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JOE GILL speaks to the Palestinian students in Gaza whose testimony is collected in a remarkable anthology
Continued present importance
Oscar Wildes period piece transcends its Victorian setting and has an acute contemporary message on class and sex divides, says PETER MASON
MARY CONWAY delights in a rarely performed comedy that recalls a Britain we remember in our bones
JEAN ROBERTS appreciates the way traditional panto can be remodelled into critique of the academy schools system
MARY CONWAY is riveted by a superbly crafted glimpse into the soul of a cast-off US star
MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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
A Woman of No Importance
Vaudeville Theatre, London
THIS entertaining Oscar Wilde play has been performed only once on the London stage in the past 20 years. A shame, as it’s almost as relevant in these times of social division as it was when written in 1892.
With its consideration of the status of women and its coruscating condemnation of the class system, the play was radical for its era but, partly for fear of alienating Victorian audiences, the original was amended by Wilde to reduce the amount of social commentary it contained.
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PAUL DONOVAN applauds a timely play that explores the resonances of McCarthyite nationalism in today’s US
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
MARY CONWAY applauds a study of comedians in whose cheap prejudice the tenets of the emerging political right are crystal clear