RITA DI SANTO assesses the winners of the most politically charged festival to date
WHEN the caring Lucas, the sole kindergarten teacher in a small rural Danish town, gently reproves the innocent advances of the loveless five-year-old Klara, her hurt feelings unintentionally lead her to accuse him of having indecently exposed himself.
The stiflingly repressed locals readily accept her version of events and they proceed to hound the innocent Lucas (Tobias Menzies). Emotionally inhibited and with his marriage on the rocks, he can only silently communicate his affection for his infant charges, his son and his estranged friends.
He becomes the ready prey of his erstwhile companions, with his bottled-up courage only enraging them further.
Family issues and dragon-fuelled history amount to a vacuous spectacle that ill-fits the theatre, muses SIMON PARSONS
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
KEITH RICHMOND relishes a superbly conceived modern version of Aeschylus’ drama of murderous family succession
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship


