SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Partial success of chop and change
Transmorphed into a romp in the Caribbean, the play effortlessly wins over the audience, writes GORDON PARSONS
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
Love’s Labour’s Lost
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
“A PERFORMANCE of Love’s Labour’s Lost is a sort of entertainment to be valued rather for Shakespeare’s sake than for its own.” So suggested George Bernard Shaw — no great fan of the Bard. Director Emily Burns seems to have taken this advice to heart.
One mustn’t be too critical. At the expense of being accused of cultural heresy, I am inclined to believe that it is expecting too much of modern audiences, attuned to digital messaging languages, to engage with what is one of Shakespear’s most complex linguistic plays.
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