Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

So, another year, another crop of great stuff, and another set of opinions you didn't ask for but are getting anyway.  I am having to be brutal in my selections here as there as so many great things I couldn't shoehorn in.   I have linked to my original thoughts too, where I have already published them. Best revival of a play So many great plays, many of them revivals this year, so I am working on the basis that the play needs to be properly old to fit into this category, and there needs to be something different from the original production.  There were many also rans, but the nominees are: Macbeth:  At the Donmar, with David Tennant and Cush Jumbo, this is a play I usually don't actually like very much, spoiled I think by studying it at school.  I was also suspicious about the use of headphones throughout, expecting that it would be distancing from the action.  In fact, it did the opposite; having the protaganists whisper their soliliquy direct into...

I saw a review that started with ‘it’s impossible to review this play without spoilers’ so obviously I stopped reading.  That meant for the first half hour I had absolutely no idea what was going on.  Then we get a reveal, triggered by the word ‘Starbucks’ when it starts to make (just a little) more sense.  Liberal in its use of degrading racial slurs and stereotypes, and with sex as a constant focus, it succeeds at keeping us uncomfortable throughout.  Initially this is because of the overdone nature of what we are seeing being played out on a plantation, but after that initial reveal it gets, if anything, even more tough as we explore the undercurrents between the couples on stage.  Stunning performances from everyone, but Fisayo Akinade as Gary stood out for me in particular with such a nuanced performance.  The final shocking scene between Kit Harrington as Jim and Olivia Washington as Kaneisha came close, both incredibly uncomfortable and powerful, not...