MARIA DUARTE and MICHAL BONCZA review Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day, Familiar Touch, Nino, and Toy Story 5
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Victims of circumstance
DH Lawrence's The Daughter-in-Law tellingly demonstrates how societal conflict impacts on intimate relationships, says RUBY FISCHER
Harry Hepple as Luther Gascoyne
[Idil Sukan]
MATTHEW HAWKINS explores the initiatives proposed by HEALING ARTS SCOTLAND
ALEX HALL welcomes an analysis of how modern capitalism is deeply intertwined with emotions, and their manipulation
MARTIN GRAHAM welcomes a statistical analysis of how much tax the super-rich pay, and foresees that the demand will flush out their agents
RICHARD WORTH relishes the fleeting moment and sense of flow of the late, great saxophonist
DENNIS BROE notes the thin, unfunny and apolitical quality of the gruel dished up by the US networks and studios for mass consumption
BARBARA BOSWELL remembers South African poet, storyteller, publisher, editor and activist Diana Ferrus (1953-2026)
The Daughter-in-Law
Arcola Theatre, London
THIS is a vivid revival of DH Lawrence's tale of working-class grit and deprivation, unstaged until well after his death.
It had to wait until 1967 for its premiere, but it has aged gracefully with its themes of class, sex, liberty and bondage still ringing true more than a century after it was written. It's set amid the simmering tensions of the 1912 national coal strike, which inevitably boil over in the Gascoigne home when Mrs Purdy (Tessa Bell-Briggs) arrives, bearing news of a scandal.
The action begins at the family table, where the conversation between Mrs Gascoigne (Veronica Roberts) and her youngest son Joe (the delightfully crisp Matthew Biddulph) reveals that they are both a product of their circumstance.
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