overnight reviews

Brace Brace, Royal Court review - too slender to satisfy

New play about the consequences of a plane hijack is energetic but unconvincing

Air travel is bad for us. Yes, yes, I know we need planes to take us long distances, but look at the downside: not only the carbon footprint, but also the anxiety. I used to feel pretty relaxed about flying, then – one day on a short European flight – there was a spot of turbulence and I glimpsed the faces of the cabin crew. And they were certainly not relaxed.

Lygia Clark: The I and the You, Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation, Whitechapel Gallery review - breaking boundaries

Two artists, 50 years apart, invite audience participation

Brazilian artist Lygia Clark is best known for taking her abstract sculptures off the pedestal and inviting people to interact with them. Dozens of constructions named Bichos (Beasts or Critters) (pictured below right) are hinged along the joins to allow you to rearrange the parts in seemingly endless configurations.

Album: The Offspring - Supercharged

Another successful Pop Punk celebration

With Warped Tour anniversary rumours in the air, Green Day and blink-182 touring the world, and 20 huge new tracks from Sum 41, The Offspring’s latest contribution to the thriving Pop Punk scene couldn’t have been timed better. Supercharged is landing in the open arms of an already excited fanbase, and the legends of the genre do not disappoint.

Having helped to shape the distinctive Skate Punk sound of the 90s and early 2000s, it’s no surprise that The Offspring recreate that energy effortlessly with Supercharged, but it is impressive nonetheless.  

The Other Place, National Theatre review - searing family tragedy

Emma D’Arcy and Tobias Menzies lock horns in twisted and triumphant take on ‘Antigone’

Contemporary reworkings of Greek tragedy run a very particular risk, that out of context the heightened actions of the original plays – the woefully poor judgement, the copious bloodletting, the rush to disproportionate vengeance and suicide – can seem like hapless histrionics and just a bit daft. 

Bellringers, Hampstead Theatre review - mordant comedy about the end of the world

Daisy Hall's astonishing debut is both darkly funny and deadly serious

As hurricanes rip into the American Gulf states with increasing ferocity, Eastern Europe disappears underwater and even the gentle British rain becomes a deluge, the arrival of Daisy Hall’s debut play Bellringers at Hampstead Theatre’s Downstairs space couldn’t be more timely,

Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit, Tate Modern review - adolescent angst indefinitely extended

★★★ MIKE KELLEY: GHOST AND SPIRIT, TATE MODERN Adolescent angst indefinitely extended

The artist who refused to grow up

Like an angry teenager rejecting everything his parents stand for, American artist Mike Kelley embraced everything most despised by the art world – from popular culture to crafts, and occultism to catholicism – to create what he ironically called “blue collar minimalism”. “An adolescent,” he declared, “is a dysfunctional adult and art is a dysfunctional reality”.

French Toast, Riverside Studios review - Racine-inspired satire finds its laughs once up-and-running

 FRENCH TOAST The English and the French, the men and the women, the young and the old, lock horns in Seventies farce  

Comedy gains momentum when characters are rounded out

It’s always fun jabbing at the permanently open wound that is Anglo-French relations, now with added snap post-Brexit, its fading, but still frothing, humourless defenders clogging up Twitter and radio phone-ins even today. So it’s probably timely for Gallic-Gang Productions to resurrect Jean (La Cage aux Folles) Poiret’s farce Fefe de Broadway, adapted as French Toast.

Ludwig, BBC One review - entertaining spin on the brainy detective formula

★★★ LUDWIG, BBC ONE Entertaining spin on the brainy detective formula

David Mitchell is a perfect fit for this super-sleuth

The latest incarnation of David Mitchell, TV actor, looks at first sight much like the familar one from Peep Show and Back. Not a pufflepant in sight. His only costume change for Ludwig is a pair of wire-frame spectacles.