The Casual Fangirls

(Picture from unclevanyaplay.com ) Tickets are now on sale for the January 2020 production of Uncle Vanya, a new adaptation by Conor McPherson, directed by Ian Rickson. The production has so far only announced the casting of Toby Jones (Uncle Vanya) and Richard Armitage (Astrov). So I must confess something - I have no idea what it is about. Zilch. I'm a massive theatre fan but I'm mainly into musicals so I've never seen Uncle Vanya. I could look it up, but I'd rather go in completely fresh (and how often does that happen when a play is 120 years old..?). Here's the synopsis from the website (linked above) In the heat of summer, Sonya and her Uncle Vanya ( Toby Jones ) while away their days on a crumbling estate deep in the countryside, visited occasionally only by the local doctor Astrov ( Richard Armitage ). However, when Sonya’s father suddenly returns with his beautiful new wife declaring that he intends to sell the house, the polite facades cru...

Netflix has just launched a new crime series. The overall concept is interesting; four separate programmes made up of three episodes each, each set in police stations in different countries. There’s Criminal United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain - all are available to watch now. While the concept definitely caught my attention, I’m not sure if I’m missing something with the first episode of Criminal United Kingdom. It has the feel of a mid series episode; we are launched straight in to the interrogation of a suspect, with police officers watching the interview behind glass. The room where the observing officers are sitting is super dramatic, full of red lights and flashing graphics. There are 45 minutes of the police interview left - there's a big clock with some lights that count down. The interrogation room itself looks like they're in a hotel. The characters not involved in interviewing the suspect talk about stuff we don’t know about, to people we aren’t properly int...