Category: Theatre

When Till the Stars Come Down began, we wondered whether now was really the right time for this show to be staged. Set during a family wedding in the former mining heartland of Mansfield, it initially seemed to focus on Eastern European immigration, specifically the number of Polish people who had moved to the town to seek work in its factories. This seemed to be a hot topic of political debate in the run up to the EU referendum, but the conversation seems to have moved on a bit since…

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Infinite Life is a slight, subtle play – at just over 100 minutes straight through (no interval) it breezes by with seemingly not much happening. The play is set across about 10 days: during this time we meet five women who are recuperating at a somewhat dubious health spa in California (no treatments are offered beyond relaxation, accompanied by either a water cleanse or a juice cleanse). We learn a bit about their various ailments, alongside their backgrounds and interests. Not much else really happens, although a male character appears…

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For those unfamiliar with The House of Bernarda Alba, it was written by queer Spanish playwright Federico Garcia Lorca against the backdrop of the Spanish civil war. It is considered part of his ‘rural trilogy’, alongside Blood Wedding and Yerma, detailing small town life in Spain during the 1930s. This adaptation, by Alice Birch, arrives at the National Theatre with some fanfare, boasting a stellar cast and creative team. Rebecca Frecknall (who directs London’s current production of Cabaret, and also directed this year’s celebrated production of A Streetcar Named Desire)…

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