MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a three-hander that broaches big themes, but doesn’t transcend dry academia
Outstanding US kitchen sink drama
PETER MASON applauds a classic drama exploring assimilation and resistance among poor black inhabitants of a Chigago slum
Doreene Blackstock and Cash Holland in A Raisin In The Sun
[Ikin Yum]
DAN GLAZEBROOK eavesdrops on the bourgeois intelligentsia and the stories it tells itself at this moment of crisis
JAN WOOLF is bowled over by a major retrospective for the YBA artist
LEO BOIX, ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review Night Stage, Two Women, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, and Fuze
KATHRYN JOHNSON recommends the work of Norman Kaplan that was a tool in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa
GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes a bold feminist subversion of classic folktales that are ubiquitous in the Irish imagination
A Raisin in the Sun
Lyric Hammersmith, London
SINCE it first appeared on Broadway in 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun has become a constant feature of theatre repertoires around the world – and for good reason.
Given its scintillating dialogue, thought-provoking plot and sophisticated humour, it’s difficult to quibble with the Lyric’s assessment that it’s “one of the greatest plays of the 20th century.”
Yet even a top-notch creation needs to be delivered in the right manner, and here an excellent cast does a fine job of doing it justice.
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PETER MASON applauds a stage version of Le Carre’s novel that questions what ordinary people have to gain from high-level governmental spying
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship
MARY CONWAY applauds the revival of a tense, and extremely funny, study of men, money and playing cards