GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
Lava, Bush Theatre London
Impassioned exposé of pain and anger wreaked by racism and prejudice
MAGNIFICENT: Ronke Adekoluejo
[Helen Murray]
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
MORE of a poetic discourse than a play, Ronke Adekoluejo’s monologue, written by Benedict Lombe, follows a young woman’s often happy but sometimes fraught journey from her birthplace in the Congo to South Africa, Ireland and then England.
Lava begins as an entertaining tale with a generous helping of humour. Yet its end is visceral in its challenging conclusions.
The first half is loosely framed around Adekoluejo’s quest to gain a British passport. But when that theme draws to a somewhat tame, if amusing, conclusion the way is paved for a more intense and deliberately disjointed second half.
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MARY CONWAY relishes two matchless performers and a masterclass in tightly focused wordplay
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ALEX HALL recommends a book that places empirical evidence at the heart of understanding racism