GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
Choosing to thrive not just survive
MAYER WAKEFIELD recommends a 1970s US theatre classic that has lost none of its relevance
KEEPING THE AUDIENCE HOOKED: The Company
[Manuel Harlan]
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
Jitney
Old Vic
AUGUST WILSON’S Jitney is unique within his American Century Cycle as the only one of the 10 plays to be written and performed in the same decade – the 1970s.
But as with most of them, it’s set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh where Wilson was raised, on this occasion in an unlicensed cab rank owned by Jim Becker (Wil Johnson) where all the action occurs.
It’s an office buzzing with activity as Wilson’s patchwork of nine personalities orbit in and out, taking on journeys in an area where official taxis refuse to go. Despite that, the city authorities want to “tear down the whole block” and replace it with new housing. They are given just a few weeks’ notice before they must close. It’s a now familiar tale which will resonate with many in modern Britain.
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