The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Sebastian, Four Mothers, Restless, and The Most Precious of Cargoes
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Narnia monotony
SUSAN DARLINGTON is unmoved by a production full of spectacular tableax but without emotional connection to the characters
LWW
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
The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe
Leeds Playhouse
FOR a novel that’s about good and evil, Michael Fentiman’s production of CS Lewis’s 1950 children’s classic is curiously monochromatic.
Casting the stage in long shadows makes sense during the opening scenes, when the four Pevensie children are being evacuated during WWII. Reflecting national fear and uncertainty, we see them boarding a miniature stream train that’s borne aloft by a chorus of hands, unsure if or when they’ll ever see their parents again.
The dark lighting makes less sense when the children arrive at a house in the country and are transported to Narnia through a wardrobe. The colour palette here makes the land feel anything but magical, despite the presence of talking animals and the state of perpetual winter.
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