‘Refreshing but unfathomable’ Two years ago, in this very theatre, I reviewed Carey Crim’s weighty drama, Never Not Once, about the spiralling after effects of rape. Now her new piece, 23.5 Hours, takes a different angle on the subject of sexual misconduct. Crim builds us a happy, all-American, 21st-century family. Carla Goodman’s middle-class living room-cum-diner houses enigmatic teacher Tom (David ...
‘The murky world of make-believe’ True crime meets kitchen sink and oh-so-Hollywood in The Marilyn Conspiracy at the Park Theatre. Writer and originator Vicki McKellar and director Guy Masterson have teamed up for a ghoulish imagination exercise around the death of peroxide blonde legend Marilyn Monroe. The date is 1962 and Monroe is reeling from a flop with The Misfits, a legal dispute ...
‘Entertaining and eye-opening’ Did you know that the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) has an erotic section of poems supposedly written by King Solomon? Maybe you did, you clever thing, but I certainly didn’t. The production giving life to this holy book, A Song of Songs, is making its UK premiere at the Park Theatre – educating, entertaining, and opening eyes as it ...
‘Larger group scenes slip into a forced sense of the importance’ American playwright Carey Crim’s gutsy emotional drama takes its first faltering steps in the UK. The play attempts to weave various issues surrounding consent and family into an overarching narrative but gets itself twisted in the process. We are ushered into the domestically blissful world of Alison played by ...
‘Jump scares, bubbling dread, and historical intrigue aplenty’ Beating rain, driving wind, the sense of building unease, and I’m not talking about the shocking excuse for summer that we’ve had in the city this year. No! I am talking about the isolated Channel Islands, the setting for When Darkness Falls – a ghostly evening of bad weather and gifted storytelling. We are ...
‘A touching if predictable look at small-town life’ A mixed bag can be both a blessing and a curse, filled with delights (lemon sherberts, for example) and disappointments (liquorice allsorts). James McDermott’s new play, Time and Tide, running at the Park Theatre, is a selection box. The show follows a small, struggling Norfolk community and is set completely in May’s cafe ...