FringeReview UK
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FringeReview UK 2022
Howard Brenton touching eighty is at the height of his powers. Tom Littler has assembled a pitch-perfect cast, reuniting two from his outstanding All’s Well. This too.
Hakawatis Women of the Arabian Nights
Original, bawdy, exploratory, seductive and elegaic in equal measure. A Faberge egg, continually hatching.
Bracing, fresh, wholly re-thought in every line, emerging with gleaming power, menace and wit. And I defy anyone not to smile at this new take on Shakespeare’s downbeat ending.
A wonderful score and musicians, above all Bea Segura’s titanic act of shrivelling, make this a must-see.
What Richard Bean and Oliver Chris manage is homage, both to Sheridan’s shade, his early bawdy, and despite anything a memorial to those who laughed at themselves to death. A must-see.
Rarely has a Cordelia and Fool scaled such equal terms with such a Lear, rendering a kind of infinity.
This isn’t the most revelatory Much Ado, but the most consummate and complete for a while.
Highlights the truth of its bleak laughter. Humane Strindberg. Now there’s a thing.
It’s not just gender-swerving but role-swerving that threatens sexual and social order. Surprises light up even the last fade.
A reading of Adrian Schiller’s Shylock as probing as other great productions of the past decade; and of Sophie Melville’s nearly-rounded, brittle Portia.
A Seagull for the initiated, a meditation rather than the play itself, it’s still a truthful distillation, wholly sincere, actors uniformly excellent
A joyous production, that without its gimmicky close, could certainly furnish a way in for many
Ibsen’s elusive masterpiece is so rarely performed seeing it is an imperative. Played with such authority as here, in Norwegian and English, it’s not a luxury but a must-see.
