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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 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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In a Little World of Our Own Interviews Print Media Stand and Deliver

Theatre: In a World of Whose Own?

On March 3, 1998May 8, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

She is an actress with a chameleon-like ability to swap accents, he is a writer whose work is anchored in his native Belfast. Together, they are on stage at the Donmar

by Jasper Rees | March 3, 1998 | The Independent

ACTORS fall into two broad categories: those who play themselves and those who play other people. One type gets recognised in the street rather more than the other. Last year, while Lynda La Plante’s Trial and Retribution was being screened, Helen McCrory found herself dragged into a pub debate about the moral issues thrown up by the series. “I assumed arrogantly that this conversation had been sparked off by the fact that they knew who I was. They asked me my opinion and I realised after about 10 minutes they had no idea.”

You can see why. McCrory is currently at the Donmar in In a Little World of Our Own, a new play by Gary Mitchell in which she puts on an Ulster accent to play a born-again Christian in the heart of Protestant Belfast. In Stand and Deliver, a BBC film by Les Blair, she plays a feckless English photographer in Glasgow. In The James Gang, a road movie directed by Mike Barker, she’s a Scot who fetches up in Wales. The Donmar play opens the theatre’s annual “Four Corners” season: it sounds as if McCrory could play all four corners herself.