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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Biting Brecht revival from Graeae
The Threepenny Opera — Birmingham Repertory Theatre, reviewed by GORDON PARSONS
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
Faced with a ragged, blood-red front-of-house curtain and the auditorium walls festooned with banners proclaiming such contemporary messages as “Keep your filthy tax out of my bedroom” and
“Hi-ho, back on the dole” the audience know immediately that this is no chocolate-box revival of Bertolt Brecht’s scabrously seductive 1928 triumph.
The pioneering Graeae theatre company, with their characteristic integration of disabled actors into productions incorporating sign language and audio description, bring a sharp edge of reality to this spoof portrayal of the jolly life of criminal folk. As they do so, they mirror the manners and morals of the “respectable” Establishment.
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GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring
MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class
PETER MASON applauds a stage version of Le Carre’s novel that questions what ordinary people have to gain from high-level governmental spying
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship