“The words are theirs, the dream is ours” the Zulu narrator of Torchbearers calls out. His words reverberate through different generations and across diverse cultures as we piece together the story of two star-crossed lovers from very different walks of life. Last night’s show of Torchbearers at the Artscape Theatre blew me away. Not only was […]
Read More...A Blow To Bute Street
EVENING OF IRONY IN DOCKLAND Review by Penny Simpson A Blow to Bute Street, currently showing at the Sherman Theatre, is very funny, very ironic and rooted in the public arena with its backdrop the redevelopment of Cardiff’s dockland. The play will probably become a talking point locally for months to come – the least […]
Read More...Angels Don’t Need Wings
venue Sherman Theatre, Cardiff June 27, 2002 Families, South Walian rivalry, popular music and the ghosts of the past are usually to be found in Laurence Allan’s plays and his latest, specially written to celebrate the 21st birthday of Hijinx Theatre, is no exception. Here skeletons in the cupboard, secrets and lies and the opposing worlds […]
Read More...Published Plays
Three Plays by Laurence Allan On The Road Again The Best Years of Our Lives Cradle to the Grave Published by Seren Books – Edited by Brian Mitchell On The Road Again Two hapless buddies, Rich and Beefy, fight, swop stories, recall good times and bad, trade lies, insults and meagre possessions. Will their friendship […]
Read More...Review of On the Road Again
On the Road Again inhabits territory which has already been busily colonised by Ed Thomas. Two poetic drifters; a derelict caravan; dreams of leaving for an American pastoral. Allan gives his two chancers – Beefy and Rich – a lyrical depth. Their memories are wistful and whiskery: they argue over a dancing dog in Doncaster […]
Read More...Reviews of Flowers from Tunisia
Reviews have all the power of a sniper’s bullet and after thirty years they still have the capacity to inflict a wound that can lay me low for weeks. And even then you carry it around like a bad smell. But a good one is like an uplifting breath of wind that can keep you […]
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