Stage-to-screen review: Been So Long

If my theatregoing currently appears to be at something like normal human frequency that's because I've been stuck at home with bronchitis, but Netflix have filled in the gap a bit by releasing their film adaptation of Been So Long - Ché Walker and Arthur Darvill's first musical (maybe you shouldn't hold your breath for their second one to get filmed too soon) which I saw when it premiered at the Young Vic in 2009. From that original cast only Arinzé Kene has returned to play Raymond, released from prison and finding nobody to celebrate with him because while he's been away all his friends have got partners and families. Instead he ends up alone at a bar that's days away from closing, where he meets single mother Simone (Michaela Coel,) who's as attracted to him as he is to her, but has put up a lot of barriers to protect herself and her disabled daughter.

Theatre review: Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against a Brick Wall

2013 is turning out to be a year when size matters, or at least length does: If it's not a super-long running time it's a mouthful of a title, like Brad Birch's two-hander Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against a Brick Wall, now playing Upstairs at Soho Theatre. A nameless couple in their late twenties (Joe Dempsie and Lara Rossi) are, by all the usual criteria, successful: A good-looking pair very much in love, they share a nice flat paid for by decent jobs. But it's these jobs that cause the first cracks: Their 9-5 lives are dull, sometimes degrading and built around trying to please bosses they hate, leaving them with little time together at the end of the day, which they spend in front of the TV. Worse, it's becoming apparent that these soul-sapping jobs aren't even enough to pay all the bills.