STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
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Hope springs eternal in affecting drama of small-town lives
Out of the ordinary: Amelia Bullmore (marty) and Anthony Ofoegbu (James)
[Marc Brenner]
TOM STONE urges you to catch the last dates of a New York singer/songwriter, never afraid to challenge her audiences musically or politically
JAN WOOLF examines work that aims to give viewers a material experience of the environments in the polar north and Britain equally affected by the climate crisis
The bard recalls advice received 50 years ago from his TRB muse, and sorts out appropriate legislation for football club ownership
MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Facing War, Kontinental ’25, Bugonia, and Relay
MAYER WAKEFIELD is frustrated by a production of Ibsen’s classic study of an anti-heroine that fails to elucidate her motivations
PETER MASON tunes his ear into the domestic affairs of a Carribbean couple with a troublesome son
Circle Mirror Transformation
HOME, Manchester
ONCE a week for six weeks, five lonely people turn up at the local community hall in a small town in Vermont for drama classes and, over time, the workshops become more therapeutic as each of the characters begins to reveal their past, grapple with their present and work towards a new beginning to their lives.
I can hear the groans rising on a tide of despair at that synopsis, but they would be misplaced. This is a beautifully crafted play that appears to have slipped effortlessly from the pen of the great US playwright Annie Baker.
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