Posts Tagged ‘ London theatre ’

Critcompare: Journey’s End – Duke of York’s Theatre, London ****

David Grindley’s international multi-award winning production of R.C. Sherriff’s masterpiece JOURNEY’S END is a must see of British theatre.

Based on the author’s own experience in the trenches, this gripping tale about ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances celebrates humour and courage, engaging audiences with a compelling insight of how in the face of adversity, the human spirit will always triumph.

Set in St Quentin in 1917, eighteen-year-old 2nd Lieutenant Raleigh is the new arrival in the company commanded by his former schoolboy friend, Captain Stanhope. There’s only three years between them, but a lifetime of experience separates the pair as Raleigh discovers that the man in army greens is much changed from the boy he left behind in cricketing whites.

Evening Standard ****
Timeout ****
WhatsOnStage ****
Average star rating: 4.0 stars
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2011
08/02
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Critcompare: On the Record – Arcola Theatre, London ***

When Im writing articles, Im not scared at all. Im on a high. Its such a rush. The fear comes later.

Sri Lankan brothers Lal and Lasantha dare to publish stories that others wont touch, but at what cost? Meanwhile, in Mexico Lydia uncovers a child pornography ring involving senior politicians, Elena has a run in with the Moscow mafia, Amira reports direct from the Israeli-occupied territories and Zoriah comes up against the US Military over his Iraq war images.

Combining searing verbatim testimony with dramatic reconstruction, On the Record circumnavigates the globe to bring you true stories of six independent journalists, all linked by their determination to shed light on the truth. Exploring human rights through performance, this is iceandfire’s fourth production.

Telegraph ***

Guardian ***

FT ****

WhatsOnStage ***

Evening Standard ****

TimeOut **

Average star rating: 3.2 stars

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2011
08/01
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Critcompare: The Beauty Queen of Leenane – Young Vic, London ****

 

 

 

 

High in the mountains of Galway live a lonely spinster Maureen and her devilishly manipulative mother Mag. Maureen longs for the romance that will spirit her away. But if she goes, who will stir the lumps out of Mag’s Complan?

Martin McDonagh’s work includes the Olivier Award-winning The Pillowman, Oscar-winning Six Shooter and the BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning hit In Bruges. Directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins (The Glass Menagerie), Rosaleen Linehan (Neil Jordan’s The Butcher Boy, Dancing at Lughnasa on Broadway) reprises her highly acclaimed performance as Mag and is joined by the brilliant Derbhle Crotty (Notes on a Scandal) as the long-suffering Maureen.

Times ****

Evening Standard *****

Telegraph *****

Independent ****

WhatsOnStage ****

Guardian ****

Average star rating: 4.3 stars

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2011
07/29
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Critcompare: Ghost, the Musical – Piccadilly Theatre, London ***

Richard Fleeshman and Caissie Levy star in Bruce Joel Rubin’s adaptation of his original screenplay for the 1990 movie. Directed by Matthew Warchus with music by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard.

Evening Standard ***

FT ***

Independent ***

Telegraph ****

TimeOut ****

WhatsOnStage ***

Average star rating: 3.3 stars

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2011
07/28
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Critcompare: Mongrel Island – Soho Theatre, London ***

Ever felt that your job is taking you nowhere?

Marie is losing herself in her grey office existence, trapped by endless piles of paperwork and the same people saying the same things every single day.  How one’s working environment invades and plays around with one’s humanity, is the theme for this dark comedy drama by Ed Harris. Directed by Steve Marmion.

Evening Standard ***

FT ***

Independent ***

Guardian ***

TimeOut ***

WhatsOnStage ***

Average star rating: 3.0 stars

Click on the individual links to read full review. To book tickets online click here

 

 

2011
07/27
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Critcompare: Anne Boleyn – Shakespeare’s Globe, London ****

Hunting through an old chest, the newly crowned James I discovers the controversial legacy of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s notorious second wife. Time jumps back 70 years, when the witty and flirtatious Anne was in love with Henry, but also with the most dangerous ideas of her day. Conspiring with the exiled William Tyndale, she plots to make England Protestant – forever.

A celebration of a great English heroine, Anne Boleyn leaps between generations to reveal the debt the outrageous but scholarly James owed to Anne when he shrewdly reconciled England’s religious factions by creating his common, ‘authorised’ Bible.

Times ****

Evening Standard ****

Independent ****

Guardian ****

WhatsOnStage ****

TimeOut ****

Average star rating: 4.0 stars

Click on the individual links to read full reviews. To book tickets online click here

2011
07/26
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Critcompare: A Woman Killed With Kindness – Lyttleton, Nation Theatre, London ***

Two women fight for their emotional survival in a rural wilderness dominated by men, money and an unbending morality.

That it were possible
To undo things done, to call back yesterday,
That Time could turn up his swift sandy glass
To untell the days, and to redeem these hours.

A startling domestic thriller written in 1603, A Woman Killed with Kindness  strips bare two women’s lives – with forensic realism – in one of the first tragedies ever to be written about ordinary people.

Fast-moving, frightening and erotic: a major play in a radical production.

Times ****

Evening Standard ****

FT ***

Independent ****

Guardian ***

Telegraph ***

WhatsOnStage ***

Average star rating: 3.4 stars

Click on the individual links to read full reviews. To buy tickets online click here

2011
07/25
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Critcompare: Belongings – Trafalgar Studios, London ****

‘Just because you appear to have secrets don’t mean your secrets are all that interestin’.’

A young female soldier returns from Afghanistan to a home she no longer recognises or connects with. She has proved herself in combat but her hardest battle is yet to come, as she navigates family politics, old relationships, and the memory of betrayal.

From the deserts of a modern war to the battleground of a family kitchen, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s explosive new play delves into one woman’s quest for identity and a place she can call home.

Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s recent writing includes Dick Whittington and his cat with Joel Horwood (Lyric Hammersmith), Platform with Duncan Macmillan (Old Vic Tunnels) and suddenlossofdignity with Zawe Ashton, James Graham, Joel Horwood Malcolm and Michelle Terry (Bush Theatre). Her play Eveline’s Circle was performed as part of Hampstead Theatre’s Start Night series in 2005.

Evening Standard ****

Guardian ***

Telegraph ****

WhatsOnStage ***

Average star rating: 3.5 stars

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2011
06/24
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Critcompare: Betrayal – Comedy Theatre, London ****

Over a period of nine years, we are shown the high price of passion and the damage inflicted by desire. Harold Pinter’s remarkable play explores how our loves and our losses echo and accumulate through time.

An Olivier award winning play, which premiered at the National Theatre in 1978, BETRAYAL is now considered a modern classic. This brand new production stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Douglas Henshall and Ben Miles, in a limited run until 20 August.

Director Ian Rickson, who directed Harold Pinter himself in the heralded Krapp’s Last Tape, has had many recent successes, including the critically acclaimed Jerusalem, The Children’s Hour and The Seagull, as well as a production of Pinter’s The Hothouse at the National Theatre in 2007.

Times ****

FT ****

Independent ****

Guardian ****

Telegraph *****

WhatsOnStage ***

Evening Standard ***

TimeOut ***

Average star rating: 3.8 stars

Click on the individual links to read full review. To book tickets online click here

2011
06/23
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Critompare: Luise Miller – Donmar Warehouse, London ****

“The stuff of seduction is also the stuff of politics. Lies and promises!”

Blood of ancient nobility and son of the most powerful statesman in the land, Ferdinand is willing to forsake his fortune for the love of Luise, daughter of a humble musician. But in a world governed by deception and greed, where power is everything, their future happiness and liberty are beyond their control.

Schiller’s masterpiece of power and politics explores the battle between honour and corruption, between truth and betrayal.

FT ****

Independent ****

Guardian ****

Telegraph ****

WhatsOnStage ****

Evening Standard ****

Average star rating: 4.0

Click on the individual links to read full reviews. To book tickets online click here

2011
06/15
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