Reviews
Helen Hawkins
Two boys in east London, one Black, one white, grow up together, play pranks at school, then decades later have a tempestuous falling out. That’s the main narrative arc of these twin plays, but it accounts for none of their extraordinary richness and the superlative acting they entail. These are monologues, a genre where dramatic excellence is primed to go right off the scale: think the powerful solos of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer, the haunted storytellers of Conor McPherson’s plays, Simon Stephens’s Sea Wall. Recast after their runs at the Dorfman, the trio of plays is directed by Clint Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Nash’at is either very brave or slightly unhinged. His debut full-length documentary is an account of a year he spent in Afghanistan with the Taliban, after they’d taken control of the country at the end of August 2021, following the catastrophically inept evacuation of US and NATO forces.Nash’at described his pitch to the Taliban like this: “I went in and I said, ‘I would like to show the world your image without putting my own point of view on it. Whatever I will see, I will try to show’.” It’s a fascinating premise, but the film is ultimately frustrating because Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Adam Riches: Jimmy, Summerhall ★★★Adam Riches has long been famed as a performer who throws himself into his physical comedy – so much so that during the Fringe run of a previous comedy show he broke his leg. And now, with this one-man play he is on stage in tennis whites, running around and slamming down imaginary balls to a percussive soundtrack as he tells the story of Jimmy Connors, the self-proclaimed world's greatest tennis player.It's a fascinating story that even some keen tennis fans might not know. Connors retired at the age of 43, playing on well past his best days. But during Read more ...
Miranda Heggie
Immersive opera such as this can be tricky to pull off, but the magic of Roxana Haines’s new production of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex lies in its simplicity, letting the material organically weave around the audience without overcomplications or deliberately clever trickery.The National Museum of Scotland proved itself to be a fine venue for this performance in many ways. Its vast expanse of space allowed for much milling around the orchestra, which was in the centre, and the first floor balcony provided an elevated platform for those who’d prefer a birds’ eye view and not to be right in Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Sheeps, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★This is the first new show that Sheeps – Liam Williams, Al Roberts and Daran Johnson – have produced in six years, but they say The Giggle Bunch (That's Our Name For You) is their last. Having gone their separate ways some years ago, the trio have gathered together for one last time to say farewell to their fans.Keen followers will savour every minute of the show, of course, while neutral observers might pick holes in some of the hour's content. Sheeps have always played with – actually disregarded might be a better description – the rules Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The musical equivalent of a firework display, the third album from Norwegian art-poppers Pom Poko is bright, energised and unstoppable. It is also considered; clearly the culmination of a careful creative process. Fusing the spontaneous and the structured can be tricky, but this is what the nimble Champion accomplishes.Heard without knowing anything about Pom Poko, Champion comes across as a new wave-influenced take on math rock were those responsible cocking an ear to Imperial-era Beyoncé. Pop, but pop which has been deconstructed and then reassembled.Opening cut “Growing Story” is along the Read more ...
Bernard Hughes
This Prom by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Nil Venditti featured a first half of Welsh composers, including the belated Proms debut of Karl Jenkins at the age of 80. It’s a sign of how Proms programming has evolved over the last 30 years that either of them gets a look-in and, even if I had some mixed feelings about their pieces, it can only be a good thing that they are now being heard in this festival.The second half featured someone who has waited even longer than Jenkins for a first Proms outing – Louise Farrenc, who died in 1875 – alongside a guy called Ludwig van Beethoven, Read more ...
David Kettle
The Sound Inside, Traverse Theatre ★★★★★ Adam Rapp’s unapologetically intricate, bookish two-hander arrives for its UK premiere at the Traverse Theatre following a successful run in New York, including no fewer than six Tony nominations. It’s not a new work, then, but its themes and its gloriously, unashamedly erudite writing make it one of the strongest offerings in the Traverse’s Fringe programme.Not for nothing do literary references ricochet back and forth across Rapp’s Ivy League thriller-cum-love story. Bella Baird is a Yale professor of creative writing, and she discovers a Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Stevie Martin, Monkey Barrel ★★★ Stevie Martin is part of the generation of comics for whom the internet is a natural home; she has racked up tens of millions of views for her work online, where she had to strut her stuff when the world went into lockdown.But having debuted as a solo comic in 2018 (after being one-third of the talented sketch group Massive Dad) she wants the thrill – and the exertion – of appearing before a live audience again, she says, so here is Clout, a tightly constructed hour of comedy full of ideas, not all of which land.Recently acquired habits die hard; Read more ...
Boyd Tonkin
Founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra first performed at the Proms – to a rapturous welcome – in 2003. For two decades the visits, and the audience rapture, have continued, while the region of most WEDO players’ birth now looks, this hideous year above all, more steeped in blood and hate than ever. Said and Barenboim never intended the orchestra, with its core element of young Arab and Israeli musicians later augmented by players from neighbouring lands, as some kind of soppily high-minded peace project. Rather, they sought a way of creatively Read more ...
Simon Thompson
When you’re running a three-concert residency, you can afford to take a few repertoire risks, to programme a few things that might be close to your heart but which won’t pack in the punters.That must be the reason why the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra’s EIF residency included Hans Rott’s First Symphony in its first night and in this, its last, Dvořák’s Te Deum and Josef Suk’s Asrael symphony, works close to Chief Conductor Jakub Hrůša’s heart but which don’t resonate so much with British audiences.Predictably, therefore, the Usher Hall was only half full for both of those concerts (their middle Read more ...
Justine Elias
Don’t think too hard about the narrative absurdity of Trap, the new movie wriitten and directed by M Night Shyamalan. There’s a serial killer called The Butcher on the loose in Philadelphia and though the FBI doesn’t know their quarry’s name or what he looks like, they muster what looks like hundreds of agents, SWAT teams, and private security to bring him in. If the mystery man is just one guy among thousands of fans at a pop concert, well, so what? Arrest ‘em all and let the FBI profiler (Hayley Mills) sort ‘em out. It’s not giving much away to reveal that Trap’s deadly mystery man doubles Read more ...