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: Sucker Punch, Royal Court (2010)
Anthony Welsh as Troy and Daniel Kaluuya as Leon - Photo: Chris Nash

REVIEW: Sucker Punch, Royal Court (2010)

Roy Williams' plays can be enjoyed at many levels and so it is with his latest and original offering at the Royal Court, Sucker Punch which follows a group of young boxers in a club in a run down area of London in the 1980s. Besides the sports story which culminates in a boxing match being excitingly staged in a real ring, there are observations about race and friendship and about racism and sport.

Continue ReadingREVIEW: Sucker Punch, Royal Court (2010)
Read more about the article REVIEW: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Young Vic (2010)
Delroy Lindo as Bynum Walker and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Herald Loomis - Photo: Simon Annand

REVIEW: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Young Vic (2010)

The performances are all good but Delroy Lindo's inspirational, sympathetic old visionary and healer and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's haunted Herald Loomis stand out as mesmerising. David Lan's intelligent production will make you think about the damage done by those years' of uprooting and slavery to the psyche of the African American.

Continue ReadingREVIEW: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Young Vic (2010)