Theatre review: Es & Flo

Sometimes I hit a pleasingly strong streak of shows and the last few weeks seem to have been one of those - but did all the best ones have to be the tear-jerkers? In Jennifer Lunn's Es & Flo, the titular couple have been together for 36 years, after meeting as protesters at Greenham Common. Esme (Liz Crowther) was unhappily married at the time, and though she divorced her husband after meeting Flo (Doreene Blackstock,) it was far from painless: She lost custody of her son, and has never had a close relationship with him since. Flo has been the constant in her life ever since, but they never married when it became legal, or made any kind of legal provision. Everything is in Es' name, which is becoming an urgent problem - as Es is showing increasing signs of dementia, and won't agree to sign the power of attorney.

Theatre review: A Passage to India

simple8’s first show on the Park Theatre’s main stage was a bit of a disappointment, but for their second visit Simon Dormandy has struck more fertile ground with his adaptation of E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India. The story’s opening statement “one cannot be friends with the English” is challenged by Asif Khan’s Dr. Aziz, whose job puts him in the middle of two factions of the English in Chandrapur during the height of the Raj, represented by two young men who’ve embraced very different approaches to India and its people: Edward Killingback (Yeah!) Them Motherfuckers Don’t Know How To Act (Yeah!) plays Ronny, the new Magistrate who’s quickly embraced the prevailing attitude that India is there to be governed, its people there to serve. Schoolteacher Cyril Fielding (Richard Goulding) is another recent arrival, who firmly believes India is its people and wants to get to know them.