Reviews

What happens after overwhelming catastrophe: a nuclear blast, carpet bombing, house to house street warfare?  A motely group of survivors gather in an empty, ravaged dance hall.  The explosions that put them there are shocking, deafening, dazzling, frightening.  Now these survivors look around, look inward, look at each other and find ways to realise that, yes, they are alive.  Now what? 

Fire Gardens is everything you would hope.  It is one of those unique and rare experiences that can be enjoyed with a group of people or as a pensive individual in a crowd.  It is a unifying, nourishing, transcendent, personal journey.

My plus one and I wandered, happily intrigued, from sunset for at least 90 enjoyable minutes.  

Kimberley (Claire Lovering) is a fiery, passionate soul who does what she wants whenever she feels like it, with hilarious consequences. She leaves emotional, and more tangible, destruction in her wake as she storms through her world. Well meaning interventions by friends, policemen, and even court ordered visits to the psychologist are no match for Kimberley: her impulsiveness and shrewd insights into the inner lives of those who would try to curb her excesses are enough to defeat them all. But will she be able to conquer love with her incisive wit?

Multi-award winning British dramatist and director Terry Johnson adapted and presented The Graduate to the stage in 2000. Based on the 1967 American romantic comedy-drama film rdirected by Mike Nicholls and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingha,  based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb, the film has legendary status and remains in America’s top 20 significant films. The play, too, has had success on both the West End stage and on Broadway.