clare-brennan

Do I Love You? review – laughter and pain in John Godber’s northern soul comedy

Three struggling twentysomethings find solace in dance in the writer-director’s well performed if not quite satisfying new work

Clare Brennan

12, Nov, 2023 @11:30 AM

Cowbois review – playing with expectations in the wild west

Gender identity comes to town in writer-co-director Charlie Josephine’s atmospheric but slow-going tale of a disruptive stranger

Clare Brennan

29, Oct, 2023 @11:30 AM

Flip! review – a Faustian fable for the age of social media

In Racheal Ofori’s bright new play, Leah St Luce and Jadesola Odunjo delight as wannabe influencers whose friendship is tested by the temptations of fame and fortune

Clare Brennan

22, Oct, 2023 @10:30 AM

Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder! review – podcast sleuths are cracking fun

The hit Edinburgh fringe musical about two friends on the trail of a killer has been awkwardly expanded but is still a delight

Clare Brennan

15, Oct, 2023 @10:30 AM

The Real & Imagined History of the Elephant Man – a tale for the age of sameness

Nottingham Playhouse
This ‘theatre poem’ by the Australian dramatist Tom Wright lacks drama under Stephen Bailey’s direction

Clare Brennan

08, Oct, 2023 @10:30 AM

Group Portrait in a Summer Landscape review – Chekhovian take on the Scottish referendum

An impressive ensemble makes the most of Peter Arnott’s new country house play, set during Scotland’s 2014 independence vote

Clare Brennan

01, Oct, 2023 @10:30 AM

Every Brilliant Thing review – reasons to be cheerful

The audience takes on a supporting role to Andrew Turner’s solo turn in this moving paean to what makes life worth living

Clare Brennan

24, Sep, 2023 @10:30 AM

Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning review – Hammer horror meets Victorian melodrama

Strong performances are the lifeblood of Morna Pearson’s new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic tale for the National Theatre of Scotland and Aberdeen Performing Arts

Clare Brennan

17, Sep, 2023 @10:30 AM

DruidO’Casey review – Seán O’Casey’s Dublin trilogy in a day is a revelation

O’Casey’s three plays of working-class Dublin life encompass conflict, grief and the human spirit in Garry Hynes’s fine production

Clare Brennan

30, Jul, 2023 @10:30 AM

In Dreams review – Roy Orbison jukebox musical is smart and sweet

The songs of the big O are used in crafty ways in David West Read’s moving, celebratory story about getting a band back together

Clare Brennan

16, Jul, 2023 @10:30 AM

Chester Mystery Plays review – up close and personal with God and Lucifer

Humour, pathos and moments of horror hit home in these centuries-old plays, presented by a superbly directed community cast of hundreds

Clare Brennan

09, Jul, 2023 @10:30 AM

Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles? review – moving account of a Black female playwright in 60s London

Rakie Ayola excels as Adrienne Kennedy, whose John Lennon play was taken up by Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre while she was sidelined, in this crystal-clear production of her autobiographical tale

Clare Brennan

02, Jul, 2023 @10:30 AM