Anna Madeley Archives

Sheila Atim as The Woman (Photo: Johan Persson)

REVIEW: Les Blancs, Olivier National Theatre (2016)

Post author:Lizzie Loveridge
Post published:April 5, 2016
Post category:Black History Play Review West End
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This production is spellbinding and its momentum stays with me occupying my thoughts, whirring like the revolving stage. The text, finalised by Lorraine Hansberry's former husband and literary executor Robert Nemiroff, would bear much further study to grasp all its themes and nuances. Written from her viewpoint in the 1960s by American playwright Lorraine Hansberry, the original person to be described as "young, gifted and black", her unfinished play Les Blancs, examines an unnamed African country on the brink of revolution and independence from colonial rule. Lorraine Hansberry was in her mid thirties when she tragically died of pancreatic cancer.

Cast in The Crucible (Photo Johan Persson)

Review: The Crucible, Old Vic (2014)

Post author:Lizzie Loveridge
Post published:September 10, 2014
Post category:Play Review West End
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The South African born director Yael Farber, after an award winning Mies Julie brings her dark touch to Arthur Miller's iconic play about prejudice, politics and hysteria The Crucible. Set in the 17th century in Salem, the witch trials were a matter of record, probably driven by greed for land confiscated from witches but as Miller was writing he was thinking about the trials in twentieth century America, the witch hunt for Communists that were instigated by Senator McCarthy.

Brian Ferguson as Young Robert - Photo: Manuel Harlan

REVIEW: Earthquakes in London, Cottesloe Theatre (2010)

Post author:Lizzie Loveridge
Post published:August 13, 2010
Post category:Mike Bartlett Play Review Uncategorized West End
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The epic themes of the play, which mainly takes place in the present, but begins in 1968 and fasts forward to 2525, are explored through the prism of a dysfunctional family, whose break-up mirrors the impending ecological disaster.