Neil LaBute | The Crescent Theatre | Directed by Robyn Dickinson

Imagine: you work in New York’s World Trade Centre and wake up on the morning of September 12^th 2001 in your lover’s bed. You were not at work yesterday. Your wife and children think you might be dead. The opportunity to disappear is there for the taking. Do you answer the constant phone calls from home or ignore them and start a new life? What sort of person even contemplates such a question?

William Shakespeare | The National Theatre | Directed by Clint Dyer

Having reflected since seeing the play, I suppose my main gripe is that I simply didn’t believe in Othello and Desdemona’s connection. It lacked the passion and intensity which an audience must surely buy into to underline the tragic ending. I just didn’t care: that’s what it boils down to. A shame because the violence, when it comes, is both menacing and shocking.