MARIA DUARTE, LEO BOIX and ANGUS REID review Brides, Dead of Winter, A Night Like This, and The Librarians
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Come down the farm
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an adaptation that draws out the contemporary relevance of George Orwell’s satire
INEQUALITIES EXPOSED: Joshua-Alexander Williams as Blue and Tachia Newall as Napoleon in Animal Farm
[Kirsten McTernan] ![REBELS: Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar in Nadia Fall’s powerful debut feature Brides [Pic: IMDb]](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-09/round%20up%20web_0.jpg.webp?itok=41xI6jhN)
MARY CONWAY recommends an early Shakespearean tragedy that feels so contemporary that it mirrors our daily news
A ghost story by Mexican Ave Barrera, a Surrealist poetry collection by Peruvian Cesar Moro, and a manifesto-poem on women’s labour and capitalist havoc by Peruvian Valeria Roman Marroquin
DAVID NICHOLSON recommends a dazzling production of Bernstein’s opera set in a world where chaos and violence are greeted by equanimity
MARY CONWAY is frustrated by a new play that loses its drama amid the moral dilemma of re-settling children in the aftermath of WWII
Acclaimed as a masterpiece when it premiered, this study of story-telling in an Irish pub more than lives up to expectations, says MARY CONWAY
SYLVIA HIKINS relishes a comedy that dives deep into Liverpool’s divided loyalties
Animal Farm
Theatre Royal, Stratford East
THIS excellent adaptation of George Orwell’s iconic book gives a real contemporary feel to proceedings.
The original book, published in 1945, saw Orwell drawing what he saw as lessons from the early years of the Russian revolution. This Tatty Hennessy adaptation centres more on power dynamics, manipulation of group situations and inequality.
In places there is more than a hint of the recent history of the Labour Party, with a popular leader ousted and a manipulative shadowy figure putting his man into the top job. The role of manipulative pig, Squealer (Tom Simper), has certainly been made far more prominent than in the original book. A cross between Peter Mandelson and Uriah Heep.
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SUSAN DARLINGTON applauds a play that explores the role that imagination can play for children growing up through trauma
PETER MASON applauds a classic drama exploring assimilation and resistance among poor black inhabitants of a Chigago slum