The Star's critics ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARTIN HALL, MICHAL BONCZA, ANGUS REID reviews Holy Cow, One to One: John and Yoko, King of Kings, Panda Bear in Africa
Shock tactics fail to generate empathy
SIMON PARSONS recommends a thought-provoking play about the long-term impact of traumatic childhoods and the morality of accepting the rehabilitation of social outcasts

Monster
Park Theatre
ABIGAIL HOOD’S well-constructed naturalistic drama opens with two teenage Glaswegian girls hanging out, flirting and fantasising after school on a patch of wasteland, symbolic of their lives.
The Monster, played by Hood, is Kayleigh — a bright, bitter and damaged youngster whose home life with an abusive mother on the game is a living nightmare.
When her girlfriend finally deserts her for a boy, her instinctive response is an appalling act of violence towards the only adult who has paid her any attention.
More from this author

SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials

SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa

SIMON PARSONS applauds a tense and thoughtful production that regularly challenges our political engagement and prejudices

SIMON PARSONS questions whether a dark take on Shakespeare’s Seasonal comedy is in harmony with the original text