MARIA DUARTE and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Sunny Dancer, Tony, Songs of Forgotten Trees, and The End of Oak Street
Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Nugent
GORDON PARSONS is filled with unease by the RSC’s offering of a brutal fairytale for Christmas
Nikki Cheung as Karen in the Red Shoes
[Manuel Harlan]
JOHN GREEN relishes a powerful and moving drama that explores the lived realities of west London’s Punjabi community
MARTIN HALL welcomes a plea for greater compassion between believer and non-believer via the framework of philosophical enquiry
MATTHEW HAWKINS welcomes an engaging and nourishing account of the queer subculture that flourished in London between WWII and partial decriminalisation
RON JACOBS welcomes the political lessons for today, about organisation and withdrawal from conflict, made by an erudite and conversational biography
The Red Shoes
The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
THE RSC are taking no chances with the venue for their Stratford Christmas show this year.
Hans Christian Anderson’s gruesome fairy tale is as grim as any of those of the famous Brothers.
Similar stories
Family issues and dragon-fuelled history amount to a vacuous spectacle that ill-fits the theatre, muses SIMON PARSONS
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship