Category Archives: Uncategorized

And so it is that time of year, the yearly round-up. I did a round up of new Welsh theatre for Nation Cymru which is here so to save duplication- and give space to the many brilliant things seen this year, here is the best of things from elsewhere. Divided arbitrarily into musicals and plays, andContinueContinue reading “2019 Theatre Round Up”

The genesis of Falsettos over 12 years as William Finn developed his original story In Trousers in1979, to create March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland in the early 1980s, before finally bringing them together as Falsettos (with James Lapine as book writer) in 1991. This impacts the work both in terms of Finn’s writing and the context in which it was being created, with oneContinueContinue reading “Falsettos: The Other Palace 5*”

Buzz Magazine gave ‘Don’t Send Flowers’ four stars read it here  

‘Love can tell a million stories’ or why Falsettos means so muchThis isn’t a review- that’ll come later. Some shows you have to put down on a page what they mean, or at least try and make sense of it. Falsettos is one of those.Falsettos is important because it’s both a record of history, and an honest, and open accountContinueContinue reading “A Tight Knit Family- why Falsettos matters still (and to me)”

  News! I’m excited to share that my play ‘Don’t Send Flowers’ is being produced by Clock Tower Theatre Company, and will be performed at The Gate in Cardiff in September.   Grace is in therapy because her Father is dying and she’s not handling it very well. John is in therapy because he’s dying,ContinueContinue reading “News: Don’t Send Flowers”

  In a longer more reflective post on this production for Howlround  I examine the questions of language and culture and the difficulties of interpretation.  “I felt that these lands were always wrapped around me like a mother, in the most difficult times of my life. And that they were healing me.” These words, spoken by Mel—oneContinueContinue reading “Language and Identity in the Welsh-Turkish Play Y Brain/Kargalar”

Writer Meltem Arikam was forced to flee Turkey after accusations against her and start a new life in Wales. While starting her new life, her husband unexpectedly died and she was left once again re-examining her place in the world, her sense of identity and where and how to belong. In Y Brain/Kargalar, she examinesContinueContinue reading “Review: Y Brain/Kargalar”

In life we are used to the intersection of personal and public events. But there’s an interesting kind of personal/public dynamic with the cultural events that come to mean something beyond themselves, because of the moment we encountered them. Nobody would look at Psycho for a tender exploration of love and loss, but for Chris Durnall the intersection of seeing thisContinueContinue reading “New Review: 12 Cabins 12 Vacancies”

Once more for those in the back Death of a Salesman was never a naturalistic drama. Once moreDeath of a Salesman was never a naturalistic drama. So, for all those admirable productions with a detailed period house set (with no disrespect to the Miller further down The Cut) and played beat for beat as aContinueContinue reading “Death of a Salesman- Young Vic”