SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it
GORDON PARSONS relishes a play that reveals how language carries much more than simple communication
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
English
The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon
WITH language at the centre of current battles, not only with gender identity issues but also within our phoney culture wars, Iranian-American dramatist Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play arrives in Britain spot on cue.
Set in an Iranian TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) classroom, a mixed group of four adult students engage with their linguistic struggles under the demands of their enthusiastic anglophile teacher who insists they communicate only in English.
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GORDON PARSONS recommends an ideal introduction to the writer who was first to give the English a literary language
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GORDON PARSONS relishes a fast moving production of Sheridan’s comic masterpiece
GORDON PARSONS appreciates a very necessary exploration of the benefit of knowing more than one language
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GORDON PARSONS highly recommends a delightful production of the classic novel that emanates a sense of warmth and love
Transmorphed into a romp in the Caribbean, the play effortlessly wins over the audience, writes GORDON PARSONS