MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds Rosamund Pike’s punchy and tragic portrayal of a multi-tasking mother and high court judge
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Instructive lessons in Class
SIMON PARSONS recommends an evocative snapshot of an education system struggling to cope with deprivation
Excellent: Stephen Jones, Sarah Morris and Will O’Connell
[Helen Murray] 
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MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
Class
Bush Theatre, London
EXPLORING the interchanging relationships between two estranged working-class parents and their son’s well-intentioned teacher in a run-down Irish primary school, this carefully constructed three-hander — first seen at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre — is notable for some outstanding performances.
Stephen Jones masterfully portrays weekend dad Brian, dealing with a well of pent-up anger at his life. Forced back into the school to face the truth about his son’s educational problems, childhood resentment of authority soon resurfaces, while Sarah Morris gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as as his poorly educated wife Donna.
Reverting to childhood subservience on returning to the school she used to attend, and in the face of her outspoken husband, she gradually comes into her own when forced to make a stand.
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