REVIEW: The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, Donmar Warehouse ✭✭✭✭✭
Paul T Davies reviews Polly Findlay’s production of The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie now playing at the Donmar Warehouse.
Paul T Davies reviews Polly Findlay’s production of The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie now playing at the Donmar Warehouse.
Following a critically acclaimed, sold-out season at the National Theatre, David Eldridge’s anti-romance Beginning will transfer to the Ambassadors Theatre
At times very funny, Beginning also has moments of heart-breaking intensity but without becoming sentimental. It is a masterful two-hander that will especially resonate with anyone who finds themselves single as they face middle age.
Findlay’s production of The Merchant Of Venice, like all great productions of Shakespeare, is brimming with ideas, spoken with assurance and intelligence, and illuminates the text insightfully and vigorously. Refreshing and fascinating. Findlay breathes complexity and assuredness into Shakespeare’s play by focussing on sex and greed. But there is no shortage of hatred either.
Jim is not the only character whose gender is changed, but his change is the most significant. It’s not that it is a bad or fatal choice – it is, however, a fundamental one. And it puts this Treasure Island firmly in the realm of children’s theatre. No bad thing.