Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

It’s always interesting to see the ways that Greek tragedies are reworked for a modern audience.  The Bacchae are a bunch of women, followers of the god Dionysos who serve as the chorus but are the main characters this time.  They are back in Thebes to help Dionysos take revenge for his abandonment by his aunt Agave (Sharon Small) after the death of his mother.  The Bacchae are led by Vida (a fantastic Claire Perkins) who introduces the Bacchae to the audience as individual independent women who have all joined for different reasons, and are all living for pleasure without being ruled by men (except Dionysos that is - to be fair, they do call out for themselves!). When the women of Thebes hear about this, they all begin to join the Bacchae too.  Whilst Dionysos sneaks into Thebes and entraps his half brother King Pentheus (an absolutely fabulous James McArdle) the Bacchae take Agave hostage but she soon becomes the most fanatical of the group and blood thirsty in a w...

Unicorn at the Garrick Theatre  This new play by Mike Bartlett , has a fabulous cast with Nicola Walker (Polly) Stephen Mangan (Nick) and Erin Doherty (Kate) and all three actors are excellent.  I really enjoyed the first half which sets the scene of a tired marriage potentially being enlivened by becoming a throuple when Polly finds the ‘unicorn’, that person who might become the third leg to stabilise this relationship.  This is a wordy play, lots of graphic language, getting lots of laughs out of middle class awkwardness about sex, generation gaps, aging, midlife, and masculinity.  I found the relationships that develop between the three characters believable, and the ethical debates and implications of the situation, trying to find a way to live differently from social norms and without shame, really engaging.  I was really  invested in finding out how things would go. In the second half I was looking forward to teasing out more about how this relations...