REVIEW: The Children, Royal Court Theatre ✭✭✭✭
The Children is a thought-provoking play that entertains while presenting us with a dilemma about the responsibilities we all have to face.
The Children is a thought-provoking play that entertains while presenting us with a dilemma about the responsibilities we all have to face.
This is a show well worth watching, at a venue that is becoming a byword for fun and vibrant festive musicals. Check it out before it goes!
All in all, this is about as spectacular and over the top as pantomime should ever get. You certainly saw every penny of your ticket price on stage and the audience loved it, for me, I just wanted a bit less innuendo and a bit more family entertainment.
This production brings out Schiller’s themes in a compelling and lucid way while also being an exciting political thriller and a very personal drama about two women trapped by forces greater than themselves.
Some people attending probably only ever go to the theatre to see the Christmas panto, and this certainly doesn’t disappoint. Some attending may even by inspired to go and read up on the beautiful stories whence the title figure springs. And some will merely be grateful that this provides two and a half hours in which they do not have to try to entertain their children: the show will do that for them.
As I write this, I am envious of those who are yet to see this brilliant 20th-anniversary production which offers unparalleled, penetrating rawness, performed by a modest cast who surrender their souls to the book, score and to the broken New York artists whose stories they tell.
Despite the downbeat ending to Love’s Labour’s Lost and the troubles over Claudio and Hero’s wedding in Much Ado About Nothing, the two plays are very funny and thoroughly entertaining, whether enjoyed singly or, ideally, seen together.
Once again, Southwark Playhouse’s in-house Christmas offering takes us into new territory for the festive season, providing another alternative to the usual panto tropes.