The world has gone crazy. How often did you hear those words or similar utterances during COVID-19? It is May 2020 and the preposterous meets the absurd in the dark Western comedy Eddington, as conspiracy theories abound. The starting point is decidedly opposing views from the sheriff of seven years in a small town in…
Can you truly escape your past? That is the question at the heart of When Fall is Coming. Retired grandmother Michelle Giraud (Helen Vincent) used to live in an apartment in Paris, but now enjoys a quiet life in a picturesque French village. There, she tends to her overgrown garden and has a close friendship…
A murderous plan, oh most foul. That is at the heart of Dial M for Murder, written by Frederick Knott in 1952 and popularised by Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful movie two years later. TV crime writer Max Halliday (Leon Walshe) visits Margot Wendice (Bridget Bourke) in her London apartment a year after the pair had a…
If you ever want evidence that sex sells, go and see Miss Julie. It is all about manipulation, class, power and control, which is just as delicious as it sounds. That is the currency in a modern retelling of Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s 1888 play. Set in the pressure cooker environment of the kitchen of…
Freedom of choice. We have it. But that doesn’t mean it comes without judgement. I am speaking about the decision to have a child or not. Is it selfish to want the independence to do as we please without the encumbrance of being stopped in our tracks by nappies and school runs and so forth?…
A man mistreats a woman in a relationship – emotionally or physically, or both. The warning signs are there, so why doesn’t the woman leave? Why doesn’t she get out at the first sign of a red flag? If only, it was that simple. Truth be told, expressing regret, saying they will be better, that…
A blood feud that can only end badly, this has been adapted from the 1933 tragedy by Spanish dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca. Two families are at loggerheads. They have been for generations. I draw a parallel to the antipathy between the Montagues and the Capulets in Romeo and Juliet. Extend that to the conflict between…
It is bold, esoteric and highly creative. Set in isolated territory, it is Wild West storytelling at its finest. It is tale within a tale of a feeling that overtakes one that can’t be readily explained, but needs to be acted upon. Let me try to give you some context. A trucker in the middle…
Take a real-life story and drop into it an actor, entertainment personality or media figure and ask them to play along without any rehearsal (in other words, a cold read). That is the conceit at the heart of Echo, written by the most performed playwright in Iranian theatre, Nassim Soleimanpour (White Rabbit, Red Rabbit and…
Start with the facts and lace it with fiction. That is what screenwriter Nathalie Leuthreau and director Guillaume Nicloux have done with French stage star Sarah Bernhardt (22nd October, 1844 – 26th March, 1923). She became a global sensation. Bernhardt was spirited, determined, heavily opinionated and charismatic. Lovers of both sexes and admirers were plentiful….
