Deborah Orr: Motherwell review - memoir, but so much more

★★★★★ DEBORAH ORR: MOTHERWELL A complex study of a family, childhood, and a town transformed

A complex study of a family, childhood, and a town transformed

Published in the year following Orr’s death at the age of 57, Motherwell is an analysis of the author’s childhood in Motherwell, on the outskirts of Glasgow, and her first steps into adulthood. However, while this book is ostensibly about Deborah Orr the child, it is as much about her parents, John and Win, and about Deborah Orr the adult. Everything seeps into everything else, just as Win seeped into Orr’s life, claiming her daughter’s whole being as her own.

DVD: The Cakemaker

★★★★ DVD: THE CAKEMAKER  Israeli debut is a sensitive study of grief - and the joy of culinary creation

Israeli debut is a sensitive study of grief - and the joy of culinary creation

The Cakemaker is Ofir Raul Graizer’s debut feature, and the film must somehow reflect the parabola of the Israeli-born director's life: it’s set between Berlin and Jerusalem, the two cities apparently closest to him, and one of its main subjects – alongside weightier themes such as grief and loss – is food, especially the r

The Runaways review - a road trip worth taking

★★★★ THE RUNAWAYS Charming British flick carried by three children's bravura performances

Charming British flick carried by three children's bravura performances

Oh how British indies love a road trip. Trekking across the rugged landscape, meeting a colourful cast of characters, realising it’s not the destination but the journey. It takes something special to stand out from the pack. The Runaways, debut feature from Richard Heap, has that something special.

White House Farm, ITV review - gripping opener of true crime drama

★★★★ WHITE HOUSE FARM, ITV Gripping opener of true crime drama

Freddie Fox is excellent as murderer Jeremy Bamber

It's the smallest lies that can bring you down. When he is asked by a detective how he got on with his family, who have just been murdered in a mass shooting at their Essex farm, Jeremy Bamber (Freddie Fox) says: “Really well. We were friends.” A quizzical look briefly scutters across the face of his cousin Ann Eaton (Gemma Whelan) who overhears.

The Tyler Sisters, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs review – raucous celebration of sisterhood

★★★★ THE TYLER SISTERS, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE DOWNSTAIRS Raucous celebration of sisterhood

Quick-witted new play tackles a sibling bond in snapshots over 40 years

The Tyler sisters start as they mean to go on: bickering. Middle sister Gail (Bryony Hannah) has come home from uni to find that youngest Katrina (Angela Griffin) has stolen her room. “What about Maddy’s? Why didn’t you take that?” Gail snaps. “She’s in it,” Katrina points out. “I am in it, to be fair,” confirms eldest Maddy (Caroline Faber), trying her best not to take sides. “I am actually in it.”

Elizabeth Strout: Olive, Again review - compassion, honesty and community

★★★★ ELIZABETH STROUT: OLIVE, AGAIN Compassion, honesty and community

Strout’s curmudgeon Olive reckons with advancing age and life's continuing surprises

Elizabeth Strout is fond of plain titles. Much as her stories are interested in subtlety – the quiet complications and contradictions of ordinary life – her books advertise themselves by means of telling understatements. Olive, Again follows ten years on the heels of her Pulitzer Prize-winning “novel in stories” Olive Kitteridge, which painted a resonant, emotionally complex portrait of a community in fictional Crosby, a small coastal town in Strout’s native Maine.

The Wolf of Wall Street, 5-15 Sun Street review - energetic but to what end?

★★ THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, 5-15 SUN STREET Energetic but to what end?

Jordan Belfort memoirs translate unpleasantly, even unnecessarily, to the stage

Of all the groups you probably wouldn’t want to be part of, surely the hyper-adrenalised, hardscrabble populace of The Wolf of Wall Street, the Jordan Belfort memoir made into an amphetamine rush of a film by Martin Scorsese, must rank near the very top. And yet here, against expectation, is an immersive theatre adaptation of the non-fiction memoirs that spawned the 2013 movie.