MARIA DUARTE recommends an extraordinary film that explores an absent father’s attempt to make up to his sons
Lockdown blues
SIMON PARSONS welcomes a new play that examines the Covid pandemic through the lens of a disintegrating marriage
MARITAL TENSIONS OF A KEY WORKER: Kacey Ainsworth and Liam Tobin in James McDermott's Jab
[Steve Gregson]
JOHN GREEN, MARIA DUARTE and LEO BOIX review The Shepherd and the Bear, Hamlet, Twinless, and 100 Nights of Hero
GEOFF BOTTOMS applauds a version set amid the violent conflicts of the 19th century west African Oyo empire before the intervention of British colonialism
GILL PARSONS introduces the remarkable process by which her childhood experience of a convalescent home has become a new drama
SEAMUS HIGGINS introduces some basic facts about the role of sugar in driving a worldwide crisis of diet-related diseases
Japanese innovation, Costa Rican skullduggery, Glasgow Central suicide, and good deeds punished in London
Jab
Finborough Theatre, London
FOUR years since the Covid lockdown, the memory is still fresh in most people’s minds, but James McDermott’s play is a worthwhile reflection on the scarring impact of the event.
Seen through the eyes of a couple in their sixties, this domestic drama works as a series of brief scenes, almost like a photo album, mapping the disintegration of their long marriage during the months of confinement while external snippets of news remind us of the deadly progress of the virus and the government’s responses.
Anne is an NHS administrative worker and the breadwinner for the household, while Don runs an unprofitable vintage clothing shop, more as a hobby than a business.
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