Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2022-06-01T11:07:01.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Rosmersholm review: Hayley Atwell and Tom Burke are superb ★★★★
items: Three Sisters review: An exquisite take on Chekhov's classic ★★★★★
items: the Lehman Trilogy: A beautifully told tale of fortune and ruin ★★★★
items: Translations, National Theatre review: Colin Morgan and Game of Thrones’ Ciarán Hinds star in a timely revival ★★★★
items: Consent review, Harold Pinter Theatre: A brilliantly knotty legal drama ★★★★★
items: Absolute Hell review: Superb performances in a seedy Soho club ★★★★
items: Quiz review: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? play is a winner ★★★★
items: Pressure review: The weather forecast has never been so gripping ★★★★
items: Cathy review: A powerful remake of Cathy Comes Home ★★★★
items: John review: a subtle but finely-honed chamber piece ★★★★★
items: The Birthday Party: Wonderful performances - but does Pinter's classic work in 2018? ★★★
items: A Christmas Carol review: Rhys Ifans makes a fabulous Scrooge ★★★★★
items: Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle - heartfelt and entertaining ★★★★
items: The Tempest review: Technical wizardry and a magical performance from Simon Russell Beale ★★★★
items: Anatomy of a Suicide review: A powerful examination of the legacy of mental illness ★★★★
items: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui review: Lenny Henry plays a Trump-like mob boss ★★★
items: Obsession review: Jude Law smoulders in a fiery love affair ★★★
items: The White Devil review: A devilishly funny tragedy ★★★
items: Lazarus review: Dexter's Michael C Hall stars in David Bowie's musical ★★★★★
items: King Lear review: Glenda Jackson returns to the stage as Shakespeare's tragic hero
items: The Entertainer review: Kenneth Branagh puts his stamp on Laurence Olivier's pitiful comic ★★★

Rosmersholm review: Hayley Atwell and Tom Burke are superb ★★★★
type: item
date: 2019-05-03T13:13:31.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
description: Ibsen's darkest play feels like the ideal one for our times, says Nick Wells
encoded: “Is there not nobility in not taking a side?” asks John Rosmer, in a passage that goes to the heart of this transfixing update to one of Henrik Ibsen’s lesser-performed plays. “Everyone has a side”, is the unflinching reply. Or, as becomes increasingly evident, everyone insists you have a side. Preferably theirs, otherwise you’ll be seen to be in cahoots with the enemy. The drama revolves around Rosmer (Tom Burke), a former pastor, and his companion, Rebecca West (Hayley Atwell). Secluded inside his estate, both are haunted by the memory of Rosmer’s late wife, who took her own life a year earlier. Having lost his faith and abandoned his conservative political ideals, Rosmer has decided to pursue a more socialist outlook of equality for all, encouraged by the emancipated Rebecca. Change, however, as it so often proves, is more easily spoken of than come by. Alienated from his lifelong friends, and pressurised by his ideological former brother-in-law, Andreas Kroll (Giles Terera), Rosmer is buffeted by both dissenters and supporters alike and suffers a crisis of identity that consumes both himself and Rebecca. It may have been written in the late nineteenth century but director Ian Rickson and writer Duncan Macmillan (People, Places and Things) have found many compelling contemporary parallels that ground the politics in those of today. In particular, the combustible nature of debate and disagreement. Kroll, affronted by Rosmer taking an opposing view to his, doesn’t just question his arguments but his motives for having them, suggesting that he is either weak and under coercion or in it for personal gain. Kroll’s intolerance to other’s voicing different opinions, it turns out, even extends to his wife and children, with whom he has irreparably fallen out. The notion that people aren’t just wrong but nefarious is one we now see all too often (just spend five minutes on Twitter), though rarely is it this eloquent and entertaining. The play originally focused on the ten…

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Three Sisters review: An exquisite take on Chekhov's classic ★★★★★
type: item
date: 2019-04-18T09:55:14.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
description: Patsy Ferran stars in this new version, which beautifully conveys the sense of hopelessness and harsh reality of the sister's lives
encoded: Rebecca Frecknall’s Summer and Smoke was last year’s surprise smash-hit play and recently picked up Olivier Awards for best revival, with the heart-wrenchingly good Patsy Ferran winning best actress. Since you can’t have too much of a good thing, the director and lead actress have reunited to bring us an exquisite version of Chekhov’s classic about disillusioned youth, with an updated script from Cordelia Lynn. Ferran plays Olga, the eldest of the sisters, who after the death of their father has become a matriarchal figure to the younger Masha and Irina, and their brother, Andrey. Life in their provincial Russian town feels increasingly hopeless, and they yearn to return to the culture and sophistication of Moscow, where they believe their best lives await them. It’s only the company of the more erudite military officers, stationed nearby, that gives them any escape from their humdrum existence, and an opportunity to explore their purpose and where they fit into the world. The stark stage, with its bare bulbs and wooden chairs, perfectly captures the emptiness that the youngsters feel in their lives. There's a palpable sense that they are struggling to fill the void both in them and around them, if only by giving voice to their idealistic hopes and ideas. The heart of the play, perfectly captured with some captivating performances, lays bare a harsh reality many people feel – the poignant gap between heartfelt desires and everyday life. Frecknall and Lynn have done a great job making the production feel vital and relevant. Not only does the theme of disaffected youth have a timely resonance – the press night taking place on a day when large numbers of young protesters have taken to the streets of cities across the world – but it emphasises other contemporary tensions, such as between rural and urban communities, and those of class and education. There isn’t a weak performance among the superb ensemble cast, but if any deserve special mention it’s Ferran and her stag…

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the Lehman Trilogy: A beautifully told tale of fortune and ruin ★★★★
type: item
date: 2018-07-13T10:34:51.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
description: Sam Mendes directs a riveting drama about the collapse of the financial world
encoded: At first look, the 2008 financial crisis wouldn’t appear to offer promising artistic opportunity. Credit default swaps and the convoluted workings of subprime mortgages would seem more at home between the pages of the Financial Times than on the stage of the National Theatre. And simply hearing the words ‘collateralised debt obligation’ is enough to send the best of us into an instant coma – which probably helped get us into trouble the first place. But, thankfully, Sam Mendes sees things a little differently from the rest of us, otherwise we wouldn't have this hugely entertaining epic drama spanning more than 160 years. He reportedly first saw Stefano Massini’s play in Milan, and loved it so much he approached The National Theatre about staging an English-Language version. After Mendes’s phenomenal success with The Ferryman, not to mention the small matter of a couple of critically-acclaimed Bond films, you can’t imagine there was much hesitation. And he doesn't disappoint, with Ben Power's adaptation being a real triumph. The trilogy draws us a long way away from the shiny glass towers of Wall St. Harking back to 1844, when the three Lehman siblings were Bavarian Jewish migrants newly arrived in America. The play opens with Henry Lehman, fresh off the boat with the earnest hope of opportunity in his eyes. He sets up a modest fabric business in a tiny store, and his brothers, Mayer and Emanuel, soon follow his lead from Germany. From such meagre beginnings unfurls an almost poetic story that maps their travails as they move from fabrics to cotton brokering to banking – in the process leaving they rural origin for New York. Surviving the civil war and the Great Depression their enterprise somehow spawns the multi-billion dollar empire of this millennium. But this is more than a simple recounting of the series of decisions that led to the collapse of the financial world and of one of its largest institutions. Such stories have already been well told elsewhere, in fil…

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Translations, National Theatre review: Colin Morgan and Game of Thrones’ Ciarán Hinds star in a timely revival ★★★★
type: item
date: 2018-05-31T11:38:33.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
description: The National Theatre has dusted off Brian Friel's masterpiece about Irish-Anglo relations after the 1800 Act of Union
encoded: Colin Morgan may have played a young Merlin in the popular BBC series, but he doesn’t need any sorcery to foresee the relevance of reviving Brian Friel’s 1980 showpiece. At a time when the Irish border is once again a source of acrimonious contention “a story about drawing maps and lines across the north of Ireland is going to have an extra resonance with audiences,” says the star. Although that’s true, this shouldn’t be seen as a story about territory and borders. It’s primarily about language: its beauty, and how when it is corroded (or in this case inked away), far more than mere words are lost. The drama plays out in a hedge school (where farm families were taught) in Baile Beag in the early 1900s. Owen, the youngest son of alcoholic headmaster Hugh, returns to his small hometown with two officers of the Royal Engineer. They are mapping the Irish countryside for the first time since the Act of Union has united Great Britain and Ireland. Captain Lancey is redrawing territorial boundaries to benefit the treasury’s purse, and in the process Lieutenant Yolland is charged with anglicising the Irish town names. Owen, as their intermediary, translates between army and his indignant friends and family. Although both are speaking their mother tongue, we hear both sides in English, making for some lively comic scenes as each misunderstands the other’s woeful gesticulations. But it’s a short-lived mirth, as the harsher realities overwhelm even those with good intentions. For proud Hugh, the loss of his vocabulary is profound. Through him you see how the language is infused with a rich cultural history, without which he would lose a large part of his identity. Names hold within them myths and stories passed down for generations, which will die away when altered. He prizes them with spiritual reverence, and describes being forced to use new names against his will as linguistic imprisonment. It’s a timely reminder of the subtle ways unchecked nationalism can do damage to thos…

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Consent review, Harold Pinter Theatre: A brilliantly knotty legal drama ★★★★★
type: item
date: 2018-05-30T10:05:22.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
subject: Review
description: Nina Raine's play about a rape trial is utterly gripping and essential viewing, says Nick Wells
encoded: If, like me, when the last bow has been taken, you enjoy nothing more than to chew over the evening’s entertainment, then make sure you’ve been brushing well. Because Nina Raine’s latest play is going to have you wearing your molars to the root – so tough and contentious are the issues you’ll be gnawing away on. After an acclaimed opening at the National Theatre last year, Consent thoroughly deserves its transfer to the Harold Pinter Theatre. It’s a play that needs to be seen: for the quality of its writing, its performances, and its contribution to a public conversation that is only just beginning. Taking a critical look at the adversarial, point-scoring nature of the legal system, it questions whether justice in rape cases is best served in an arena where finding the truth appears less important than telling the neatest story. It shows how defining the narrative is crucial, and how it can be warped by prejudice and omission. Gayle (Heather Crane) alleges she was raped after her sister’s funeral. Her assailant maintains that it was consensual. Acting for the defence, Edward (Stephen Campbell Moore) coldly and systematically exploits her history of depression in a sharp cross-examination, fundamentally undermining her case. But the accused’s history of repeated sexual criminality is deemed prejudicial, and therefore any mention of it is withheld from the case. Tim, the prosecuting lawyer, is an unconvincing and even unwilling advocate, and Gayle is left asking whose job it is to defend her. Book tickets for Consent Raine's appraisal of the system is clear – down to how the working-class victim’s drunkenness is seen as a character flaw, even as the lawyers themselves rarely carry out a conversation without an open bottle to hand. But she also looks beyond the courtroom and examines the relationships of those charged with overseeing the law. Are their lives any more moral? Edward’s marriage to Kitty (Claudie Blakley) simmers with the strain of his previous infidelity.…

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Absolute Hell review: Superb performances in a seedy Soho club ★★★★
type: item
date: 2018-04-26T14:33:08.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
subject: Review
description: This 50s play has lost its shock value but the National's slick production is still powerful
encoded: Given enough time, what was once unspeakably scandalous will emerge from its subversive past with enough counter-cultural kudos to be appropriated by the mainstream. The leather biker jacket, for example. Or Johnny Rotten selling butter. Absolute Hell is a case in point. When it debuted in 1952 (then titled The Pink Room), critics branded it "a libel on the British people". Perceived as degenerate and vile by the standards of the day, writer Rodney Ackland was so affected by the abuse that he wrote next to nothing for nigh on forty years. He did, though, return to it in 1988, long after censorship laws had been relaxed. He reworked it for more broad-minded sensibilities (and didn't miss the chance to add an unsubtle dig at critics). Shortly after it was adapted by the BBC and staged at the National Theatre, which is about as establishment as it gets. It’s set in a decaying Soho drinking club at the end of the Second World War. The den – which feels impressively cosy on the broad Lyttelton stage – is inhabited by good-time girls, servicemen, misfits, bohemians and fallen artists who quaff liberally and will seduce anything on two legs. Outside in the real world, events of national importance are taking place. Conflict in Europe has come to an end and there are raucous celebrations as a socialist Labour government is about to take power from Churchill. But within the confines of the club, all anyone wants to concern themselves with is where their next drink is coming from. The question with reviving such a play is: stripped of its ability to provoke, is there substance to what remains? At first appearance, the answer seems to be "no". The large ensemble revel in their gaudy lives – flirting, arguing and intellectualising seemingly without aim. But as the overlong first half ends, there's a hint of something more substantial lurking at the edges, as reality begins to encroach on their booze-numbed enclave. And it's after the interval that director Joe Hill-Gibbins' cle…

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Quiz review: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? play is a winner ★★★★
type: item
date: 2018-04-11T13:59:39.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
description: Quiz show fans will love this entertaining play about the ITV programme's cheating scandal
encoded: Question 1: Which prolific playwright saw their three plays of 2017 garner two West End transfers, much critical acclaim and an Olivier Award? Need to phone a friend? Is that your final answer? It was, of course, man of the moment James Graham. His newspaper drama Ink about the birth of The Sun won favourable headlines (and a best supporting actor accolade for Bertie Carvel’s portrayal of Rupert Murdoch), while Labour of Love, on the schisms of the political left, picked up the award for best new comedy at the Oliviers on Sunday evening. Now Quiz has arrived at Noel Coward Theatre, and once again sees Graham displaying his knack for entertainingly recreating a historic moment in time. Charles Ingram, forever known as "the coughing Major", appeared on ITV's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2001, walking away with the show’s top prize. Infamously, though, he was later arrested in a dawn raid, along with his wife and an accomplice, and charged with defrauding the show. Quiz sets the subsequent trial in the show's television studio, reconstructing the accusation that, via some strategic (and rather comical) coughing, they cheated their way to a million pounds. The first half sets out the case for the prosecution and the defence gets its turn after the interval. Book tickets for Quiz The mixing up of the judicial process and public entertainment is more than just a happy coincidence. Weaving the two together poses the question, voiced by the defence, as to whether people are more inclined to believe an entertaining lie over a less extravagant truth. Is justice truly being served in an era when even the news seeks to entertain? The answer, as the show demonstrates, is not clear cut. In a clever nod to one of the show’s famous lifelines, the audience is asked to cast their own vote. The question at hand isn’t a brainteaser, but whether or not they deem the Ingrams guilty of the crime, and whether a crime has even been committed. It casts the audience as jury, which fits n…

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Pressure review: The weather forecast has never been so gripping ★★★★
type: item
date: 2018-04-04T10:40:46.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
subject: Review
description: David Haig wrote and stars in this new play about the meteorologists behind the D-Day landings
encoded: Michael Fish will forever be remembered for one forecast. In 1987, the former weatherman assured the nation not to worry; there definitely wasn’t a hurricane on the way. Unfortunately, and not just for him, only a few hours later the south coast was battered by the biggest storm in three decades. He was subsequently monstered in the press and forced into hiding. Imagine, then, the stakes in making a forecast on which the fortunes of the Second World War, and hundreds of thousands of lives, could turn. That’s the premise of this fine play both written and starring David Haig. It’s June 1944. The wheels of war are rolling and the allied forces are set for the largest seaborne invasion in history. Months of meticulous planning will culminate in a few days when conditions – including the moon and tides – will be just right. But the launch is still not a certainty. For Eisenhower to give the go ahead he needs to know the weather won’t destroy their chances. Haig is first-class as gloomy Scottish meteorologist RAF Captain James Stagg, who insists that the indicators point to an operation-halting storm. Brusque, cautious and consumed by the seriousness of his subject, he is the polar opposite of his American counterpart. Irving P Krick (the equally excellent Philip Cairns) usually forecasts for film shoots in Hollywood and is as unflinching in his certainty of fair skies as he is of his own importance. Cue an engrossing clash of wills and convictions as maps are unfurled and charts and numbers pored over. The tension is palpable and expertly maintained throughout, given the considerable jargon in the increasingly impassioned arguments. There’s real wit and warmth as well. Stagg’s wife has gone into labour, and with outward communications barred, he can only worry about her condition. This personal side reveals a vastly different man from the charmless professional at the outset. And you can’t help but be moved when, in a vividly acted scene, he is overtaken by his anxiety …

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Cathy review: A powerful remake of Cathy Comes Home ★★★★
type: item
date: 2018-03-29T10:59:54.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Movies
subject: News
description: This modern take on Ken Loach's 60s TV drama pulls no punches
encoded: Ken Loach’s groundbreaking television drama Cathy Come Home was voted the best single television drama of all time by Radio Times readers. It was discussed in parliament and provoked nationwide concern about homelessness. More than half a century after it was first broadcast, playwright Ali Taylor’s Cathy has taken inspiration from the original and drawn on real-life experiences, to imagine how the titular character would fare today. And it’s not giving anything away to say that it’s not a heartening picture. Cathy Owen gives a heartfelt performance in the lead role, displaying a subtly rendered gamut of emotions as a mother and her 15-year-old daughter (the equally moving Hayley Wareham) are slowly submerged in a Kafka-esque system meant to help people like them. Each downward step is a gut punch. She works hard – juggling several low-paid jobs, but on precarious zero-hour contracts. When she falls into arrears on her rent, it’s impossible to catch up, try as she might. Her new landlord sees this as an opportunity to move in much more profitable, non-benefit tenants and orders them out. The welfare system that they fall into is impersonal, judgemental and demeaning, and reacting to the injustices only makes them live up to society's long-held prejudices. Anger is your worst enemy. This is visceral, documentary-like theatre, perfectly pitched. It's affecting and sympathetic without resorting to melodrama or mawkishness. The characters are sharply drawn and realistic, with no hint of caricature. It would be easy for such a piece to become patronising, but it never comes close to condescension. That’s probably down to director Adrian Jackson. His company, Cardboard Citizens, make theatre for and with the homeless community. And that close relationship to the subject matter shows in this delicately tuned production. The politics and the play are inseparable. It’s unabashedly partisan and pulls no punches, which is not to its detriment. Indeed, it’s what gives it power …

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John review: a subtle but finely-honed chamber piece ★★★★★
type: item
date: 2018-01-25T16:49:36.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
subject: Review
description: Annie Baker's Gettysburg-set drama introduces rich, nuanced characters to the Dorfman Theatre
encoded: Writer Annie Baker last came to the National in 2016 with her Pulitzer Prize-winning drama The Flick. Her return, transferred from a successful run in New York, is a subtle but finely-honed chamber piece that draws you into the relationships of a quartet of the most well-drawn characters you’ll see on stage. Elias (Tom Mothersdale) and Jenny (Anneika Rose), are a quarrelsome young couple who arrive at a Gettysburg B&B late into the night. The homely establishment is run by Mertis, it’s sweet and genteel if albeit slightly kooky owner (Marylouise Burke). But every home has its eccentricities, and in Mertis's, as Elias and Jenny can't help but notice, it's her dolls. A miniature army of figurines, cuddly and porcelain, angelic and eerie, adorn almost every wall and surface. The sheer number of still eyes watching every move is unsettling. The set is meticulously detailed, and almost a character in itself: the warm and cosy period parlour with its floral prints and jukebox radio; the Parisian-themed breakfast nook; the imposing staircase which rises up its centre. But there's an air of vague discord that runs through the decor - in the stern portrait glaring reproachfully at all below, and in the surreal animation of inanimate objects. In those tiny eyes. As their stay unfolds, Jenny and Elias scratch away at each other, in and out of the view of Mertis and her spooky blind friend Genevieve (June Watson). The sense of foreboding is skilfully built. Baker is a sharp observer of people, and it shows in her characters and dialogue. Elias habitually tells Jenny what she is thinking and feeling, robbing her of her own agency. Both are guilty of ignoring signals the other is hoping they’ll pick up on. The manner in which they repeatedly push each other away with words, before timidly or passionately coming back together with gestures, is powerfully convincing. The smaller ingredients are what make this play such a delight. Mertis’s small joy and satisfaction in bestowing eso…

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The Birthday Party: Wonderful performances - but does Pinter's classic work in 2018? ★★★
type: item
date: 2018-01-19T12:58:28.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
subject: Review
description: Toby Jones and Zoë Wanamaker star in a production that's both funny and uncomfortable in equal measures
encoded: It's funny to think that when The Birthday Party first opened in London in 1958, at what is now The Lyric Hammersmith, it lasted just eight performances before it was unceremoniously shut down. Given a critical savaging, it’s said that Pinter was so downhearted he resolved to give up theatre for good. Only a glowing review that appeared in The Sunday Times the weekend after it closed convinced the young playwright to persist with a career that went on to include the small accolade of a Nobel Prize in Literature (what do critics know, eh?). It was an inauspicious start for a play now celebrating it’s sixtieth anniversary. It does so with a notable revival that includes more stars than The Sky At Night. Ian Rickson, who directed Pinter in his final appearance as an actor, takes the helm. Set in a sleepy seaside town to the sounds of seagulls and gently rolling surf, the story focuses on Stanley (Toby Jones) the sole lodger of a rundown boarding house run by Petey and Meg (Peter Wight and Zoë Wanamaker). It’s his birthday. At least, that’s what the kindly Meg insists, despite Stanley’s protestations to the contrary. Intrigue arrives in the guise of two sinister strangers, Goldberg (Stephen Mangan) and McCann (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), the first new lodgers for a year, who insist if there’s a birthday then there must be a party. Lulu (Pearl Mackie) is invited to join the celebration, but it soon becomes apparent that the pair are more familiar with Stanley than they initially let on. An ominous atmosphere of thinly-concealed threat follows. But, despite the entertainment of the considerable talent on display, it has to be said that this isn’t a play that has aged well. Yes, there’s plenty of the brooding menace and ambiguous characters that you expect from Pinter, and it’s executed it’s expertly. But audiences in 2018 may quite rightly ask why the reverence for a play in which two such considerable actresses such as Zoë Wanamaker and Pearl Mackie inhabit characters whose onl…

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A Christmas Carol review: Rhys Ifans makes a fabulous Scrooge ★★★★★
type: item
date: 2017-12-01T11:00:57.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
subject: Review
description: The Old Vic's festive show is a family-friendly, cockle-warming take on Dickens' timeless tale
encoded: Some might suggest that there’s something spookily portentous about Matthew Warchus’ choice of programming this year. For the ghost of Christmas past – Kevin Spacey – has been all too real for the Old Vic in the lead up to the opening of this year’s festive offering. Dickens himself was originally inspired to write A Christmas Carol by the ills he saw around him. Not least the anger he felt at the plight of poor working-class children exploited by the Industrial Revolution. Given the current public debate about the wealthy’s contribution to society, Dickens’ 1843 tale of personal conscience and moral responsibility might be more relevant that ever. Writer Jack Thorne, who also brought both Harry Potter & The Cursed Child and Let The Right In to the stage, has balanced this production perfectly. He doesn't shirk the anger at social attitudes towards poverty, but also delivers a rousing festive feast that will leave even the most miserly curmudgeon filled with redemptive joy. Rhys Ifans makes a fabulous Scrooge. Rakish in his long coat and straggly hair, and with an air of personal neglect, he gruffly barks at those around him. But his Ebenezer is not a wholly evil man. Thorne has woven in a poignant backstory in which his loveless, money-obsessed father sees only naked financial worth in his son, and shows how the emotional damage wrought during childhood gives birth to the uncaring man of the future. And Ifans excels at bringing pathos to a usually unsympathetic character. Despite the miser at its core, this is a play full of heart and affection. Without giving away its secrets – of which there are many, including a provocative twist to the traditional ending – it shows how love rather than fear can be the greatest driver of compassion and goodwill. The staging is simply exquisite. The stage snakes the full length of the Old Vic's grand auditorium, while Scrooge's counting house is framed by four hollow door frames, beneath a canopy of flickering lanterns. The spect…

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Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle - heartfelt and entertaining ★★★★
type: item
date: 2017-10-10T17:01:20.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
subject: Review
description: Anne-Marie Duff and Kenneth Cranham are beguiling, unlikely lovers in Simon Stephens's new play at Wyndham's Theatre
encoded: Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle states that you can’t know both the precise location and the speed or direction of travel of a particle at any one time. As soon as you stop to take a measure of one, you lose a firm grip on the other. Don’t panic, though. That’s the all theory out of the way. And, luckily, you won’t need to understand it, nor to dust off and brush up that old maths GCSE to enjoy this heartfelt new play from writer Simon Stephens and director Marianne Elliott. The creative duo behind the phenomenally successful stage adaptation of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time. The play follows the unlikely relationship of Alex and Georgie. He (Kenneth Cranham), 75 and never married, is self-contained, habitual and unassuming. Comfortable with his narrow place in life, if not without regrets. She (Anne-Marie Duff), thirty-odd years his junior, wears her exuberant but fragile emotions like a technicolor coat. Constantly in motion with a beguiling but erratic energy (and a joyously foul mouth) she crashes into his life in a chance encounter at a train station. Watching these two supreme actors search their way around the hazy edges of their burgeoning relationship is never short of entertaining. Cranham imbues Alex with a sense of rigidness, in his formulaic way of life and his highly cultivated sense of self. Duff’s Georgie, by comparison, is a constantly shifting proposition. You’re never sure where you are with her, whether she’s inventing stories or lurching between timid insecurity and unabashed forwardness. There are some lovely moments as each draws the other into uncharted territory. Such as when Alex, after Georgie has torn herself up over her seemingly multiple personalities, assuages her in his belief that there are no such things as personalities. According to him, there are only the appearance of them in the accumulation of our actions, and our actions are free to change. In the process, he frees himself to become someone he didn’t ex…

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The Tempest review: Technical wizardry and a magical performance from Simon Russell Beale ★★★★
type: item
date: 2017-07-07T09:30:00.000Z
subject: Going Out
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: audio
description: The Barbican's production of Shakespeare's last play blends fine performances with state-of-the-art motion capture technology
encoded: Given the recent ructions over at The Globe, you could be quite forgiven for thinking that, like die-hard Dylan fans, Shakespeare audiences will scream "Judas!" the second you turn on a plug and dare go electric. But that’s far from the truth. The anticipation surrounding the RSC’s new digitally enhanced Tempest was more due to the technological wonderments than Simon Russell Beale’s return to the company after 20 years. The RSC have collaborated with Intel and digital gurus Imaginarium Studios to create a three-dimensional canvas where holograms bend and shape themselves across an imposing, stage-spanning shipwrecked galleon. The skeletal husk seamlessly transforms into the wooden sinews of Ariel’s prison within a tree, lush forestry and painterly, almost Hockney-like landscapes that are saturated with vibrant colour. It's simply gorgeous to look at, and all without a single scene change. Simon Russell Beale and Mark Quartley; main picture: Jenny Rainsford, Beale and Daniel Easton (photos by Topher McGrillis) The character of Ariel adds the most impressive hi-tech touch. The actor playing the spirit, Mark Quartley, wears a sensor-equipped suit, so his movements are translated into a digital avatar that glides over the stage. In real-time, he brings life to the magical manifestation in a fascinating way you’re unlikely see anywhere else outside of a computer game. The danger with this type of production is always that the eagerness for digital daring eclipses the power of the story and the performances. Not here. Director Gregory Doran knows when to turn it up to 11, but also when to dial it back and let Shakespeare’s fable of betrayal and forgiveness speak for itself. For all the technical wizardry it’s still those flesh and blood actors that are the most captivating. Avatar or no avatar, Mark Quarterly is great as Ariel. Moving with a dancer’s musical grace, he perfectly embodies the ethereal majesty of the bewitching sprite. Simon Russell Beale plays Prospero and…

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Anatomy of a Suicide review: A powerful examination of the legacy of mental illness ★★★★
type: item
date: 2017-06-12T10:00:00.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: Going Out
subject: News
subject: TV
description: The stories of mothers and daughters are cleverly interwoven in this ambitious new play starring Hattie Morahan
encoded: Last year writer Alice Birch was named one of the Creative England 50, a roll call of the country’s most accomplished up-and-coming creative talents who are not only innovative, but disruptive. One critic has described her work as "a cluster bomb of subversion". Her ambitious new play tells the stories of three generations of women dealing with the painful legacy of suicide. Rather than dealing with each individually, mother, daughter, and granddaughter’s troubled tales are played out separately but at the same time. Concurrent conversations ricochet not only across the stage but across decades. Hattie Morahan plays troubled housewife Carol whose story traverses the 70s and 80s. Her daughter Anna (Kate O’Flynn) is a self-destructive young adult growing up during the late 90s, while Bonnie (Adelle Leonce) is the head of an A&E department and wrestling with the ghosts of the past in the 2030s. Adelle Leonce as Bonnie (photographs by Stephen Cummiskey) Three stories happening simultaneously is a difficult feat and has the potential for a muddled evening. But it's brilliantly done, creating a rich tapestry as the interweaving threads dovetail perfectly. Grief and mental health are complex issues and Anatomy of a Suicide never tries to reduce them to simplistic tropes or narrow explanations. Book tickets for Anatomy of a Suicide from Radio Times Box Office Instead we see how the legacy of someone taking their life can manifest itself in subtle ways. Bonnie keeps people at an impersonal distance when, having turned up unexpectedly to a colleague’s birthday, they assume she's there to berate them about a work issue. When someone shows an interest in Anna, her instinct is to push them away and berate them for treating her as "a misery project". The scenes are deft but vivid, and the dialogue is razor-sharp. Placing the sequential stories side-by-side adds depth to the backstories of the other characters, without resorting to flashbacks or long exposition. It also brings int…

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The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui review: Lenny Henry plays a Trump-like mob boss ★★★
type: item
date: 2017-05-04T09:00:00.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: Travel
subject: audio
description: The Donmar Warehouse's entertaining revival of the 1940s satire draws parallels with contemporary America
encoded: From stand-up comedian to red-nosed humanitarian ambassador, knight of the realm to serious Shakespearian actor, Lenny Henry has already orchestrated more hits than your average mob boss. Now, in a timely revival at the Donmar, he’s stepped into the shoes of an actual mobster – Bertolt Brecht’s demagogue Arturo Ui. A charismatic, self-aggrandising strongman determined to seize power by fair means or foul (although, he’s rather less keen on the fair). And the funny man who made his name with comic impersonations on New Faces makes a pretty persuasive Chicago gangster. Although he doesn’t quite achieve a truly furious menace, he effects a convincing throaty snigger, a bombastic charm, and a larger than life loping physicality that is entertaining to watch. He’s at his best when dissembling in front of dubious spectators – his natural charm shines through as he sets about selling fake news and, in due course, making the country great again. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is of course entirely deliberate. For although set in the corrupt Windy City of the 1930s, the play was written in 1941. Brecht, having fled Germany after Hitler’s ascent to power, watched as the Nazis hateful nationalism violently conquered their European neighbours. Waiting on his visa to escape the continent to America, he penned the tale of a mob boss’s takeover of the city cauliflower industry as a satire on the rise of fascism, and a warning to his new homeland of pugnacious, jingoistic leaders. Simon Holland Roberts, Lenny Henry and Philip Cumbus (photos by Helen Maybanks) Writer Bruce Norris’s adaptation has refocussed much of its ire on the rise of a more recent (and orange) head of state across the pond – with allusions to Trump liberally weaved throughout. Eliciting cheers when the audience gleefully spots them, they sail a little too close to pantomime. The parallels in the character are obvious enough, without the need to parody Trump’s own lines. Beyond the serious message, tho…

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Obsession review: Jude Law smoulders in a fiery love affair ★★★
type: item
date: 2017-04-26T10:30:00.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: Travel
subject: audio
description: The acting is superb but this new adaptation of the 1943 Italian film fails to set the stage alight
encoded: Jude Law was in the middle of filming The Young Pope in Rome when director Ivo Van Hove made a transcontinental pilgrimage to pitch him the role of Gino. An individual who, one imagines, the pontiff would likely direct straight to the nearest confessional with at least a dozen Hail Marys. A charmer and drifter, a guy with no fixed place in the world, he chances upon a bar looking for a meal, but quickly finds a hunger instead for Hanna (Halina Reijn), the young wife of the owner. Trapped in an abusive marriage of convenience, she eagerly devours his licentious advances and they embark upon a lustful affair. But this isn’t the suave lothario that people might associate with the star of The Talented Mr Ripley, who first took to the Barbican's stage 22 years ago. Restraining his natural velvety swagger, his Gino is more equivocal, his amply displayed physique conceals fragility. Fighting his natural instinct to flee, he’s more interesting than your typical cocksure philanderer. Halina Reijn as Hanna and Jude Law as Gino Unfortunately, though, this adaptation from the 1943 Italian film of the same name (which itself was an adaptation of James M Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice) suffers because Gino and Hanna’s relationship feels underdeveloped, and their chemistry lacks real power. The barbarous consequences of their illicit liaison unspool at such speed that you don’t have the opportunity to immerse yourself in either character. And as their decisions lead to more compromised predicaments you struggle to empathise with either. A small cast of periphery characters flit in and out – the concerned priest, the grizzled detective, the fellow drifter – but none feel like they have enough meat on the bone. The true obsession at the heart of the play is not Gino and Hanna’s desire for each other, but for their sense of place or lack thereof. Gino is at home in the freedom of being anywhere and nowhere feels trapped by small-town life. Hanna, whose marriage had at least gi…

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The White Devil review: A devilishly funny tragedy ★★★
type: item
date: 2017-02-02T10:20:00.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: Travel
subject: audio
description: John Webster's satire is played for laughs at the Globe's indoor candlelit theatre
encoded: Earlier this year, Annie Ryan was awarded the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award for her last directorial outing A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing. With her latest play trailed as "the dark spaces between reality and nightmares" with "shadowy turns" and "monstrous murders", you'd imagine the human rights group is more likely to intervene this time, rather than dish out accolades. As with author John Webster’s other well known tragedy, The Duchess Of Malfi, the story of The White Devil is loosely drawn from the scandalous skullduggery of the Italian nobility in the late sixteenth century. In the throes of an illicit lust for Vittoria, the married daughter of another noble Venetian family, the Duke of Brachiano plots the murder of both his wife and his mistress’s husband. Suffice to say, events don't pan out fortuitously for the rest of the cast of the Renaissance court. Wives murder husbands. Brothers poison philanderers. Women are imprisoned as penitent whores. There's more amoral behaviour than your average year in Albert Square and keeping up with the plots and subplots can prove harder than trying to work out who killed Lucy Beale. Kate Stanley-Brennan as Vittoria (photos by Marc Brenner) Kate Stanley-Brennan provides the standout performance as Vittoria, the eponymous mistress to the Duke. As fiery and impassioned as those around her, she expresses it in a more contained and controlled manner. Her performance is all the more captivating in contrast to more expansive and slightly over-the-top turns elsewhere. However, Ryan's dystopian take on the Jacobean tragedy never manages to capture the darkness and cruelty at the heart of the play’s vengeful deceit. The burnt umber and flickering shadows of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse's intimate candlelit auditorium should be the perfect setting, but too often the menace lurches into mirth. Acts of murderous violence are played for laughs, such as when the titular character's cuckolded husband is thrown from a ba…

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Lazarus review: Dexter's Michael C Hall stars in David Bowie's musical ★★★★★
type: item
date: 2016-11-08T21:01:00.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: Travel
subject: audio
description: Nick Wells meets a familiar Starman and has his mind blown
encoded: Shows like this don’t come along very often. But then again neither do icons such as David Bowie. Ivo Van Hove’s musical inspired by the late star’s music is strange and ethereal, but oddly moving. And you can’t help but be intrigued by the fascinating performances and underlying context. The script, by Bowie and Enda Walsh, is based upon the 1976 surreal cult film The Man Who Fell To Earth. In it, Bowie played the alien Thomas Jerome Newton, who crashed to Earth in search of a means to transport water back to his drought-ridden planet. His quest, ultimately unsuccessful, left him a broken and forlorn figure. Stuck on earth. His loved ones back on his home planet passed away. The girl who loved him here gone, married to someone else. It’s here that we find Thomas, ensconced in his New York apartment, shuffling melancholically between the television and the drinks cabinet. Hiding from a world for which he neither cares nor understands, he finds himself drawn to his living assistant, Elly, who’s own life is unfulfilled and without love, he comes to see in her the image of his lost lover. That, though, is as far as Thomas’ world is firmly based in this corporeal realm. His mind conjures a girl. A physical manifestation of its search for catharsis. Skulking ever closer from the shadows is Valentine – a mysterious dark and malevolent presence, whose unsettling nature and penchant for random violence makes him one of the more menacing characters you'll ever see on stage. As with most of Bowie’s work though, nothing should be taken at face value. At it’s heart, this is a deeply personal story. Of a man facing his own potential mortality and seeing not grievance, but instead a beauty in the bittersweet embrace of a release from a cruel and nonsensical humanity. One which he was never truly a part of. At times dream-like in quality, you feel not everything may even be meant to be understood. But in a way, it doesn’t really matter. The overall effect is captivating, tense, an…

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King Lear review: Glenda Jackson returns to the stage as Shakespeare's tragic hero
type: item
date: 2016-11-08T10:00:00.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: Travel
subject: audio
description: It's been a long wait to see the former Labour MP take to the stage again, but it's worth it finds Nick Wells
encoded: The last time Glenda Jackson took to the stage, if you wanted to read the online review you’d’ve have been disappointed, or clairvoyant. For it wasn’t until the end of that year that the first web site was created, at CERN, where they smash bits of the universe together. And if things’ve changed a bit in the intervening 25 years, the 80 year-old’s acting abilities certainly haven’t. And the former Labour MP’s triumphant return to The Old Vic in one of theatre’s most demanding roles is every bit as thrilling. In a striking gender-blind performance she slips uncannily between lucidity and madness, serenity and volatility. There’s a musicality to her voice, as it lilts naturally – high and whimsical one moment, forceful and acerbic the next. There’s even the comic sight of her shambling around the stage in just a shirt, seeking enlightened advice from a man dressed in only a strategical placed bin bag. It’s an irony that her thoroughly convincing depiction of declining authority and loosening of the mind in old age only goes to disprove the prevailing idea that advancing years are an unfortunate but unavoidable hindrance to ability. She could not be more suited to the role. And with any hope, it may lead the way to an opening up to more such roles for older actresses. Jane Horrocks and Celia Imrie are suitably barbed as the wicked pair of Regan and Goneril, the King’s daughters who, having been asked to prove their devotion to him, quickly strip him of any vestiges of his stately position once they have earned their share of his kingdom. Both blend hard-nosed shrewdness with a virulent sexuality well. Morfydd Clark’s Cordelia, angrily disowned by her father after her less gushing display for his affections, contrastingly has a plainer, more innocent honesty to her. And Rhys Ifans offers a heart-warming comic touch as the fool. Half-dressed in a superman onesie, he at turns both and dons a clown mask and breaks into a rendition of Bob Dylan, as he proves to be the only …

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The Entertainer review: Kenneth Branagh puts his stamp on Laurence Olivier's pitiful comic ★★★
type: item
date: 2016-08-31T13:00:00.000Z
creator: Nick Wells
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: Travel
subject: audio
description: Branagh's theatre company has revived John Osborne's 1957 play - and it has a lot in common with Brexit Britain
encoded: Kenneth Branagh has been described as many things but "clairvoyant" is probably a new one. Yet the star of stage and screen must have been channelling his inner Mystic Meg when, back in 2013, he created his eponymous theatre company and decided the climax to its year-long residency at the Garrick Theatre would be The Entertainer. Maybe someone should ask him who’s going to win Strictly this year. John Osborne’s state-of-the-nation play is set at the moment of the Suez Canal crisis, when Britain invaded Egypt only to have to humiliatingly withdraw after the United Nations intervened. Almost 60 years on, Osborne's play about an ordinary family divided by geopolitics feels all too relevant to post-Brexit Britain. Branagh plays Archie Rice, a third-rate music hall comic who blithely performs in the face of growing antipathy. Off stage, he's buffeted from both sides as his dad regrets the decline of the Empire and the way Britain is pushed about by foreigners, while his daughter protests against the illegal military intervention in Trafalgar Square. Kenneth Branagh, Greta Scacchi and Gawn Grainger But the real metaphor lies in failing, outdated Archie, who was played by Laurence Olivier in the 1960 film. Branagh captures the pathos of the protagonist as he struggles through his routines, showing off nimble footwork in the tap numbers. He may not quite match Olivier's iconic portrayal, but he certainly puts his own stamp on the part and is as watchable and entertaining as ever. Book tickets for The Entertainer from the Radio Times box office The standout performances, though, come from Gawn Grainger as the comic's worn-down dad and Greta Scacchi, who gives a superb turn as Archie's put-upon, neglected wife for whom familial pride matters as much as the politics outside of the front door. It’s the scenes of domestic and intergenerational strife that have the most spirit. If there’s a downside, it’s how dated some of the dialogue and humour now sound, especially the racial …

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