MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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SIMON PARSONS recommends a production in which experiences of war and life as an immigrant become horrifyingly contemporary
WARMTH AND VITALITY: Maureen Lipman as Rose
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ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
Rose
Park Theatre
London
MAUREEN LIPMAN is the perfect actress for Martin Sherman’s outstanding monologue. Her two-and-a-half-hour narrative is a powerfully captivating account of Rose, an 80-year old Jewish woman and her journey through some of the harrowing events of the 20th century.
Sat on a bench throughout the show, honouring the Jewish tradition of mourning for a close relative’s death (shivah), Rose’s personality, sense of humour and her remarkable life story engage the audience from the outset.
Her epic journey from a Russian Ukrainian village childhood to survival in the Warsaw ghetto, British rejection from Palestine and a financially successful if emotionally damaged married life in US with reflections on her troubled son’s life in an Israel that no longer recognises her relevance, has recurring echoes throughout.
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