The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Sebastian, Four Mothers, Restless, and The Most Precious of Cargoes
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Good grief
JAN WOOLF relishes a seasonal offering of peanuts
Charlie Brown
JOHN GREEN explores the argument that psychiatry needs to move away from the idea of just seeing and treating the individual
SYLVIA HIKINS applauds a polemic against “cleanfluencers” and considers radical alternatives to current inequalities of housework
RUTH AYLETT admires the blunt honesty with which a woman’s experience is recorded, but detects the unexamined privilege that underlies it
IAN SINCLAIR draws attention to the powerful role that literature plays in foreseeing the way humanity will deal with climate crisis
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall
DENNIS BROE notes what happens to content when the streaming giants incorporate AI and deregulation into their economic models
You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown
The Gatehouse Upstairs, London
THIS series of vignettes from Charles Schultz’s famous Peanuts cartoon strip is a delight, and embodied by an ensemble of actors clearly relishing the whole thing.
The comedy starts off nicely as Snoopy’s phone goes off and the audience are reminded to turn theirs off too. Harry Styles’s on stage band strikes up with that nostalgic pantomime sound – all shimmering cymbals, keys, strings and reeds calling to our inner children as the cast navigate the ups and downs, challenges and joys of growing up.
It’s funny — darn funny — the actors mining the comedy as well as the poignancy of their roles. Snoopy, a louche Oliver Sydney, wears a white dinner suit, changing into sparkly tux and taps shoes for his routine celebrating the only high point of his day, suppertime. Spoiler alert – he wears a bone tie.
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