Tag Archives: Zoe Spurr

Librettist: Glyn Maxwell Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Director: Valentina Ceschi Reviewer: James Garrington Opera Up Close may have moved on from their roots performing in tiny pub theatres, but that doesn’t mean that they’ve distanced themselves from their audience. They pride themselves on producing accessible new versions of classic opera, and The Magic Flute is certainly no exception. Forget any ideas you ...

Writer: Katy Warner Director: Yasmeen Arden Reviewer: Richard Maguire Jade and Liam live in a decaying council block in an unnamed town. Druggies gather in the stairwells, and leave their used needles sticking into the bannisters. Gangs roam around the estate collecting shopping trolleys that they throw from the roof of the tower blocks. ‘What does it look like?’ Liam ...

Writer: Abi Morgan Director: David Loumgair Reviewer: Stephen Bates How are we supposed to deal with the randomness of fate in a world where one person can survive being struck by lightning and another can be killed by a flying sandwich? Abi Morgan’s Tiny Dynamite asks this question through two troubled characters. She wrote the play in 2001 and she ...

Writer: Hannah Khalil Director: Sara Joyce Reviewer: Maryam Philpott “I can’t believe this is England” the characters proclaim in Hannah Khalil’s new play The Scar Test, set in an immigration holding centre, a place where women who have committed no crimes are held for months while their cases are heard. Often, they have escaped persecution in another country and dreamed of ...

Natives - Southwark Playhouse, London Writer: Glenn Waldron Director: Rob Drummer Reviewer: Stephen Bates Members of the first generation that will not have known life without mobile phones, tablets, and social media are now entering their teens and Glenn Waldron's new 90-minute play taps into the minds of three 14-year-olds to reveal their inner fears. The play begins by drawing ...

Writer: Arinzé Kene Director: Natalie Ibu Reviewer: Stephen Bates A 13-year-old boy looks out from the balcony of his tower block flat and surveys the community below him, making wry and cutting observations a little like the narrator in Under Milk Wood. He sees wrongdoing but vows that he will, himself, stay on the straight and narrow, hoping that his ...