John Goodman (Don), Tom Sturridge (Bob) and Damian Lewis (Teach) in American Buffalo at Wyndham's Theatre. Photograph by Johan Persson David Mamet has apparently reversed many of the political and social views he held when American Buffalo was first staged in 1975, and now supports free market economics and Hayek – which just shows, I suppose, that you can take the boy out of … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2015
How Rupert Brooke’s War Ended 100 Years Ago
This week was the centenary of the death of Rupert Brooke (1887-1915), as well as of the failed Gallipoli campaign of the First World War. The illustrious war poet was a bogus posthumous hero, and in life a neurotic, guilt-ridden bisexual, and social climber; but he charmed everyone with his magnetic personality and electric presence. King’s College Cambridge marked the … [Read more...]
Together Dancing Cheek to Cheek
Nobody seems to have noticed that the most important member of the production team in a pair of new plays on the London stage is the choreographer. Cheek by Jowl’s Measure for Measure and the Almeida’s Carmen Disruption by Simon Stephens (playwright of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) are both balletic, and both require those on the stage to move in precise, … [Read more...]