national theatre – Page 9

Gloria Obianyo and the cast of Paradise (Photo: Helen Murray)

REVIEW: Paradise, Olivier National Theatre (2021)

Post author:Lizzie Loveridge
Post published:16 August 2021
Post category:London but not West End Play Review
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At the death of Heracles, his friend Philoctetes was the only one to come forward to light the funeral pyre. In return Philoctetes was given Heracles magical bow and arrows. In the middle of the Trojan wars which went on for decades, Philoctetes was bitten by a snake and his leg turned rancid. The smell was so dreadful and noxious to the other sailors and soldiers that Odysseus abandoned Philoctetes on the island of Lemnos and set sail without him. Ten years later Odysseus returns and this is where Kae Tempest's play begins.

Michael Balogun as Delroy (Photo: Spencer Murphy)

REVIEW: Death of England: Delroy, Olivier National Theatre. Film on Sky Arts, Autumn 2021

Post author:Lizzie Loveridge
Post published:4 November 2020
Post category:Black History Currently Running Play Review West End
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Michael Balogan shows a terrific range, a bravura performance and his alienation is a real cause for sadness. You feel in this play the disappointing human experience that has gone in to writing, directing and acting in it.

Sheila Atim as The Woman (Photo: Johan Persson)

REVIEW: Les Blancs, Olivier National Theatre (2016)

Post author:Lizzie Loveridge
Post published:5 April 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.