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GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power
Menagerie holds a mirror up to nature
The Glass Menagerie
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
4/5
MIGUEL YOSHIDA explains the evolution and influence of the Cuban Casa De Las Americas in joining culture to the revolutionary struggle
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries
MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness
Flitting between myth and the modern world, Medusa is determined to steer clear of human affairs. When her resolve crumbles, the result is petrifying in every sense
OFTEN described as a “memory” play, Tennessee Williams locates the action of The Glass Menagerie in Saint Louis on the eve of WWII.
But in director Ellen McDougall’s revival, the temporal context has been removed to demonstrate the universality of the play’s themes, with the action contained within an empty black box nestling over a trench of water.
The dysfunctional family in Williams’s play are thus isolated from the rest of society, while the suggestiveness of the staging symbolises their stagnation, with the stark design and unforgiving lighting drawing the audience close to the action and the tensions between the characters.
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MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship