MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Facing War, Kontinental ’25, Bugonia, and Relay
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Thatcherite blues
PAUL DONOVAN applauds a new production of Stoppard’s dated, yet witty study of middle-class morals and misdemeanours
LOVE IN THE AGE OF THATCHER: James McArdle (Henry) and Bel Powley (Annie) in The Real Thing at The Old Vic
[Manuel Harlan]
MAYER WAKEFIELD is frustrated by a production of Ibsen’s classic study of an anti-heroine that fails to elucidate her motivations
PETER MASON tunes his ear into the domestic affairs of a Carribbean couple with a troublesome son
Evidence points to a Scottish provenance for the extraordinary Irish illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells, suggests RACHEL MOSS
CHRIS SEARLE relishes an account of the years when a black American music carried a message of anti-racism and class struggle
This stunning film about a Bulgarian textile worker highlights the exploitative nature of Euro-capitalism, says RITA DI SANTO
PETER MASON thrills to Irish folk band The Haar
The Real Thing
The Old Vic, London
THE latest production of Tom Stoppard’s 1982 play, The Real Thing, does not disappoint.
Impressive performances from James McCardle as Henry and Bel Powley as Annie keep the audience gripped, and the slick scene changes, bring a minimalist 1980s feel to proceedings. The strong blue of the latter part is in some way reflective of the Thatcherite timbre of the times.
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MARY CONWAY applauds the study of a dysfunctional family set in an Ireland that could be anywhere
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
WILL STONE is intrigued, and a little baffled by a strangely unique telling of the classic Sophocles play
PAUL DONOVAN applauds the dogged determination of the Old Vic to stage Dickens’s classic Christmas moral tale in support of Waterloo food bank