MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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A sickness at the heart of things
The B*easts has disquieting things to say about the sexualisation of young children, says MARY CONWAY
Cogent: Monica Dolan
[Alan Harris]
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
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
The B*easts
Bush Theatre, London
THAT fine actor Monica Dolan both writes and performs this shocking tale of our times in which a pre-pubescent child makes a disturbed yet purposeful bid for attention.
Lila, from an early age, has shown an increasingly insistent obsession with the female body and, in particular, with the power of female breasts. So much so that, aged eight, she demands of her defenceless mother breasts all of her own.
The result is a trip to Brazil for cosmetic surgery and the appearance of double D-cup Jordan-sized breasts on a child so young that all hell is unleashed. Mother Karen is arrested and charged with child abuse.
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