GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
IN BIM Adewunmi’s Hoard, two twenty-something sisters of Nigerian descent invite their third and youngest sister for a meal at their smart east London flat. Chiefly, they want to run their eye over her new American boyfriend.
He makes a favourable impression and the sisters approve. But the unexpected arrival of their combative, larger-than-life mother Wura throws a major spanner in the works of the get-together.
Until now, the anxious siblings have kept the boyfriend secret from Wura and her tornado-like appearance proves to be the catalyst for a long suppressed argument — not just about her overweening influence but her increasingly eccentric and decidedly non-smart living arrangements, about which the daughters are habitually embarrassed in front of potential suitors.
GORDON PARSONS is disappointed by an unsubtle production of this comedy of upper middle class infidelity
SIMON PARSONS is taken by a thought provoking and intelligent play performed with great sensitivity
Calls have been made for the return to Venezuela of a two-year-old girl currently being held in the US, after being separated from her family by immigration officials, reports SUSAN GREY
MARY CONWAY applauds the study of a dysfunctional family set in an Ireland that could be anywhere



