Ilford Boy is a wonderful new queer coming-of-age tale – review
While at times it tackles some tricky issues, Ilford Boy is also funny, fabulous and full of joy.
Photography by Helen Murray
We didn’t know much about new play Ilford Boy before going in, but based on the creative team involved we thought we’d head down to the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden to check it out last week. Written by actor and playwright Danny Lee Wynter – we caught his Olivier-winning performance in the National Theatre’s revival of seminal gay play The Normal Heart a few years ago – and directed by Tim Sheader, who we’ve seen direct many a show at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, Ilford Boy is a new queer coming-of-age tale set in the mid-1990s.
Actually that’s not quite the full picture: while the play opens in that time period, we have frequent flashbacks to an early-1980s setting, where most of our characters are young adults setting out in the world, discovering their identities.
Martin Guerre is an enjoyable revival of niche musical – review
Photography by Helen Maybanks You’d be forgiven for not knowing Martin Guerre – it’s certainly not the best-known of theatre shows, although it comes with some real musical pedigree. Written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg – the same duo behind major hits Les Misérables and Miss Saigon
New play Some Woman tackles tricky contemporary issues at the National Theatre – review
Photography by Ellie Kurttz We do enjoy checking out shows at the Dorfman Theatre, the smallest of the three spaces at London’s National Theatre. It’s often a launchpad for brand new productions that go on to bigger and better things – this summer we caught the new Pride musical
