mental health
The Sunset Limited, Boulevard Theatre review - all talk, no theatreFriday, 24 January 2020
Cormac McCarthy’s two-hander, premiered at Chicago's mighty Steppenwolf Theatre in 2006, has by this point been everything short of an ice ballet: a self-described “novel in dramatic form”, as one might expect from the American author of such titles... Read more... |
You Stupid Darkness!, Southwark Playhouse review - an intriguing muddleTuesday, 21 January 2020
Armageddon would appear to be at the gates in Sam Steiner’s intriguing if ramshackle play, a co-production between Paines Plough and Theatre Royal, Plymouth, that has reached London while still seeming a draft or so away from achieving its full... Read more... |
Elizabeth Is Missing, BBC One review - a tender but tough-minded drama about ageing and lossMonday, 09 December 2019
In films, as in life, unreliable narrators are not hard to find. But there is something remarkable about the unreliable narrator of Elizabeth is Missing, BBC One’s newest feature-length drama. Its protagonist, Maud (Glenda Jackson), is unreliable in... Read more... |
The Party's Just Beginning review - a formidable debutSaturday, 30 November 2019
For an actor, there are few bigger risks than writing and directing your own film. Securing funding is pretty easy if you’re a household name, like Karen Gillan is, but that doesn’t mean your script is any good or your vision holds water. At their... Read more... |
Dear Evan Hansen, Noël Coward Theatre review - this social outcast will steal your heartWednesday, 20 November 2019
Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen is an institution in the States, running on Broadway since 2016 and currently on its second year of a national tour. It also made a star... Read more... |
Joker review – a phenomenal Joaquin Phoenix on the mean streets of GothamThursday, 03 October 2019
When Joker won the Golden Lion in Venice in September, it was an unprecedented achievement, the first time a comic book-related film had won such a prestigious prize. But then, isn’t your typical comic book film. Starring a phenomenal... Read more... |
Phoenix review - Norwegian family tragedy with an autobiographical slantSaturday, 14 September 2019
“You’re so meticulous,” says Astrid (Maria Bonnevie) to her teenage daughter Jill (impressive newcomer Yvla Bjørkaas Thedin) as they create a batik artwork together at the kitchen table. Little son Bo (Casper Falck-Løvås) looks on as he munches a... Read more... |
Preludes, Southwark Playhouse review - journeying into the mind of RachmaninoffThursday, 12 September 2019
Where does music come from? That’s the vital question posed to Sergei Rachmaninoff in Dave Malloy’s extraordinary 2015 chamber work, as the great late-Romantic Russian composer – stuck in his third year of harrowing writer’s block – tries to... Read more... |
Suicidal: In Our Own Words, Channel 5 review - why are so many men killing themselves?Wednesday, 11 September 2019
September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day, and Channel 5 marked the occasion with this sobering documentary. Focusing on male suicide – incredibly, now the UK’s biggest killer of men under 45 – it studied six patients at the Riverside Mental... Read more... |
Fleabag, Wyndham's Theatre review - superb swansong for modern classicThursday, 29 August 2019
We're saying goodbye to a much treasured friend. Fleabag will live on, of course – other actresses have and will inhabit the role – but Phoebe Waller-Bridge, its creator, has said this short run at Wyndham's Theatre is the last time she will perform... Read more... |
Thunder Road review - potent and poignant debut featureThursday, 30 May 2019
This is a painful and poignant study of character-disintegration, and a triumph for its writer, director and star Jim Cummings. He plays small-town police officer Jim Arnaud, a man trying to do his best while a rising sea of troubles threatens to... Read more... |
Alastair Campbell: Depression and Me, BBC Two review - is there an alternative to a life on anti-depressants?Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Persistent depression is debilitating and terrifying, as Alastair Campbell illustrated vividly in this punchily-argued film. We first saw him looking like a disturbed, miserable ghost, as he described in his video diary a sudden plunge into... Read more... |
