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
JONATHAN TAYLOR is fascinated by the philosophical problems that permeate the art of life-writing
GORDON PARSONS steps warily in between the lines of Britain’s most famous diarist
SIMON DUFF recommends a recording of Arvo Part that takes the listener on a pilgrimage through seemingly distant times and events of the Bible
A Monster Calls
Old Vic, London
PATRICK NESS’S award-winning children’s novel about 13-year-old Conor, who comes to terms with his mother’s terminal cancer through the creation of a fantasy monster, is powerfully emotive material. Following in the wake of a visually spectacular 2016 film, any theatre adaptation is faced with a challenge and it's one that this production certainly meets.
MARY CONWAY applauds the study of a dysfunctional family set in an Ireland that could be anywhere
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
