Tag Archives: Kara Tointon

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Christopher Luscombe Reviewer: John Kennedy Some thirty years ago an ensemble of disparate student stereotypes, The Young Ones, exploded from our TV sit-com screens – often quite literally. When Adrian Edmondson’s anarcho-Punk, Vivyan, let loose his signature pet hamster comic-strip chaotic schtick mayhem ensued. Twelfth Night, the twelfth day of Christmas marks the Epiphany, the arrival of the ...

Writer: Patrick Hamilton Director: Anthony Banks   Reviewer: Barbara Michaels A classic Victorian melodrama with psychological undertones, Gaslight was written and first produced in 1939 but has all the elements of the era in which it is set.  Not least of these is the title, which gave rise to the term ‘Gaslighting,’meaning a form of mental abuse – domestic abuse ...

Writer: Patrick Hamilton Director: Anthony Banks Reviewer:  Scott Matthewman There aren’t many plays whose names have become part of the dictionary. Patrick Hamilton’s psychological melodrama is one of the few, with ‘gaslighting’ coming to mean the mental abuse that causes someone to doubt their own sanity in the manner that Gaslight’s Jack Manningham inflicts on his wife Bella. Indeed, the ...

Writer: Patrick Hamilton Director: Anthony Banks Reviewer:  Selwyn Knight It must be very confusing to be Mrs Manningham. Things happen that she can’t explain, trinkets going missing and then reappearing in her sewing box. Her husband is losing patience with her lapses of memory. The maid laughs at her behind her back. And why do the gaslights in their home ...

Writer: Alan Ayckbourn Director: Lindsay Posner Reviewer: Lettie Mckie [rating:3.5] When performed in 1967 Relatively Speaking was Alan Ayckbourn’s first big success, establishing him as one of the leading playwrights of his generation. His signature ability to construct complex narratives steeped in subtext and driven by miscommunication between his protagonists was established in Relatively Speaking for the first time. Its ...

Writer: Alan Ayckbourn Director: Lindsay Posner Reviewer: Maggie Constable [rating:3.5] It was Relatively Speaking in London’s West End in 1967 that made Alan Ayckbourn’s name and gave him his first hit play. He has since become a darling of British theatre, very much a household favourite on TV too. This evening in Milton Keynes Theatre the reworked piece begins its ...