Reviews Archives - Page 12 of 13

The Triumph of Love at the Almedia – Review

On September 3, 1999May 24, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Comic age of reason

by Michael Billington | September 3, 1999 | The Guardian

This is the third Marivaux play to hit London this year. Exactly like The Dispute and The Game Of Love And Chance, it takes a scientific look at sentiment. But what makes Marivaux such a brilliantly ambiguous writer, as James Macdonald’s revival shrewdly realises, is that he attacks the notion that you can treat people as guinea-pigs while analysing the human heart with merciless precision.

Written in 1732, the play is set in mythical Greece though the ambience is deeply French.The situation is also simple, even if the background is complex; both Martin Crimp’s otherwise impeccable translation and the production could do more to clarify the crucial exposition.

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How I Learned to Drive Reviews

How I Learned to Drive at the Donmar Warehouse – Review

On July 13, 1998May 14, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

The dark-haired, throaty-voiced Helen McCrory is giving the female performance of the year so far in Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive”

Those interested in tracing that thrilling moment when a promising young performer becomes a star should make tracks to the Donmar Warehouse, where the dark-haired, throaty-voiced Helen McCrory is giving the female performance of the year so far in Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive.” American visitors, of course, may feel they already know every backroad of Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, especially now that it looks to be produced throughout the United States. But there’s no way to prepare for the impact of McCrory’s fierce take on a character who is a survivor, yes, but at an enormous psychological price. Abetted by a production from the Donmar’s new associate director, John Crowley, that is every bit her equal, McCrory grabs the wheel of this sorrowful, shimmering play, and — as Li’l Bit herself might say — floors it.

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In a Little World of Our Own Print Media Reviews

In a Little World of Our Own at the Donmar Warehouse – Review

On March 3, 1998May 14, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

A Protestant Northern Ireland Family Drama

by David Benedict | March 3, 1998 | The Independent

When a hardman in a play tells another character to stop worrying because he’ll take care of it, you know he’s in for a nasty surprise. Even if you know nothing about it before taking your seat at Gary Mitchell’s In a little World of Our Own, it doesn’t take long to realise what’s afoot. It may come on like a Protestant Northern Ireland family drama but it quickly becomes clear that what we’re really watching is a whodunnit.

Ray (cold and threatening Stuart Graham) has a well-founded reputation for violence off-set by his fierce concern for his mentally retarded kid brother Richard. Gordon, the third brother, is engaged to devout Deborah and together they’re on the brink of buying a house in which they can look after Richard, whose crush on the 15-year-old daughter of Ray’s rival threatens to land everyone in trouble. Ray returns from taking Richard to a party to meet her, but their stories don’t match, suspicions are aroused,and cover-ups, threats and reprisals rear their ugly heads.

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Macbeth Print Media Reviews

Macbeth at Tricycle Theatre – Review

On October 31, 1995May 9, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

A Round Up of Reviews

by BBAShakespeare.co.uk | 1995

PRINCIPAL CAST: Tom Chadbon (Duncan); Ewen Cummins (Banquo); Lennie James (Macbeth); John Keegan (Macduff); Helen McCrory (Lady Macbeth).

This production ran from 20 October – 18 November 1995.

“Nicholas Kent’s production of a play that could hardly be better suited to the Tricycle’s intimate auditorium is pacy and racy but patchily acted….Christine Marfleet’s set of curved, beaten metal panels that gleam in the firelight suggest both the distant path but also some future state, and a canny use of percussion adds to the atmosphere….But too many of the actors are ill at ease with the verse. Not so Helen McCrory’s Lady Macbeth, whose performance is in a different league to the rest – passionate, focused and artfully spoken. A great classical career beckons.” ~ Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 1 November 1995

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Print Media Reviews Streetlife

Streetlife – Review

On September 4, 1995May 18, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Superbly nuanced performance from National Theatre actress Helen McCrory

by Derek Elley | September 4, 1995 | Variety

Tough, funny, moving and totally truthful, “Streetlife” is a sock slice-of-life low-budgeter from the Ken Loach school of working-class drama. Motored by superbly nuanced playing from National Theatre actress Helen McCrory, as a gutsy single mom forced to deal with an inconvenient pregnancy, this BBC Wales telepic deserves wide exposure at Brit-friendly festivals in addition to its small-screen airings. It’s among the best work Welsh-born Karl Francis has done.

Setting is the town of Pontypridd, in the no-nonsense Rhondda Valley region of southern Wales, where Jo (McCrory) works in an all-femme sweatshop ironing clothes. Her life is raw but good: She has a perpetually horny married lover, Kevin (Rhys Ifans), and a young daughter; is studying to improve herself; and has managed to move away from her slobby father (John Pierce Jones) into her own place on a state housing estate.

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