A Small Mind At The Theatre

I was eight when the Challenger shuttle explosion occurred and more than old enough to remember it, but curiously I have very little memory of it at the time. I have no doubt that my staple then of Newsround covered it, and probably Blue Peter, but no real vivid memory from that very day. Fortunately, director of Defying Gravity, Megan Lucus does, and that love, memory and understanding of the event drives the engine at the heart of this production (and a dedication to allow a childhood toy to get quite a pummeling as well). All theatre productions need energy and time to be put into them, however, here even with just the visual element, it is clear that this show has had so much more time than most put into it. Defying Gravity by Jane Anderson takes six fictional characters, and one real one out of time, and takes us on a journey of what it was like to live through those 1986 events in Florida. Their account while fictional does include Teacher (Bex Fey), a very clear representati...

The Pillowman sounds such a friendly title, and to be fair, his story is one of the lighter aspects of Martin McDonagh's script. It still involves dead children though, if you want to get a clear vision of how dark this play is. Set in a police state of the future, Katurian (Toby Pugh) is taken in for the content of his often violent stories and a similarity to a spate of recent child killings. Here in detention cell 13, his police captors, Tupolski (Adrian Wyman) and Ariel (Steve While) play good cop, bad cop while holding over the threat of violence against Katurian's mentally disabled brother Michal (Patrick Morgan), being held in another cell. The Pillowman is clearly a very warped story, with the blackest of black comedy, and often also very offensive with it's racial stereotyping and disability. In fact, it is no surprise that a couple left in the interval, as I would happily admit that this play is far from everyone. I like a good black comedy though, and ...

I like Alan Ayckbourn, I may only have seen a few of his vast array of plays previously, but all have been a delight, often crazy yes, but constantly funny, and especially in the second act spiralling often into just on the very edge of believable nonsense. With Woman In Mind , acknowledged by many as one of his finest works, my own personal jury is very much out on whether I liked it or not. What was very good, mostly, however, were the performances, most especially the two that we are introduced to at the very beginning. The prostrate Susan (Nicola Osborne), with sinisterly lurking rake alongside her, and the bag struggling doctor, Bill (John Myhill). Nicola Osborne has the unenviable task in this play of never leaving the stage, a feat in itself. Add to this the constant weaving of the character's world (more on this later), and you have a role featuring some significant challenge, one that Osborne ably surmounts. I once described Osborne as a "safe pair of hands...