Tag Archives: Birmingham REP

Writer: Roderick Smith, based on Homer's Iliad Directors: Madeleine Kludje and Philip Morris Reviewer: James Garrington Homer’s Iliad is a lengthy and detailed epic poem, with a huge array of characters – Greeks, Trojans and Gods. That undoubtedly creates difficulties in translating even the essence of a part of it onto the stage. Writer Roderick Smith has had a fair ...

Writer: Rona Munro from the book by Louis de Bernières Director: Melly Still Reviewer: James Garrington There are always huge challenges involved in adapting a well-known book for the stage. How faithful can or should it be to the original, how easily can we portray inner thoughts, how can we deal with characters ageing? With Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, the team has ...

Writer: Jon Brittain Director: Donnacadh O’Briain Reviewer: James Garrington New Year in Rotterdam, and Alice has decided that it’s finally time to tell her parents that she’s gay. She drafts and redrafts – not an easy email to write, she’s been in this relationship for seven years without telling her parents back home, who she feels sure will disapprove. But ...

Writer: Ursula Rani Sarma from the book by Khaled Hosseini Director: Roxana Silbert Reviewer: James Garrington For the many fans of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, there is a lot here that will be familiar, but there’s also a lot that’s been changed, and not always for the better. Of course, adapting a big novel for the stage will inevitably bring many ...

Writer: Evan Placey, based on the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson Director: Tessa Walker Reviewer: Selwyn Knight We all feel we already know the story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde after countless adaptations of its central story – had the word been coined in 1886, one might even have described it as an early meme. But one feature of ...

Writer: Alexis Michalik, translated by Jeremy Sams Director: Roxana Silbert Reviewer: Dave Smith Most people know the story of Cyrano de Bergerac, probably the most celebrated play in the French language. Written in rhyming couplets, it’s about how the physically unappealing Cyrano (he has a very big nose) helps a friend’s love life by writing his romantic letters for him, ...

Writer: James Kettle Directors: Didi Hopkins and Selina Cadell Reviewer: Selwyn Knight When one thinks of David Tomlinson, one probably thinks of Mr Banks in Mary Poppins, for Tomlinson by then had already carved his niche playing, as he described them, ‘my dim-witted upper-class twit performances’. And when one hears that there’s to be a play celebrating the life of ...

Writer: Joe Penhall Director: Daniel Bailey Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Christopher is excited – like a toddler overdosed on sugar, he can’t keep still, his joy in the world is palpable. The reason for his delight? After 28 days of being forcibly sectioned, he’s due for release into the community. He’s suffering from a variation of Borderline Personality Disorder, and all ...