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
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Potent whiff of Scandal from Tobacco Factory
The School for Scandal
The Tobacco Factory, Bristol
5/5
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film
Full of mysterious religious references and radical sound design, the Scottish duo’s new offering is candidate for album of the year, suggests SIMON DUFF
MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king
TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN’S scintillating 1777 satire on the ocean of malicious gossip that apparently engulfed polite society of the time was unfairly described as two or three personal anecdotes “tacked together.”
But, as this production demonstrates, the theatrical triumph which is The School for Scandal is very much in the “tacking.”
Director Andrew Hilton’s Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory company, in a rare “escape” from the Bard, does not need to labour lines such as “In my day bankers knew their place” or, from a brilliantly modernised epilogue, “In Britain we breed scandal in our air.”
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