STEVE JOHNSON recommends a beautiful album of songs that celebrate summer, from May Day onwards
IN BIM Adewunmi’s Hoard, two twenty-something sisters of Nigerian descent invite their third and youngest sister for a meal at their smart east London flat. Chiefly, they want to run their eye over her new American boyfriend.
He makes a favourable impression and the sisters approve. But the unexpected arrival of their combative, larger-than-life mother Wura throws a major spanner in the works of the get-together.
Until now, the anxious siblings have kept the boyfriend secret from Wura and her tornado-like appearance proves to be the catalyst for a long suppressed argument — not just about her overweening influence but her increasingly eccentric and decidedly non-smart living arrangements, about which the daughters are habitually embarrassed in front of potential suitors.
SCOTT ALSWORTH searches for something – anything – worth recommending from the year’s releases
Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY
MATTHEW HAWKINS recommends three memorable performances from Scottish dance artists Barrowland Ballet, In the Fields Project, and Wendy Houston
GORDON PARSONS is disappointed by an unsubtle production of this comedy of upper middle class infidelity


