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All stories by Arifa Akbar on BroadwayStars

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Monday, July 16, 2018

Alkaline review – faith, fear and fury in edgy dinner-party drama by Arifa Akbar

Park theatre, LondonStephanie Martin’s drama – part comedy of manners and part state-of-the-nation play – is one killer scene short of greatnessAlkaline takes the well-worn drama of th…

Linked From The Guardian at 03:36PM

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Hive City Legacy review – a political twerk of art from femmes of colour by Arifa Akbar

Roundhouse, LondonThe Hot Brown Honey collective join forces with nine young performers to explore prejudice in a blast of hip-hop and burlesqueLast year, the Roundhouse put out an open call…

Linked From The Guardian at 12:32PM

Monday, July 9, 2018

Timber review – all the wood's a stage for spectacular forest festival by Arifa Akbar

Feanedock, National ForestA new arts extravaganza offers campfire stories, breathtaking theatre, laughing yoga and lessons on how to think like a treeStand on a hillock in Feanedock and you …

Linked From The Guardian at 11:04AM

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Spun review – Britishness and belonging in the wake of 7/7 by Arifa Akbar

Arcola, LondonThere are storming performances in this play about two British Pakistani Londoners whose friendship is tested after the 2005 terror attacks‘What do you see when you look at m…

Linked From The Guardian at 12:18PM

Jellyfish review – love, fear and glimmering magic in Skegness by Arifa Akbar

Bush theatre, LondonThere is tenderness and humour in Ben Weatherill’s play about a young woman with Down’s syndrome caught between her boyfriend and her motherThe stage is so over-fille…

Linked From The Guardian at 06:24AM

Thursday, June 28, 2018

The Winter’s Tale review – Blanche McIntyre celebrates the play's problems by Arifa Akbar

Shakespeare’s Globe, LondonA superb cast deliver striking performances in a production that is knowingly dissonant, from the costumes to the climaxThe perennial question of this “problem…

Linked From The Guardian at 12:42PM

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Jerusalem review – Jez Butterworth's Rooster Byron is back for Brexit Britain by Arifa Akbar

Watermill theatre, NewburyRave music thumps as Jasper Britton plays the refusenik in an intimate revival of the drama about Albion’s dark heartIt takes courage to revive a play that was de…

Linked From The Guardian at 08:54AM

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Notes from the Field review – searing exposé of the school-to-jail pipeline by Arifa Akbar

Royal Court, LondonAnna Deavere Smith’s powerful one-woman show highlights the shocking injustices faced by African Americans ‘This is American history, not African American history,” …

Linked From The Guardian at 06:48AM

Friday, June 15, 2018

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest review – McMurphy’s misogyny laid bare by Arifa Akbar

Sheffield Crucible There are strong performances in an adaptation that gets closer to Ken Kesey’s novel than the popular film versionWhen Ken Kesey’s novel was first staged in 1963, he t…

Linked From The Guardian at 02:18PM

Thursday, June 14, 2018

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives review – a swaggering spectacular by Arifa Akbar

Arcola, LondonFemi Elufowoju Jr directs an arresting version of Lola Shoneyin’s novel about marital power-play and sexual envy“Sir, you will deposit your sperm inside,” a hospital nurs…

Linked From The Guardian at 02:36AM

Sunday, June 3, 2018

The Chalk Garden review – Penelope Keith sparks a twee rebellion by Arifa Akbar

Chichester Festival theatre Despite its pitch-perfect lead, this version of Enid Bagnold’s class comedy lacks the emotionally charged edginess that gives it biteThe Chalk Garden is Enid Ba…

Linked From The Guardian at 11:24AM

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Polly Stenham on rewriting Strindberg: 'I wanted to go for the jugular' by Arifa Akbar

As her explosive update of the sex-and-class classic Miss Julie hits the stage, playwright Polly Stenham explains why liberal hypocrisy is her new target‘We think we are super ‘woke’,�…

Linked From The Guardian at 01:24AM

Sunday, May 6, 2018

The Fall review – millennial angst supplies short, sharp shock by Arifa Akbar

Southwark Playhouse, LondonThe mood grows ever darker in James Fritz’s play about a young generation increasingly burdened by their wealthy eldersThe Fall opens with a glee club-style choi…

Linked From The Guardian at 06:54AM

Monday, May 25, 2015

Steven Berkoff: Rise of an 'up and coming nobody' by Arifa Akbar

Steven Berkoff may be among the most acclaimed playwrights and actors of his generation but he revealed he would much rather have been a tailor, like his father, given a choice between the t…

Linked From The Independent at 05:58PM

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