NEWS: Site Update...

Could it be? Another week without a review?

Yes, it's unfortunately true. The RZ caught a cold/flu/something that caused lots of coughing and an inability to breathe easily last week, which meant skipping out on The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Lyric Hammersmith (although the Telegraph implies that it's for the best).

That said, as a pre-paid class assignment, he did catch Tough time, nice time at the Barbican on Wednesday. As the RZ watched it through a haze of cold medication, cough drops, and sleep deprivation, it would be unfair to you, the reader, as well as Ridiculusmus (who undoubtedly earned every penny of their £70,477 Arts Council grant for 2008/9) to even attempt to write a proper review on the piece. What the RZ will say is that his classmates and course tutor liked it, as did most of the mainstream critics. While he agrees with the Whingers that the piece wasn't explicit enough to deserve its strict 18+ (The Pillowman was far more shocking and unsettling in his mind), there's enough to make the middle-aged blush and to upset the non-cynical in the crowd.

While he was too inert to approach the piece intellectually, the RZ did feel that the piece shared its tone (and some of the issues discussed by critics and classmates alike) with the 2006 American work Dark Yellow, which he rather enjoyed.

Meanwhile, onto some good news. The plague has (mostly) passed, and the RZ has two shows on his agenda for this week: Speed-the-Plow at the Old Vic and first preview for the London cast of Jersey Boys. Huzzah.