MARIA DUARTE, LEO BOIX and ANGUS REID review Brides, Dead of Winter, A Night Like This, and The Librarians
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Gizza job!
PAUL DONOVAN recommends a skilful adaptation of Alan Bleasdale’s 1980s epic TV drama
ICONIC: Barry Sloane as Yosser in Boys from the Blackstuff
[Alastair Muir] ![REBELS: Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar in Nadia Fall’s powerful debut feature Brides [Pic: IMDb]](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-09/round%20up%20web_0.jpg.webp?itok=41xI6jhN)
MARY CONWAY recommends an early Shakespearean tragedy that feels so contemporary that it mirrors our daily news
A ghost story by Mexican Ave Barrera, a Surrealist poetry collection by Peruvian Cesar Moro, and a manifesto-poem on women’s labour and capitalist havoc by Peruvian Valeria Roman Marroquin
DAVID NICHOLSON recommends a dazzling production of Bernstein’s opera set in a world where chaos and violence are greeted by equanimity
MARY CONWAY is frustrated by a new play that loses its drama amid the moral dilemma of re-settling children in the aftermath of WWII
Acclaimed as a masterpiece when it premiered, this study of story-telling in an Irish pub more than lives up to expectations, says MARY CONWAY
SYLVIA HIKINS relishes a comedy that dives deep into Liverpool’s divided loyalties
Boys from the Blackstuff
National Theatre, London
THIS excellent adaptation of Alan Bleasdale’s 1980s epic drama has great resonance for the insecure working environment of today.
The play, about five men struggling to find work in Thatcher’s 1980s Britain, brings out the desperation of the time but not without a little humour.
James Graham’s skilful adaptation compacts what was a five-part serial TV drama into just two-and-a-half hours.
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MARY CONWAY revels in the Irish American language and dense melancholy of O’Neill’s last and little-known play
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an adaptation that draws out the contemporary relevance of George Orwell’s satire
MARY CONWAY recommends a beautifully judged performance that shines a light on the experience of all female war babies and boomers
DAVID NICHOLSON is disappointed that an ambitious telling of the strike from a Welsh perspective disregards the collective struggle