Tag Archives: Dorothea Myer-Bennett

Writer: Terence Rattigan Director: Paul Miller Reviewer: Richard Maguire For every cutting-edge play like 2014’s dystopian Pomona, or this year’s smart and queer Out of Water, artistic director Paul Miller throws in a Shaw or a Rattigan to keep the more traditional audience of The Orange Tree Theatre happy. Miller’s productions of rarely performed works by these playwrights are always ...

Writer: August Strindberg Adaptor: Howard Brenton Director: Tom Littler Reviewer: Karl O’Doherty Tense and precariously combustible from the start, the work is a captivating 90 minutes of domestic trouble and class antagonism that leaves one a little breathless. The version here, a freshly written by Howard Brenton which is directed by his long-time Strindberg collaborator Tom Littler, brings out the claustrophobic ...

Writer: August Strindberg Adaptor: Howard Brenton Direction: Tom Littler Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Classic theatre loves to punish bad women, particularly if she’s adulterous or dares to be, in that dirty phrase, a “free-thinker”. August Strindberg’s Creditors first performed in 1889 and written a year earlier is a play entirely dedicated to the manipulation of an errant wife, forced to confront the ...

Writer: Terence Rattigan Director: Rachel Kavanaugh Reviewer: Stephen Bates Like British theatre’s equivalent of a hardy perennial, Terence Rattigan’s 1946 play The Winslow Boy is never long away from our stages. This sturdy touring revival shows again why the story of a 13-year-old boy who is accused falsely of stealing a five shilling postal order continues to intrigue us. It ...

Writer: Terence Rattigan Director: Rachel Kavanaugh Reviewer: Simon Topping A sumptuous Edwardian living room decked out with rich blue walls and plush contrasting furniture, beautifully designed by Michael Taylor, draws the Brighton audience into the theatre. The lights go down and a boy in naval uniform takes the spotlight.  This is the start of Birmingham repertory theatre’s excellent adaption of Terence ...

Writer: Terence Rattigan Director: Rachel Kavanaugh Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Ostensibly based on a true story about a naval cadet accused of stealing a postal order from a friend, The Winslow Boy also looks at the changing world just over a hundred years ago: Britain was living under the threat of a splintering Europe, women were fighting for equality with men, ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Jonathan Munby Reviewer: Harry Stern   There is a great deal to admire in this new production of an old favourite and even more to enjoy. Actors and audience have a jolly time alike. Yet it remains a perennially problematic play which seems at first acquaintance to endorse a loathsome anti-Semitism from which the world needs ...

Writer: Chekhov, Adapted by Samuel Adamson Director: Mark Rosenblatt Designer: Dick Bird Reviewer: David Gann This is a theatre of excellence, and not to be missed. Beautifully acted, directed, and designed, Uncle Vanya is given a new lease of life with a contemporary and incisive translation from Samuel Adamson that cuts through Chekhovian clichés, yet facilitates the actors to connect ...