Night Swim review - hardly immersive horror flick

★★★ NIGHT SWIM Tepid tale of a haunted swimming pool

Tepid tale of a haunted swimming pool

The water is wild in Night Swim, the weirdly wet horror debut from director Bryce McGuire, in which a backyard bathing pool becomes the locus of all things supernatural.

A Woman Walks into a Bank, Theatre 503 review - prize-winning play delivers on its promise

★★★ A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK, THEATRE503 Russian tale resonates far beyond Moscow

Roxy Cook's dramedy has echoes of Chekhov in its melding of comedy and tragedy

We’re in Moscow (we hear that quite a lot) where an ageing woman on a rare trip out of her apartment block catches sight of an advert in a bank’s window. She is soon inside and subjected to a sales pitch by a keen young bank "manager", torn between his understanding of her dementia and the career-boost the loan will bring. Five months later, she’s in her little flat with a debt collector, a man even more ruthless in pursuit of his objectives  and events take an unexpected turn.

£1 Thursdays, Finborough Theatre review - dazzling new play is as funny and smart as its two heroines

★★★★ £1 THURSDAYS, FINBOROUGH THEATRE Beautifully delivered by two sensational leads 

Seldom does one see a writer's vision so perfectly realised on stage

It’s 2012 and the London Olympics might as well be happening on the Moon for Jen and Stacey. In fact, you could say the same for everyone else scrabbling a living in Bradford – or anywhere north of Watford – and we know what those left-behind places did when presented with a ballot box in 2016 and 2019.

A Stitch in Time review - feelgood Aussie indie with an undernourished script

An elderly woman's pursuit of lost dreams is given a light-touch treatment

There’s a faint whiff of Strictly Ballroom about Sasha Hadden’s Australian indie A Stitch in Time, another tale of people in later life rekindling lost dreams and a long-buried love while nurturing younger folk with the same passions. Here, though, this love is expressed in dressmaking rather than foxtrots and quicksteps. 

32 Sounds: Interview with innovative documentarian Sam Green about his audio and visual feast

Rare chance to catch a unique documentary that explores the listening world

Sam Green’s film 32 Sounds has been described as the greatest documentary you’ve ever heard, which is a pretty noisy claim – how does anyone know all the documentaries you’ve experienced? What is certainly true is that the way Green presents his films as immersive events, where musicians play the soundtrack live, the audience wear headphones and the director narrates, makes for a very unusual cinema experience.    

Nineteen Gardens, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs review - intriguing, beautifully observed two-hander tilts power this way and that

★★★★ NINETEEN GARDENS, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE DOWNSTAIRS With echoes of Beckett and Chekhov, a grown-up play for grown-ups

With echoes of Beckett and Chekhov, a grown-up play for grown-ups

A middle-aged man, expensively dressed and possessed of that very specific confidence that only comes from a certain kind of education, a certain kind of professional success, a certain kind of entitlement, talks to a younger woman. Despite the fact that she isn’t really trying, she’s attractive, bright and just assertive enough to weave a spell of fascination over men like him, with a tinge of non-dangerous exoticism evidenced by her East European accent to round things out.

Feldmann, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - adventures in the unusual

Enthusiasm rewards a musical journey to Finland and beyond

For the most adventurous programme in its autumn Saturday series at the Bridgewater Hall, the BBC Philharmonic’s John Storgårds brought two works from his native Finland’s repertoire, and a concerto some distance from the beaten track.Like the Hallé’s concert of mainly new music with Thomas Adès two days before, it did not pull the crowds in, despite a sweetener in the mix, but those who were there were enthusiastic.

Manic Street Creature, Southwark Playhouse review - songs in the key of a traumatised life

★★★ MANIC STREET CREATURE, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Songs in the key of a traumatised life

Maimuna Memon sings of the pain mental illness brings, and not just to the person it afflicts

There’s an old-fashioned feel to the story at its outset: Young woman, guitar in hand, Northern accent announcing as much as it always did, who makes a new life in London, all the money going on a room in Camden. One recalls Georgy Girl or Darling, films that were very much of their time.

Marwood, Hallé, Adès, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - winning way with new music

★★★ MARWOOD, HALLE, ADES, MANCHESTER Winning ways with new music

By the end there was shouted approval for the new artist-in-residence

Thomas Adès had a job to do in his first concert with the Hallé since being appointed Artist-in-Residence for the next two years: to win over the audience that came to witness it.

It wasn’t a sell-out (anything that smacks of new music is unlikely to draw a huge number to the Bridgewater Hall, no matter what sweeteners are provided), but for those who were there he definitely succeeded, and by the end they were shouting their approval.