Tag Archives: James Cotterill

Writer: Paula Hawkins Adaptors: Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel Director: Anthony Banks Reviewer: Dan English  A missing girl and an alcoholic struggling to get a grip on reality combine in this highly stylish adaptation of the hit thriller The Girl on the Train. Samantha Womack is Rachel Watson, a woman finding it hard to adapt following a messy divorce from ...

Writers: Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel, based on the book by Paula Hawkins Director: Anthony Banks Reviewer: James Garrington Rachel Watson’s life is a mess. Divorced, she’s living surrounded by rubbish, a large number of empty bottles, and blank periods in her memory. She longs for a different life – a life of love and happy-ever-after, of a partner and ...

Writer: Paula Hawkins Adaptor: Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel Director: Anthony Banks Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys British writer Paula Hawkins’ 2015 novel The Girl on the Train became a runaway best-seller around the globe, with a Hollywood movie adaptation following on its heels quickly a year later, albeit with a re-setting to New York instead of London. Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan ...

Writer: William Shakespeare  Director: David Thacker Reviewer: Jay Nuttall Brevity may be the soul of wit but brevity was certainly not on William Shakespeare's agenda when he wrote the Danish classic. It is easy not to appreciate, when seeing a production every few years, the mammoth task a director, lead actor and whole company undertake when committing to stage the ...

Writer: David Greig Director: Dan Sherer Reviewer: Michael Gray First seen in 2013, and inspired at least in part by the Anders Breivik massacre of the year before, David Greig's powerful piece has been revived many times since. Dan Sherer's production in the Mercury Studio is intensely visceral, its impact enhanced by the intimacy of the staging. James Cotterill's set ...

Writer:  Alistair Beaton Director: Richard Wilson Reviewer: Bill Avenell   It is perhaps risky to put on a play about fracking, nimbyism, corruption in politics and big business in the heart of deepest Surrey, but the first thing to say about last night’s production at Guildford is that the audience seems to lap it up. There is a buzz in ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: David Thacker Reviewer: May Mellstrom Former Artistic Director David Thacker returns to the Octagon to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death with a new production of The Winter's Tale, one of his latest and most unusual plays. Difficult to categorise, The Winter's Tale is both tragedy and comedy and features a host of narrative conventions ...

Writer:Mikhail Durnekov Translator:Noah Birksted-Breen Director:Michael Fentiman Reviewer: Joan Phillips   The War Has Not Yet Started is a composite of 12 short stories reflecting some of the very human anxieties of today’s troubled world. Written by Mikhail Durnenkov and translated from the original Russian by Noah Birksted-Breen, this 80-minute play bleakly captures some of society’s deepest, sometimes hidden, and often ...