SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Dusting off a Shakespearan fairy tale
GORDON PARSONS applauds a production which turns a Jacobean obscurity into a dreamlike journey
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
MATTHEW HAWKINS pays tribute to the performance artist and costumier, Leigh Bowery
SIMON DUFF reviews a new composition by German composer and pianist Florian Weber that blurs the line between where improvisation ends and composition begins
New releases from The Jim Mullen Quartet, Caroline Kraabel/John Edwards, and Matthew Muneses/Riza Printup
Pericles
The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
THIS fairy tale for adults, thought to have been only partially Shakespeare’s work, is relatively rarely produced today on the modern stage. It did not even appear in the First Folio, the Bard’s Bible. Yet it was apparently very popular in its own day.
Tamara Harvey’s new production for the RSC should serve to resurrect its popularity.
More from this author
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
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Transmorphed into a romp in the Caribbean, the play effortlessly wins over the audience, writes GORDON PARSONS