Hot-off-the-press plays thrust the personal and the political centre stage,while Bob Dylan had a moment
Observer critics’ reviews of the year in fullWhat a terrific turnaround year. At the cessation of 2016, I was struck by how unpolitical the theatre had become. Not any more. In 2017, and James Graham displayed the dramatic possibilities of UK politics in quick-fire plays: Ink,Labour of Love and Quiz. Worldwide disasters – sexual abuse and bullying, the terrors faced by those escaping perils in their homelands – commanded the stage in The Suppliant Women (Young Vic), and Flight (Edinburgh festival) and The Welcoming Pary (Manchester international festival). At the Dorfman,Inua Ellamss Barber Shop Chronicles – skidding from continent to continent on song and caster chairs – combined personal revelation and political debate. Adam (Traverse, Edinburgh) spoke with urgency and gentleness of 21st-century transgendering. Just to secure Married acutely recaptured the struggles of early 20th-century feminists. Hurrah for the Finborough, or for its recovery of obsolete dramas.
New theatre spaces offered new hopes. The Bridge – the mighty oak and steel building created by Steve Tompkins and Roger Watts for Nicks Hytner and Starr – cemented the South Bank’s reputation as the new West cessation theatre strip. And in the black shadow of Grenfell Tower,the Playground theatre opened, promising next year to stage an examination of Shirley Porter and her social housing shenanigans (tricks or mischief).
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Source: guardian.co.uk