Theatre review: Poor Clare

13th century noblewoman Chiara Offreduccio was an early disciple of Francis of Assisi, the monk who advocated renouncing all earthly goods and helping the poor. Becoming convinced by his sermons that her wealthy family's attempts at charity were performative at worst, a drop in the ocean at best, she left her wealth behind, embraced his asceticism and founded her own order of nuns, becoming known as Clare of Assisi, Patron Saint of diseased eyes. And if that story doesn't say "Californian high school rom-com" to you, you're clearly not her namesake, American playwright Chiara Atik. We meet Clare (Arsema Thomas) as she's getting her hair styled by her lady's maids Alma and Peppa (Jacoba Williams and Liz Kettle,) holding forth with them on how going on Crusade sounds like a worthwhile thing to do but quite a pain actually.

Theatre review: The Divine Mrs S

April De Angelis' The Divine Mrs S feels, in subject at least, like a successor to Jessica Swale's Nell Gwynn: Tracing the history of the original star actresses, we're in the Georgian era but the Restoration style of theatre still rules the London stage, and a woman can be the biggest draw and a genuine celebrity - and on acting talent alone this time, without the royal connection of her predecessor. Of course, having achieved her fame without a history of gossip and scandal, she's not immune to them once she's in the public eye. Rachael Stirling plays Mrs Sarah Siddons, member of the Kemble acting family, eclipsing her brothers in talent and popularity, but subject to the fickle moods of the papers and public that plague any woman who seems to be getting a bit too popular: Over the course of the evening we see how she can't win, and at the play's opening she's been criticised for returning to work too soon after her daughter's death.

Theatre review: Our Generation

While we don't currently have the mass cancellations we were seeing at the height of Omicron, some shows are still being more affected by Covid than others: The performance of Our Generation I'd originally booked for last month got cancelled - by this point it had become apparent it was nearly four hours long, so to be honest I didn't mind the opportunity to reschedule from a Tuesday night to a weekend - and tonight's almost went the same way, as two cast members had had positive test results and the Dorfman doesn't carry understudies. Fortunately two of their castmates were able to read in all their roles as well as playing their own, so Sarita Gabony covered Anna Burnett's part and Stephanie Street read in Debbie Chazen's tonight. And I'm glad they did, as despite its epic length it would have been a shame to miss Alecky Blythe's epic of five years in the lives of teenagers, her most significant and affecting work since London Road.