PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production
Linda
Royal Court Theatre
London SW1
4/5
PENELOPE SKINNER’S new play Linda is wonderful. An incisive drama, it charts the manipulation of women through the crisis that the eponymous protagonist undergoes following the rejection of her ambitious marketing campaign for a beauty product aimed at the over-50s, which is very like the current Dove one on TV.
Compounding matters, her husband has an affair — he wants to feel like a “rock star” — her oldest daughter is dealing with revenge porn and her younger colleague Amy is doing everything she can to undermine Linda’s professional and personal life.
ANGUS REID applauds the potential of an ambitious show about Gaza, and encourages it to keep its nerve
MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
LYNNE WALSH reports from the Women’s Declaration International conference on feminist struggles from Britain to the Far East


