Force Majeure ★★★★★ Donmar Warehouse | Dec 10, 2021 - Feb 5, 2022


Who hasn't endured the family holiday? On this ski vacation everything goes down hill, but is it a controlled avalanche or will the family be destroyed? This is a brilliant and hilarious look at gender roles and family dynamics. An unfamiliar and challenging holiday environment plus unforeseen circumstances raise questions that can usually be ignored in the routine of everyday family life. Unspoken role assumptions and comfortable self-perceptions are tested; the individual choices and unthinking compromises hidden by busy lives are imperilled. Director, Michael Longhurst, and writer, Tim Price, have created a world that does justice to Ruben Östlund's cleverly original work, while Jon Bausor's ingenious set design threatens to steal the show. However, all of the cast rise to the occasion and create characters that are both familiar and refreshingly unique. Rory Kinnear as father, Tomas, and Lyndsey Marshal as mother, Ebba, are simply outstanding. Every gesture and intonation rings true to their characters. Florence Hunt creates a suitably self-absorbed teenager and Henry Hunt is the archetypal little brother. All in all, this is a family outing that offers a lot of laughter, some painful insights, and will definitely be the stuff of memories.

Rated: ★★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Marc Brenner.

Want to save on tickets? See our Tips page.

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: 41 Earlham St, London WC2H 9LX, UK

Most Popular

A Month in the Country ★★★★★ Donmar Warehouse | Aug 22 - Oct 3, 2026

Image
Brian Friel’s version of Turgenev’s A Month in the Country is more sexually and psychologically explicit than the original, with the character of Natalya firmly at its centre. Her boredom, sense of entitlement and neediness become the driving forces of a drama in which desire, jealousy and emotional frustration steadily destabilise a superficially tranquil household. Friel makes the play leaner, livelier and considerably funnier than the original. Turgenev regarded his plays as works to be read rather than performed, and Friel cuts the wordiness while bringing the characters’ suppressed feelings sharply to the surface. However, he retains Turgenev’s rich imagery. The curtain rises on a card game in which the comic tutor Schaaf declares that hearts are trump, neatly prefiguring the romantic entanglements to come. Aleksey’s kite, a symbol of youthful freedom and carefree abandon, vividly suggests why Natalya is increasingly attracted to the young tutor. Indeed, his exuberance stands in ...
Full Details »

Kimberly Akimbo ★★★ Hampstead Theatre | Aug 28 - Nov 7, 2026

Image
Kimberly Levaco is a young American girl with a medical condition that causes her to age at four times the normal rate. Although still at high school, she appears to be in her sixties. Added to this, her home life is totally dysfunctional. Her father is an alcoholic, her mother is a narcissist, and her aunt, Debra, is a criminal fleeing after an assault which resulted in a man's death. With her condition, which might be described as the reverse of Benjamin Button’s, Kimberly appears to be the only sensible and morally grounded adult in this household of ne’er-do-wells. However, when Debra turns up on the family’s doorstep once again, she brings with her yet another get-rich-quick fraud scheme and threatens to disrupt the normality Kimberly is desperately trying to create. Aunt Debra presents her living-for-the-moment, everyone-out-for-themselves philosophy in the song “Better”. It is a siren call to take risks, break rules and act on impulse, no matter who gets hurt. Surprisingly, ...
Full Details »

Jane Eyre A Musical ★★★ Southwark Playhouse, Elephant | Aug 28 - Oct 24, 2026

Image
Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel is about two flawed individuals whose pride and wayward spirits must be curbed before they can learn to rely on God’s love and on each other. At the story's heart is the need to learn Christian humility and to submit the self to a higher moral purpose. It is a sentiment unlikely to resonate with a contemporary secular audience, which may explain why the novel is more often remembered or presented as a tempestuous love story between two strong-willed characters. This latest musical version does grapple with Brontë’s religious themes, notably through its presentation of Helen Burns as Jane’s role model and the recurring emphasis on forgiveness in her signature song. The reconciliation between Jane and her childhood tormentor, Mrs Reed, similarly brings Brontë’s moral concerns to the fore, as do songs such as “My Maker” and “Children of God”. Yet these elements sit somewhat uneasily alongside the bodice-ripper of a romance that audiences are more likely t...
Full Details »

Abigail’s Party ★★★★★ Harold Pinter Theatre | Aug 12 - Sep 19, 2026

Image
Mike Leigh's acerbic 1977 comedy about the social aspirations and spiritual emptiness of British suburbia gets a first-rate resurrection in this new production, directed by Nadia Fall. The dark parallel between the unseen Abigail and her unbridled teenage revels and the concealed marital tensions and clandestine sexuality that pervade Beverly's pretentious soirée is neatly drawn. The setting is a masterclass in period detail. Peter McKintosh's terrific set, crammed with furnishings and status symbols, creates a claustrophobic world in which every ornament, glass and canapé becomes a badge of social standing. His costumes are equally telling, capturing the fashions and ambitions of a Britain caught between old-fashioned respectability and the new consumer culture. This is Beverly's evening, and Tamzin Outhwaite makes the most of it. She wrings laughs from the most straightforward line, deploying a repertoire of expansive gestures and imperious glances. She dominates the ...
Full Details »

A Slow Fire ★★★ Jermyn Street Theatre | Aug 20 - Sep 26, 2026

Image
In a post-apocalyptic world, Reece and Ashton have taken refuge in an industrial lock-up. They pass the time recalling and re-enacting scenes from their past lives, “moments of hope”, as they describe them. Their situation recalls Beckett’s Vladimir and Estragon, except that here Godot actually arrives in the form of Presley, a mysterious figure who threatens to disrupt their isolated existence. At first, he joins in their ritual recollections, but eventually reveals darker intentions.  A Slow Fire is described as “part thriller, part excavation of the soul” and it delivers, to varying degrees, on both counts. Unfortunately, its thriller elements are undermined by a structural flaw. The first act takes too long to establish the premises, allowing the tension to dissipate, while the second act then accelerates abruptly as Presley attempts to seduce Reece into participating in his scheme. The result is not simply uneven pacing but an imbalance in the play’s dramatic architecture, wi...
Full Details »

Annie Wobbler (Revisited) ★★ Finborough Theatre | September 2 - 26, 2026

Image
A caveat that generally applies to fringe theatre is that when a show is written by, directed by and stars the same person, they have probably taken on too much. Arnold Wesker wrote Annie Wobbler for Nichola McAuliffe in 1981, but it is difficult to discern how much of the original remains in this updated version, and there is no credit given to whoever revised the work. The play consists of three vignettes: Anna, Annabelle and Annie. The brief opening section, Anna, concerns a young woman who, despite graduating from university with honours, is insecure about a date she is about to go on. The character is not developed beyond a rather simplistic stereotype before we move on to the longest section of the show. The novelist Annabelle initially appears as a scatty tippler, silly and self-absorbed as she responds to questions from an offstage interviewer. Later, for no apparent reason, she metamorphoses into an assertive, testy, exercise-obsessed woman who goes through her gym routine wh...
Full Details »

Who Killed Marilyn? ★ Emerald Theatre | Aug 15 - Oct 29, 2026

Image
Who Killed Marilyn? by Sharleen Cooper Cohen promises a fresh look at the circumstances surrounding Marilyn Monroe’s death. It also claims to tackle the perhaps more intriguing question: who was Marilyn? Instead, it serves up a standard stew of conspiracy theories, from the Kennedys and the Mafia to the murky machinations of the American establishment, along with some familiar pop psychology. Like many biographical dramas, it falls into the trap of telling rather than showing, awkwardly introducing events and characters in a way that feels forced rather than organic. Here the narrator is the dead Marilyn herself, played by Pixie Lott, who purports to reveal the woman behind the myth. Unfortunately, there is little revelation. Lott captures Monroe’s familiar voice, mannerisms and cinematic gestures, but the performance rarely escapes the caricature. It might have been far more intriguing to have this posthumous Marilyn deliberately distinguish herself from the screen persona she create...
Full Details »

St. Martin in-the-fields: Lunchtime Concerts ★★★★ FREE

Image
Maybe the best musical value in London. The lunchtime concerts at St. Martin's are always a wonderful way to escape the hustle and bustle that is London and the sensory overload that is Trafalgar Square. This is a beautiful setting with great acoustics, and a church pew hard enough to make sure you don't nod off. Reviewed by J.C.  Our score:    ☆☆☆☆  WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE: Mon & Fri: 1 pm - 1:45 pm ( occasionally Tues & Thurs)  St. Martin in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square Nearest tube: Charing Cross https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/whats-on
Full Details »

Electra/Persona ★★★ National Theatre | Aug 19 - Oct 10, 2026

Image
Benedict Andrews’ new work is a reimagining of Ingmar Bergman’s classic 1966 film. The actress Elisabeth Vogler suddenly stops speaking while in the midst of playing Sophocles’ Electra . While there are various interpretations of Bergman’s film and Vogler’s silence, one of the most compelling is that Electra forces Vogler to confront two truths: the complexity of the divided self, with Electra and Clytemnestra becoming mirror images of each other in their need for vengeance; and the performative nature of all social interactions, including motherhood. Vogler’s withdrawal into silence begins a process which forces her to come to terms with both issues, while her nurse Alma becomes a projection of the parts of herself she has suppressed. As a further reflection of the themes of the divided self and the performative nature of human relationships, Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss alternate roles. On the night we attended, Blanchett played Electra/Vogler while Hoss was Clytemnestra/Alma. Togeth...
Full Details »

Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It ★★★★ Soho Theatre | September 7 - 26, 2026

Image
Bigfoot or Sasquatch is a legendary large, hairy, human-like creature said to inhabit remote forests, particularly in the Pacific Northwest of North America. Typically described as two to three metres tall, with a powerful build, long arms and exceptionally large feet, this phenomenon has become a staple of American folklore. In this latest offering from the team of Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland, the beast is used by two teenage girls to create hysteria in their small town. The narrative recalls Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour , both of which examine the corrosive consequences of rumour, suspicion and collective hysteria with considerably greater dramatic and psychological depth. What makes this show stand out, however, is not its commentary on crowd panic and mass manipulation, subjects that feel particularly pertinent in the current political climate and the digital age, but the sheer inventiveness of its performances. Following their recent su...
Full Details »

The City Life Magazine | Reviews & Ratings