Read more about the article REVIEW: The House of Shades, Almeida Theatre (2022)
THE HOUSE OF SHADES by Beth Steel ;
Director Blanche McIntyre ;
Set Designer Anna Fleischle ;
Costume Designer Liam Bunster ;
Lighting Designer Richard Howell ;
Sound Designer Gregory Clarke ;
Video Designer Isaac Madge ;
Movement and Intimacy Director Polly Bennett ;
Casting Director Annelie Powell ;
Associate Set Designer Liam Bunster. ;
Dialect Coach Esi Acquaah-Harrison ;
Fight Director Kevin McCurdy ;
Costume Supervisor Natasha Prynne ;
Associate Fight Director Sam Behan ;
Assistant Director Emily Ling Williams ; Almeida Theatre ; London, UK ; 7th May 2022 ; Credit and copyright: Helen Murray ; www.helenmurrayphotos.com Cast ;
Gus Barry ;
Anne-Marie Duff;
Beatie Edney;
Kelly Gough ;
Michael Grady-Hall ;
Emily Lloyd-Saini ;
Carol Macready ;
Stuart McQuarrie ;
Mark Meadows ;
Daniel Millar ;

REVIEW: The House of Shades, Almeida Theatre (2022)

Anne-Marie Duff plays the matriarch of the family over half a century.  She has born three children with the youngest Laura (Emma Shipp) still at school. Her husband Alistair is a trade union shop steward and tells us that in 1965 half the working population are in a trade union.  In 2017 this percentage had fallen by more than half to 23.3%. In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher has demolished trade union power with legislation against secondary picketing and the defeat of the miners’ strike in 1984/5. 

Continue ReadingREVIEW: The House of Shades, Almeida Theatre (2022)
Read more about the article REVIEW: Sweat, Donmar Warehouse (2018)
Leanne Best as Jessie, Martha Plimpton as Tracey and Clare Perkins as Cynthia (Photo: Johan Persson)

REVIEW: Sweat, Donmar Warehouse (2018)

Set in Reading, Pennsylvania,Sweat looks at blue collar workers in America and how after years of toiling for the same company they lose their jobs to cheaper labour, from immigrant communities within the United States, or to the residents of Mexico. Reading is a steel town and like Sheffield, in the 1997 film The Full Monty, is one which finds it is losing jobs to cheaper producers abroad. Of course what Lynn Nottage is cleverly documenting is the reason behind the political success of Donald Trump in the 2016 election with the support of blue collar Americans.

Continue ReadingREVIEW: Sweat, Donmar Warehouse (2018)