Read more about the article REVIEW: Parade, Southwark Playhouse (2011)
Alistair Brookshaw as Leo Frank - Photo: Annabel Vere

REVIEW: Parade, Southwark Playhouse (2011)

What is amazing about Parade is that Alfred Uhry, the author of the book of the musical, is the great nephew of the man who owned the pencil factory that Leo Frank (Alastair Brookshaw) managed in 1913 in Atlanta, Georgia. This is a part of Uhry's family history and maybe why the case has the ability to capture the imagination of its audience today. It is a story of a man who, out of his usual environment, and in a marriage that was far from ideal, found himself a victim not only of Anti-Semitism but also of the North South divide 50 years after the Civil war had set American against American.People continue to argue today about the rights and wrongs of the case against Leo Frank.

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Read more about the article REVIEW: Much Ado About Nothing, Wyndham’s Theatre (2011)
David Tennant as Benedick and Catherine Tate as Beatrice - Photo: Johan Persson

REVIEW: Much Ado About Nothing, Wyndham’s Theatre (2011)

Set in 1980s Gibraltar, Josie Rourke directs favourites Catherine Tate and David Tennant from the popular BBC television serial Dr Who in an updated version of Much Ado About Nothing.

Continue ReadingREVIEW: Much Ado About Nothing, Wyndham’s Theatre (2011)

REVIEW: King Lear, Donmar Warehouse (2010)

I am the first to admit that King Lear, of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, is the one that fills me with little joy at the prospect of seeing it again. But here at London’s Donmar Warehouse with Michael Grandage at the helm and Derek Jacobi in the title role is a production to prove my misgivings not just unfounded but as foolish as the old man. This is the definitive Lear for my money, the one to which all others should aspire. Nothing annoys. Nothing grates. All builds a perfect and avoidable tragedy.

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