The Sound of Music
The Guardian 21 November 2024 Elizabeth Newman’s six-year tenure as Pitlochry’s artistic director has been characterised by a spirit of generosity and an urge to connect. As Mother Abbess says…
Anna/Anastasia
The Guardian 1 October 2024 Anastasia is attempting to look regal in her mother’s tiara and her father’s military medals. Beneath her tunic, however, she wears no trousers. The look…
To Save the Sea review
The Guardian 29 September 2024 This time last year, Just Stop Oil protestors interrupted a performance of Les Misérables. They reasoned a musical about rebellion was the right place to…
The Brenda Line review
The Guardian 23 August 2024 This entertaining debut by Harry Mould alights on a curious historical detail. As part of its commitment to listen to everyone without judgment, the Samaritans…
Chemo Savvy
The Guardian 19 August 2024 What a lovely thing to have done. When the great actor Andy Gray was being treated for leukaemia before his Covid-related death in 2020, his…
Precious Cargo
The Guardian 11 August 2024 The accents on the voiceovers say it all. We hear southern English, Australian, American and Hebridean. One thing links them: these are the grownup voices…
So Young
The Guardian 8 August 2024 Instead of Chekhov’s gun, we have Maxwell’s whisky. The bottle of Japanese spirits shows up early in Douglas Maxwell’s comedy of social awkwardness and at…
June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me
The Guardian 7 August 2024 The most powerful country songs are those written from the heart. In the words of Harlan Howard, it is about “three chords and the truth”.…
VL
The Guardian 6 August 2024 On the way out, I hear someone tell his friends he had been educated at Watson’s, the £17,000-a-year alma mater of Malcolm Rifkind and David…
A History of Paper
The Guardian 4 August 2024 When Oliver Emanuel was taken by brain cancer at 43, one friend observed that the playwright had “taught us how to die”. By all accounts,…