ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart
As You Like It
Regents Park Open Air Theatre, London
THE SHAME of this wonderful show is that it’s only scheduled until July 28. Joyful, playful and delightfully funny in all the right places, it deserves far greater exposure than just a three-week run.
There are fabulous performances everywhere you look, with a new-age, dreadlocked Maureen Beattie taking full advantage of her role as the wise, curmudgeonly Jaques and Danny Kirrane and Amy Booth-Steel playing the overwrought lovers Touchstone and Audrey to great comic effect.
Edward Hogg is excellent as an irretrievably lovelorn, idealistic Orlando and Me’sha Bryan is an alluring, sweet-voiced focal point for the musical interludes, well directed and arranged by Phil Bateman.
RUTH AYLETT reviews two collections of outright political poetry
MARY CONWAY is blown away by a flawless production of Lynn Nottage’s exquisite tragedy
WILL STONE applauds a fine production that endures because its ever-relevant portrait of persecution
In this production of David Mamet’s play, MARY CONWAY misses the essence of cruelty that is at the heart of the American deal



