GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
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The Way Out, BBC iPlayer
Surreal theatrical adventure with moments of magic and mirth from Omid Djalili
GUIDE TO ENCHANTMENT: Omid Djalili
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
HENRY BELL is fascinated by the underlying curiosities and contradictions of one of the great poets of the Mediterranean
DAVID RENTON recommends a books that explores the ways in which disabled people are made to feel both of and not part of this world
IN THE WAY OUT, a young woman — the Outsider — takes refuge in the seemingly empty Battersea Arts Centre at night and meets a mysterious guide who offers them an alternative way out.
Omid Djalili is the guide through the enchantment of the arts centre as he leads the silent Outsider (Blaithin Mac Gabhann), whose sombre garb and expression suggests the need for enlightenment or, at least, invigoration.
Djalili, dressed in an impressario’s red hat and coat, walks her through the labyrinth of the art centre’s rooms and corridors, past peeling walls and bared pipes, its romantic glory a reminder of the fire that devastated the building just five years ago.
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