Alan Franks

Alan Franks Alan Franks contributes regularly with reviews for London and regional shows, as well as reporting on press launches. Alan was a Times feature writer for more than thirty years, specialising in the arts and interviewing many leading actors, writers and directors, including Arthur Miller, Peter Hall, Woody Allen, Judi Dench and Stephen Sondheim. He is the author of several plays, including The Mother Tongue starring Prunella Scales, and his latest novel, The Notes of Dr. Newgate, is published by Muswell Press.

Blood Knot by Athol Fugard – Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond

Kalungi Ssebandeke in BLOOD KNOT by Athol Fugard - Orange Tree Theatre - photo by Richard Hubert Smith.

Since it’s more than half a century since the first staging of this early Athol Fugard play, it has become something of an historical document as well as a continuingly relevant study of South African apartheid’s contamination of human relations. The relations in question here are close, even fraternal, as the plot concerns two adult … Read moreBlood Knot by Athol Fugard – Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond

Party Time and Celebration – Pinter at the Pinter | Review

The Company in Pinter Six. Photo credit Marc Brenner

Watching these two late Pinter one-acters in the major season that bears his name, performed in the theatre that does likewise, I couldn’t help thinking of a remark made by his friend and fellow dramatist, albeit a very different one, Tom Stoppard. About ten years ago, when the theatre was still called the Comedy, there … Read moreParty Time and Celebration – Pinter at the Pinter | Review

Great Expectations at Richmond Theatre – Review

To put Dickens’ novels on the stage is as tempting as it is bold. Tempting because of the books’ innate theatricality of form and manner; bold because so many fine adaptors, directors and actors have been drawn to the rich challenges of their depiction. In this version, a co-production by Malvern Theatres and the newly … Read moreGreat Expectations at Richmond Theatre – Review

Stephen Ward The Musical review by Alan Franks

Stpehen Ward new musical

You can accuse Andrew Lloyd Webber of many things – you often do – but you can’t level the charge of uniformity at the subjects he chooses. If you can forgive this blasphemy, given that one such subject was the superstar Jesus Christ, Stephen Ward is arguably his most interesting. He is also the most … Read moreStephen Ward The Musical review by Alan Franks

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui review by Alan Franks

Henry Godoman (Arturo Ui). The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Photo by Manuel Harlan.

Few performances get more wildly flagged into the West End than Henry Goodman’s Arturo Ui. There are good reasons for the excitement. A big Brecht play with apparently permanent relevance; an actor whose repute is now little lower than the Gambon/McKellen stratum; a German election for good measure. Just as the play leans with almost … Read moreThe Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui review by Alan Franks