Reviews

Way before the tub-thumping zeitgeist of Steve Bannon came William F Buckley, an American conservative author and commentator who founded the National Review magazine. ‘Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views,’ he said. Contradicting this assessment is Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park, where American property and racial tensions run high. Intriguingly, it is despicably funny, one of those rare pieces which makes you burst unrestrainedly out laughing, only to be shocked a second later when the implication of the humour hits you, making you

As well as their considerable talents, the cast of the RMDS Soirée have one terrific advantage: the party atmosphere that surrounds the event. Surely every member of the society, all their families and all their friends turn out to support it. Many of them arrive early with picnic suppers, the bar staff are rushed off their feet and by the time the curtain goes up, the theatre is already filled with congeniality and goodwill. The show is basically two hours of non-stop jokes, some in the form of short sketches, some strung together as longer scenes and some done as

This type of concert show is a staple of the amateur musical society, its chief role being to put money in the bank to be able to splurge on the next big, expensive production. There are also opportunities for society members, who perhaps don’t get the lead roles in the big shows, to showcase their talents in a song or two in their own slot on stage. Sometimes it can be a case of recycling the same tired old numbers which may be tried and tested, but the audience have all heard them soooo many times before (mentioning no particular songs

This is superb entertainment from start to finish. Directors Olivia Krauze and Natalia May have produced something very special, all the more so for the limitations of the Annex stage/lecture theatre. The stage design and lighting are so atmospheric that even upon entrance you know you are entering a warped world: mirrors deliciously placed at angles give just a hint of what is behind, and then further engulf us with images for the turbulent second act. The acting is pure class from everyone and not one of Wilde’s bon-mots is wasted as the well-disciplined, clear-dictioned cast dispense both sage and

We theatre snobs like to say that the stage has virtues to which the cinema can never aspire, but the truth is also that film can do lots of things that theatre cannot do. Quite apart from being able to portray wide open spaces, a talented film director has many more devices at his disposal to create an atmosphere or to trigger the audience’s reactions. Take, for example, the 1955 film of The Ladykillers, the well-known story of a gang of bank robbers who set out to dupe an old lady, Mrs Wilberforce, but get their come-uppance. Even though it

I’m not too proud to admit that, as I don’t know everything about everything in theatre, I had a quick squizz at Wikipedia before venturing out to see this play, to give me a sense of what to expect. On the one hand, I’m glad I did as it proved a useful insight. On the other, however, what I expected from my interpretation of the aforementioned squizz and what I then witnessed were starkly different. Not the story, but the telling of the story. Blimey! The story (it says here…) is a semi-autobiographical one from playwright John Osborne, who was