theatre

Circle of Fifths (National Theatre of Wales)

“I go on a bright journey when I play music. If I’m in a dark place, I’m not in that dark place no more.”

Many of us have been in a dark place in the past couple of years. Missing the usual rituals that mark a death makes it harder to grieve fully. Circle of Fifths is less a conventional theatre production and more a cathartic space to honour the dead and acknowledge our loss. The crowd gather, in the Butetown tradition, by a brightly decorated coffin. The celebration begins.

Winners (Sherman Theatre)

What happens when the thing that brought you together has started pushing you apart? Troubled couple Cassie and Dafydd really need to talk about rugby: why he feels his career is over and she thinks he’s barely getting started. Or, to put it another way, why his priorities in life have started wildly diverging from hers. No wonder he’d rather talk about skirting boards and loft conversions.

A Tomb With A View (Llanover Hall)

A collection of eccentrics are gathered in a remote country house for a will reading. Heavy fog descends outside, but it’s the inside of Monument House that’s really dangerous. Will the squabbling over money turn into a more deadly game? Where are the hidden millions? And what is that noise coming from the cellar?

48 hours to save a life

Kate Griffin reviews Measure for Measure, performed by Creation Theatre Company this spring at the North Wall Arts Centre.

Hypocrisy, lies, secrets and blackmail. No, I'm not talking about Eastenders; I'm talking about one of Shakespeare's most difficult plays. Measure for Measure, performed by Creation Theatre Company this spring, is a story where family loyalties are torn apart by impossible choices.

The Railway Children at Oxford Playhouse

E Nesbit's The Railway Children is one of the most enduring pieces of children's literature. This tale of three uprooted children joins Gulliver’s Travels and The Tale of Peter Rabbit on the shelf of children’s classics., and has been in print for nearly a hundred years.

A Noel Coward moment

Oxford drama has been having something of a Noel Coward moment. It began with the MyPetDragon production of Still Life at the Burton Taylor, which ended a five-day run on Saturday November 13.  Still Life is better known in its film incarnation as Brief Encounter, and retreading the material after such a classic adaptation is never easy, but this production made excellent work of it.