Guys and Dolls, Royal Albert Hall. Review by Julia Pascal.
Damon Runyan’s short stories inspired what has become an iconic and much-loved Broadway musical and movie – Guys and Dolls.
theatre
La Malady of Love, Katie Mitchell, Barbican Theatre. Review by Julia Pascal.
This piece of theatre is inspired by La Maladie de la Mort, Marguerite Duras’ 1982 novella. The original text explored a homosexual’s purchase of a woman in a vain search for love.
Peer Gynt, Henrik Ibsen, Arcola Theatre. Review by Barbara Lewis.
Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt defied theatre’s limitations with a vast cast, sprawling action and special effects.
The End of Eddy, Unicorn Theatre. Review by Barbara Lewis.
Under Stewart Laing’s inspired direction, four permanently-glowing screens help to convey the bigoted characters of a charmless northern French village, where violence, shame, pride, racism and homophobia form the fabric of society.
Wasted, Southwark Playhouse. Review by Barbara Lewis.
In our blasé age, we may take for granted that a remote Yorkshire parsonage managed to produce three sisters who defied rigid Victorian convention to give voice to raw passions and sexual frustration no respectable woman was meant to feel.
Emilia, Shakespeare’s Globe. Review by Julia Pascal.
This play is a picaresque adventure describing the life of Emilia Bassano Lanier. Emilia, born in 1569, was a direct contemporary of Shakespeare, and perhaps the inspiration of his Dark Lady of the Sonnets.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses Pleasance King Dome, Edinburgh. Review by Barbara Lewis.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses comprise nearly 12,000 lines and over 250 myths that have inspired more modern writers as great as Shakespeare and Dante.
Elf Lyons, ChiffChaff. Review by Barbara Lewis.
What do you do when life gives you lemons? Make lemonade is the wrong answer, says Elf Lyons, who is the product – and that’s not too economic a term – of father Gerard Lyons, former economic advisor to Boris Johnson, artist mother Annette Lyons and the Philippe Gaulier clown school on the outskirts of Paris.
Much Ado About Nothing, Gray’s Inn Hall. Review by Julia Pascal.
This is Shakespeare light. Very light. Antic Disposition’s presentation of Shakespeare’s 1598 comedy is aimed at touring in South West France during the summer months when Paris empties and the French take to the countryside.
The Unnatural Tragedy, White Bear, London. Review by Barbara Lewis.
Writer, philosopher and English aristocrat Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) was way ahead of her time and she knew it, writing: “I regard not so much the present but future ages”.
Polarity and Proximity, Birmingham Royal Ballet at Sadler’s Wells. Review by Julia Pascal.
Polarity & Proximity, a triple bill, follows the success earlier in the week of Romeo & Juliet. This London programme’s aim is to reveal the range of styles this strong company employs.
Company, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth. Review by Barbara Lewis.
Any story-line involving a single woman is inherently more dramatic than a narrative of a single man because of biology’s cruel deadlines.