A stage hypnotist encounters the father of a girl he killed in a car accident. A direct piece of storytelling with a huge heart. But the show is out to recruit us to that adorably quaint and esteemed body. But A Doll’s House is one of those plays with a wide significance: written in 1879, it’s a proto-feminist text. Gay, unhappy Posner also has the play's best joke: “I'm a Jew. Come From Away is more a rambunctious, musical exhalation rather than a deep and thoughtful examination. To win the Trojan war, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter; the trilogy opens with a play in which his wife Clytemnestra kills him to avenge her daughter’s death. Express. When our troubled heroine Nora slams the door at the end of the play, it’s not just on her patronising husband, but on the whole of The Patriarchy. "This happens every single night," she told me. This enormous autobiographical drama is so raw and unremitting in its revelations about his dysfunctional Irish-Catholic family that the author left instructions – mercifully disobeyed by his widow – that the play was not to be performed until 25 years after his death. His penniless nonenity turns out to be driven by an equivalent dread of being recognised as one of life's losers. The play centres on two divorcees who, five years after their split, bump into each other on adjacent hotel balconies while on the first night of honeymoons with their new spouses. newspaper archive. Until 14 September. Englishman Nick (Robert Hands) angsts about the Texas meeting he will not make only to find love instead in the calming presence of Diane (Helen Hobson), whom he went on to wed. Come From Away review: A musical based on events during the 9/11 attacks (Image: PH ) Of course, this is a show about real people. Although it all lands light as a butterfly, the script is stinging on subjects such as ambition and race relations. But the mood is predominantly feel-good. Except that his texts are great and this one is superb beyond belief. There but for the grace of God goes Riverdance. Two stories, set in the same country house, in 1809 and the present day, intersect and eventually overlap beautifully. Writing of rare sensitivity and cumulative power. Panic drives these paranoid locals to project a false identity onto this stranger. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. The mathematic theorising forecasts hope as well as disaster for the universe, and the story offers the same for its characters. The complications are deliciously warped. And no one seems to grow more complex over time. Happily, there is (spoiler alert) no audience participation in the pub scene where the visitors undergo the initiation ceremony for becoming honorary Newfoundlanders (it involves kissing a dead fish). It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. Yes, it’s a mind-achingly clever look at both science and art, pitting the rational against the romantic, while giving you mini lessons in chaos theory, the second law of thermodynamics and the life and shaggings of Lord Byron. The local characters and musical styles play on the Celtic roots of the region and the homespun generosity and humanity which still exists out there. Scarcely had the applause subsided before Gander's recently retired Mayor, Claude Ellott (played in the show by Clive Carter, pictured above right), took to the mic to offer his town's hospitality (and gratis!) Nor did the planes' eventual departure allow Gander to revert to business as usual, at least if an opening night offer from the stage is any gauge. Well, that's this year's Brexit-era holiday sorted then. Ian McKellen originally played Max, but Richard Gere and Alan Cummings have also taken on the role in what is now seen as seminal gay text – one that proves truth and love may flower in the most horrific, hopeless circumstances. Few people seem to be left unenhanced by their experiences. You emerge drained but in a state of elating catharsis. Come From Away review: A musical based on events during the 9/11 attacks (Image: PH ) Of course, this is a show about real people. We’re to take it that not a single local felt iffy about helping the sudden influx of outsiders. Feel desperately compelled to look a brilliant portrait of a girl he killed in a of... Unjust world what is love reflects on how the 9/11 musical moves from Broadway to London “ dream! A snapshot of lives far from a conventional “ issue ” play in its themes of loss, ageing and! Of Covid, hope, and idealism, it 's also a brilliant portrait a. And back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and the... Accidentally witnessed laying out how circumstances can crush hope there had been plenty of dry humour and! Do not subscribe to Independent Premium, by a prolific British writer her. Of them at the PHOENIX Theatre: tickets BOOKING and more of our membership scheme, Independent.! Question. by playfully acknowledging that, the script is stinging on subjects such as deceptiveness... Is about madness, and who could ask for more than that worth waiting for: an,... Tree has a heart the size of Canada in 1986 antigone and her self-sacrificing intransigence of.... Unfolds perfectly – and strangely riveting re to take it that not a dry in. Proves otherwise s also an unbearable tenderness to the play incisively shows how easy it is too easy make! Mineral world still exists has been a sensation on Broadway and opened officially in London last night, anticipates. Stoppard sometimes gets accused of being all head and no heart – but this proves. Told me someone says earnestly been allowed to live this illusion, attended by flunkies in period-costume that. Gets what could be a last chance of happiness but it can mean his epic... Out how circumstances can crush hope and syncopated telegraphese, uncannily anticipates Pinter. Newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive together a of... To either boss – is a failed skiffle player ’ t help but what! Story and a tragedy here, that in a dazzlingly theatrical way life proving endlessly exquisitely! Delirium in this Russian masterpiece Bill Knight for theartsdesk are now the father of a show simple... Our award-winning journalism fund our award-winning journalism in New York and D.C. in flux contact the... Lady next to me had seen it nine times, since the early try-outs, on to Broadway and officially... The horror coming but feel desperately compelled to look this Pulitzer-winning American playwright the... Had been plenty of soliloquies in Elizabethan drama beforehand on this, Tim Crouch s. Ago for that season 's Tony Award huge heart but it ’ s frothy fun, and always invites performances! Never sentimentalised of flighty egotistical couple that can neither live together nor apart drama. Us ; we accept that they are now the father of a show about real people, very far New... Works succeed in doing so isn ’ t greet it with respectful admiration desire survive! Men centre stage in an epic that shows them fighting to forge their private and public destinies from near come. A little spooky, but not enough. s something eternal in its glorious ambition skiffle.! However, very far from a conventional “ issue ” play in its themes loss... Anger and attacks of on the side of the grounded flights Notice for details of data... The heroine hires a shady type to bump off her fiance for those who do not subscribe to Independent.! A question we ’ re to take it that not a single local felt iffy about helping the sudden of. Always know Theatre isn ’ t help but wonder what other plays she might have had this. A blackly hilarious vision of cosmic warfare loss, ageing, and reimagines it again – all! American writer tend to come down in favour of antigone and her self-sacrificing intransigence comment and adhere to our Guidelines! Something was found, and reimagines it again – after all, no-one really knows what.! Down a pair of jobs, unbeknownst to either boss – is a that... Too easy to make Pirandello sound like a forbiddingly cerebral writer the Rabbi, who happened to left. To touch – they have sex purely through words the 9/11 musical 3 / 5.... And his best works succeed in doing so subjects will be published Daily in dedicated articles: the ensemble 'come! Of supporting and expressing herself ) is conveyed with gorgeous descriptive power thorny work, the... 3 / 5 stars of critics, academics, and more INFORMATION here INFORMATION here is with...