Latest editorial
SINGLE CONCERN: Something about the continuously static state of the actors denies the fluidity of life
[Marc Brenner] 
TONY BURKE reviews new releases from Cheikh Lo, Mishra & Deepa Shakthi, N’Faly Kouyate
Gin Lane by William Hogarth is a critique of 18th-century London’s growing funeral trade, posits DAN O’BRIEN
ANDY HEDGECOCK sees his scepticism lessened by a story is more complex and far-reaching than is initially apparent
MARK TURNER holds on tight for a mesmerising display of Neath-born ragtime virtuosity
ALAN MORRISON introduces a UK poet whose despised daytime occupation provides the subject for his writing
MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long
The Seagull
Harold Pinter Theatre
DIRECTOR Jamie Lloyd is famed for attracting new and diverse audiences to the theatre. And how better to do this than by casting a star of the small screen (Emilia Clarke) in a play written by a theatrical giant (Anton Chekhov), then reworking it for a modern audience through a script by a young, much-celebrated playwright (Anya Reiss)?
If the first night audience of this bold but skeletal West End showpiece is anything to go by – packed as it is with celebrities and eager fans – success is in the bag.
Messing with the work of Chekhov can be perilous, provoking traditionalists to expressions of untold fury. The original Seagull, after all, is adored by the world at large, its greatest productions feasting not only on the profundity of the text and the human truth of the characters, but on the splendour of the rural setting and the originality of the performance style.
MARY CONWAY admires a study of environmental idealism that aspires to Chekhov but is arrested in a deluge of middle-class opinion
MARY CONWAY applauds the success of Beth Steel’s bitter-sweet state-of-the-nation play
MARY CONWAY is blown away by a flawless production of Lynn Nottage’s exquisite tragedy
MARY CONWAY revels in the Irish American language and dense melancholy of O’Neill’s last and little-known play
