EWAN CAMERON picks out two fascinating music shows, fusing the Korean, and the Celtic, with the modern
The after effects of rape
SIMON PARSONS salutes drama that registers how the impact of the sexual assault ripples out through every element of a family’s existence
Miles Molan, Rosie Day and Tok Stephen in When It Happens to You
[Mark Douet]
BENJAMIN POTHIER suggests that Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain point to the ceremonial use of hallucinogenic flora
The bard confirms that the right has a humour bypass, and replays the English Revolution on period instruments
MARIA DUARTE and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Sunny Dancer, Tony, Songs of Forgotten Trees, and The End of Oak Street
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
When It Happens To You
Park Theatre, London
AMERICAN author Tawni O’Dell’s deeply personal memoir about the rape of her grown-up daughter Esme and the shattering after-effects on both her and her children must have been an important cathartic exercise when first performed in New York, with O’Dell playing herself, but risks being too intimate and personalised to fully work on stage.
With Amanda Abbington at the heart of the European Premiere taking Tawni’s role as Tara, Esme’s divorced mother, the play’s simple narrative style becomes more than just a dramatic reading as the enduring impact of the sexual assault ripples out through every element of the family’s existence.
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Family issues and dragon-fuelled history amount to a vacuous spectacle that ill-fits the theatre, muses SIMON PARSONS
SIMON PARSONS applauds the timely revival of a play about solidarity and betrayal within Britain’s Pakistani community
MARY CONWAY applauds the timely revival of Miller’s study of people fatally deformed by the economics of survival
SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective