This deeply affecting ensemble production made me think about female prisoners in a significantly different light. After learning the characters’ stories, based as they are on real testimonies, I understood that the women’s eventual incarceration was as inevitable as it was beyond their control. Yet these women are very clearly presented not as victims but […]

At the very top of C Nova, up flights of increasingly dusty and ancient-looking stairs, is the tiny atmospheric room used for Sirenia, a piece designed for a maximum of sixteen audience members. Unlike Jethro Compton’s Bunker Trilogy, where the attic staging in C venues initially demanded some suspension of disbelief, here the set-up immerses […]

This tender and intimate production is devised by Olive Merrill and Emma Clarke and explores the world of a five year old child who is learning to write. My interest was piqued by the piece’s concept, inspired as it was by ‘company members’ background in education and experience of working with children who have incredible […]

This stunning solo piece fully captivated me right from the start. Originally performed in 1987 (with Tilda Swinton in the role), Manfred Karge’s gritty play is enlivened in a new translation by Alexandra Wood with the excellent Margaret Ann Bain as Ella. The pre-set introduced a stylish design: a sparse room with basic furniture (including […]

Dressed in nicely designed pyjamas, Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez amuse each other and the rest of us with their silly, semi-improvised spoof of Dumas’s novel. Using just two chairs as set, and accompanied on several instruments by a very talented musician, the plot provides some sense of a logical journey through the daftness, with […]