STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
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Fangs for nothing
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by characters so un-nuanced as to be unreal, a stereotypical plot and a conceptual vampire
UN-NUANCED: Sophie Melville, Leander Deeny, Laura Whitmore in Apex Predator
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
GORDON PARSONS is fascinated by a unique dream journal collected by a Jewish journalist in Nazi Berlin
Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, Parthenope, Where Dragons Live and Thunderbolts* reviewed by MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE
Apex Predator
Hampstead Theatre, London
★★
FOR more than 60 years, Hampstead Theatre has enjoyed a pivotal role. Bravely pioneering in spirit, it has periodically brought us world-class drama, thrilling new playwrights, great actors and eager audiences, while still retaining an atmosphere of local togetherness.
Lately, however, there have been some ups and downs. And, sadly, Apex Predator is a down.
Playwright John Donnelly has acclaimed stage and screen work to his name, and has no doubt been regarded as a catch by the Hampstead Theatre planning team. He has a purposeful agenda to this play and it premieres at Hampstead with all guns blazing. But the story is half-baked, as if jotted in bullet points on the back of a cigarette packet.
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