Lyceum
Two Sisters
★★★☆☆ Wistful
Two Sisters at the Lyceum until the beginning of March, is a touching and well-observed piece that is ultimately too diffuse.
Jekyll & Hyde
★★★★☆ Atmospheric
The Lyceum’s presentation of the Reading Rep Theatre production of Jekyll and Hyde features an ingenious adaptation by Gary McNair and a powerful performance by Forbes Masson.
The Snow Queen
★★★★☆ Epic
The Snow Queen at the Lyceum provides thrills, humour and imaginative theatricality. Morna Young’s adaptation (directed by Cora Bissett, with music by Finn Anderson) could not be staged in 2020 for obvious reasons.
Through The Mud
★★★★☆ Powerful
Review by Hugh Simpson
Through The Mud by Apphia Campbell at the Lyceum is a story of the struggle for civil rights in the USA in the face of racism. Its portrayal of the African American experience across the generations is both depressing and inspiring, told with craft and tunefulness.
Group Portrait in a Summer Landscape
★★★★☆ Philosophical weight
Group Portrait in a Summer Landscape at the Lyceum deals unapologetically with difficult emotional and political themes, eschewing any easy answers or resolutions in a way that could be difficult but is made palatable by performances of power and nuance.
Anna Karenina
★★★★☆ Powerful
The glowing passion of this Anna Karenina comes as much from the staging as from the characters. Written by Lesley Hart after Leo Tolstoy, and directed by Polina Kalinina, the Lyceum’s co-production with Bristol Old Vic is an urgent and thoroughly contemporary affair.
The Multiverse is Gay
★★★★☆ Weirdly wonderful
The Multiverse is Gay, at the Lyceum Rehearsal Studio until Saturday, is written for the Lyceum Young Company with great imagination by Lewis Hetherington and directed with flair by Sophie Howell.
Kidnapped
★★★★★ Rattling adventure
Isobel McArthur has excelled herself in her latest adaptation of a classic story to the stage, this time giving Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped a music-filled, comic and heartfelt makeover.
Castle Lennox
★★★★☆ Huge humanity
Originally intended to be staged at the Lyceum in 2020, Castle Lennox, playwright Linda McLean’s collaboration with Lung Ha Theatre Company proves to be well worth the wait.