MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
Latest editorial
Refugee drama unwelcome in its ineptness
Stereotypes on stage: Welcome to the UK
[Jose Farinha]
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
Welcome to the UK
The Bunker Theatre, London
EXPECTATIONS were high for a new theatre piece focusing on the experiences of refugees and asylum-seekers, all too often victims to the vagaries of the Home Office and, at the centre of Welcome to the UK, is a great deal of heart.
The PSYCHEdelight company was set up by writer, director and psychotherapist Sophie NL Besse, who has delivered drama sessions in the Calais Jungle and their first show Borderline drew on real stories from people stuck there in the freezing cold, mud and fear.
And it drew in some real people too — Besse’s company includes refugees and this time round she has worked with the Women for Refugee Women drama group.
Similar stories
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by characters so un-nuanced as to be unreal, a stereotypical plot and a conceptual vampire
MARY CONWAY applauds the dramatic reconstruction of one woman’s experience in one precise location in Gaza in the present era
MARY CONWAY applauds a study of comedians in whose cheap prejudice the tenets of the emerging political right are crystal clear
MARY CONWAY applauds a brilliant theatrical adaptation of Sam Selvon’s classic 1950s novel of oppression, betrayal and resilience