Sadler’s Wells. Review by Julia Pascal. I walk into a Paris bookshop and ask if they can offer me play texts by contemporary French authors. The assistant directs me to a shelf of plays by Samuel Beckett. To the French, Samuel Beckett is one of theirs. He wrote in French. He lived most of his life in France. But was he Irish? Anglo-Irish? French?
Cutting the Tightrope. Review by Barbara Lewis. The arts have always had a role in saying the unsayable, making it all but inevitable that Arts Council England’s effort to clarify advice issued early this year on the risk of making political statements would only add to the controversy.
Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear. Review by Barbara Lewis. A cast of five tackles all the complexity of Conan Doyle’s fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel that is as clever, contrived and satisfying as a cryptic crossword.
Blue. Review by Barbara Lewis. George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, which triggered waves of Black Lives Matter protests, together with the U.S. Capitol attacks of January 2021, when off-duty police officers were found to be among the rioters, inspired June Carryl to write Blue.
The Pilgrim Play. Review by Barbara Lewis. An antidote to the glitz that can disguise the mediocre, it’s a welcome return to the roots of theatre and to a focus on consummate acting skill.
Transgression, Life in the Aftermath of the Eocene. Review by Barbara Lewis. The Eocene lasted from about 55.8 million to 33.9 million years ago, which has left a lot to happen in the aftermath. By the 1990s of “Transgression”, humanity is being perpetuated by fleeting moments of sexual attraction that give way to years of cruelty.
BY TIMOTHY! Michael Bartholomew-Biggs rediscovers and re-examines the Paul Temple stories he enjoyed listening to on the wireless in his younger days
Mr. Jones. Review by Barbara Lewis. Nearly 60 years on, the tragedy of Aberfan haunts us, not least because it could have been avoided. There is no consolation unless you turn to art. Then the dramatic tension between what was and what might have been becomes theatrical gold in the hands of Liam Holmes.
Why Am I So Single?! Review by Barbara Lewis. From Jane Austen to “Friends,” the pursuit of heterosexual love has been the goal of romantic comedy. Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the makers of the international musical hit “SIX,” have turned that on its head with a musical comedy that celebrates “love friendship” between a non-binary man and a woman.
By Barbara Lewis • musicals, plays, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, musicals, plays, theatre