Tag: Nadia Fall

R And D by Simon Vinnicombe, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 1 October 2016

I really liked this short play downstairs at the Hampstead. Janie found the subject matter rather too weird and felt she couldn’t relate to it.

The central characters are two brothers; one a writer, bereaved just under a year before the start of the play, the other a geeky scientist whose company is secretly developing a world-beating sentient, anthropomorphic robot, in the form of a rather attractive and spirited young woman. Take it from there.

I liked the drama of it and also the ethical dilemmas that got an airing through the story. It’s a short play, perhaps 75 minutes. It was very well acted.

There is an excellent stub with all the information you might want about the play and production – here.

No formal reviews at Hampstead Downstairs, but the audience shout outs on the above stub are very positive.

Janie was that set against it but she sees the idea of sentient anthropomorphic robots as being way too futuristic. Personally, I think we’re getting mighty close to such technology – perhaps within 10 years; certainly our lifetimes, unless our lives are cut short.

Anyway, Janie was mollified by some excellent Chinese food from Four Seasons afterwards, so all was not lost for her as an evening, not by any stretch.

Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar, Bush Theatre, 18 May 2013

We thought this was a very interesting and engrossing night at the theatre.

Ayad Akhtar won the Pulitzer Prize for drama with this visceral play about a Muslim corporate lawyer, Amir, in New York, whose life unravels during a dinner party.

Amir is a Westernised Muslim, who admits to feeling anti-Israel, on largely “tribal” grounds. But is Amir’s position anti-Semitic and is this issue the cause of his corporate undoing and more?

Here is a link to the Bush resource on this play.

Writing this up in March 2018, I am reminded of the play we saw last week, Checkpoint Chana – click here or below:

Checkpoint Chana by Jeff Page, Finborough Theatre, 11 March 2018

Although Disgraced (like Checkpoint Chana) rather unrealistically rushes the central character’s disintegration, it emerges from a far more subtle and interesting debate. It is also a far better piece of drama.

Excellent cast and production for Disgraced at the Bush too.

Below is the trailer vid…

…follwed by an interview with the author:

This search term – click here – finds the reviews (mostly very good) from the Bush production.