Reviews

History may be “one fucking thing after another” as Rudge says, but it is also about the individuals who live through it. The History Boys tackles sweeping concepts through the lives of eight boys preparing for entry to Oxford and Cambridge Colleges.

Juxtaposing classic literature with the popular culture, this production is underscored by well curated music of the 1980s. Various other competing forces shape the students; educational philosophies, opposing values and teacher personalities.

Neil Simon’s American classic Lost in Yonkers may be Roxy Lane Theatre’s most outstanding production to date. This well directed, intelligently performed trip to New York during World War II is charming healthy sized audiences.

When their widowed father is forced to work away from home, teenaged Jay and little brother Artie are sent to live with their little known overly strict Grandmother and their intellectually challenged Aunt Bella.

Mark Haddon has always maintained that his novel, first published in 2003, is not about “any specific disorder” but about “difference … about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way”. The young hero of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is 15-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone. He is bright, a “mathematician with behavioural difficulties”. But he doesn’t like being touched.  He takes things very literally. He reacts to noise and bright light.

The beautiful and elegant Bella should have everything to live for – recently married with a dashing husband Jack, a substantial home equipped with the latest invention, gas lights, and two servants on hand.

Yet the seeds of chaos are never far away. Precious items such as her mother’s pearls have going missing, with her husband eating away at her confidence, calling into question her grip on reality.

Is she going mad or is she being manipulated?