Reviews

Shakespeare, in As You Like It, wrote – ‘Sweet are the fruits of adversity’. This a very apt quote for Amy Herzog’s 2011 American family drama, which was nominated for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in 2013 and has been performed numerous times throughout the world. Part of this play’s charm and appeal is its simplicity. Here we have no major socio-political ‘issue’ based play, but a pertinent and touching drama between a loving, elderly New York Jewish grandmother, Vera Joseph, and her troubled 21-year old grandson, Leo Joseph-Connell.

Love Letters to the Revolution, written and directed by Sian Murphy, is a vignette play that expresses frustration with a myriad of things happening in the world, and a call to help fight someone else’s fight and a call to take action, whatever that needs to be. Surprisingly light-hearted and funny, despite some dark and important themes, it is an easy to watch, enjoyable show.

Coward’s dialogue remains as sparkling as Madame Arcati’s jewellery, 80 years after Blithe Spirit was written as a merry diversion from the woes of WW2. HRTS’s third production for the year was no tired drawing room comedy of manners. This was a fresh, intelligent, and witty reading of the text that delighted opening night audiences.

Black Swan State Theatre Company’s Animal Farm is a fresh modern examination of George Orwell’s classic 1944 novella, which blends the original themes of politics, power and corruption, with 2021 technology, social media and the 24 hour news cycle. Performed by just three superb performers, it will appeal to people familiar with the original story, as well as those new to this famous allegory.