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 sense of over-indulgence
Misalliance is like a buffet whose rich variety leaves you feeling slightly queasy, says LYNNE WALSH
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
Misalliance
Orange Tree, Richmond-upon-Thames
THERE'S spice, stodge and some quite juicy mouthfuls in this revival of George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance but the fusion cooking is no ensemble concoction, despite some cracking performances.
Shaw is never sickly sweet and his play is a discussion, and dissection, of some of the key social issues of his day. There’s class conflict, with the nouveau riche’s one-upmanship over the aristocracy and a treatise on the fickle nature of marriage.
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