GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
Misalliance
Orange Tree, Richmond-upon-Thames
THERE'S spice, stodge and some quite juicy mouthfuls in this revival of George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance but the fusion cooking is no ensemble concoction, despite some cracking performances.
Shaw is never sickly sweet and his play is a discussion, and dissection, of some of the key social issues of his day. There’s class conflict, with the nouveau riche’s one-upmanship over the aristocracy and a treatise on the fickle nature of marriage.
MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class
Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY
MARY CONWAY recommends a play that some will find more discursive than eventful but one in which the characters glow
MARY CONWAY relishes two matchless performers and a masterclass in tightly focused wordplay



