EWAN CAMERON picks out two fascinating music shows, fusing the Korean, and the Celtic, with the modern
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Monster treat for children of all ages
SIMON PARSONS sees an excellent stage version of a classic book
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
A Monster Calls
Old Vic, London
PATRICK NESS’S award-winning children’s novel about 13-year-old Conor, who comes to terms with his mother’s terminal cancer through the creation of a fantasy monster, is powerfully emotive material. Following in the wake of a visually spectacular 2016 film, any theatre adaptation is faced with a challenge and it's one that this production certainly meets.
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Family issues and dragon-fuelled history amount to a vacuous spectacle that ill-fits the theatre, muses SIMON PARSONS
MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class
STEPHEN ARNELL looks back to when protesters took to the streets in London demand to Irish liberty, fair pay and free speech — and wonders what’s changed in 138 years
