MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
Some mothers won’t leave ‘em
MARY CONWAY marvels at the totally engrossing revival of a little-known classic that speaks volumes to interpersonal relationships today
RAW POSSESSIVENESS: Jemma Carlton, Dario Coates and Sophie Ward in Sidney Howard’s The Silver Cord
[Carla Joy Evans] 
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
The Silver Cord
Finborough Theatre, London
ARTISTIC director Neil McPherson proves his weight in gold, again, as he pursues his mission to bring forgotten gems back to the London stage.
The Silver Cord by US writer Sidney Howard is one such find. Last seen in the West End in 1927-28, it’s been gathering dust for a century as new fads and fashions grip the theatre world.
But it’s a worthy revival. For, though set in a traditional New England home in a long-gone era, it skewers our hearts now with its unswervingly profound central theme: that of the umbilical bond between mother and son.
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MARY CONWAY applauds the revival of a tense, and extremely funny, study of men, money and playing cards
MAYER WAKEFIELD is chilled by the co-dependency of two lost souls as portrayed by German communist playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz
MARY CONWAY recommends a beautifully judged performance that shines a light on the experience of all female war babies and boomers
MARY CONWAY admires a vivid, compassionate portrait of a father and daughter pinioned in the criminal underclass