Sue Badman

Review of Almeida Theatre

Very good theatre with excellent thought-provoking...

Very good theatre with excellent thought-provoking plays and award-winning actors, directors and writers. The theatre is an intimate space with stalls & circle, cafe & bar.

It is just off the main Islington shopping street with a range of independent shops, bars and restaurants. The bars are very busy at weekends with young people and the pavements can get very crowded, something to watch out for when you are walking to the Angel Islington tube.

The theatre is equidistant between The Angel Islington tube 'Angel' on the Northern Line and Highbury & Islington tube/mainline served by Victoria and Piccadilly lines, a 10-15 min walk from both stations to the theatre. There are several buses serving both tubes. You will need to check the theatre website for advice about parking.

Have just seen a brilliant play "The Doctor" directed by Robert Icke and loosely based on a play written by Viennese Arthur Schnitzler starring Juliet Stevenson and a brilliant cast. The play is about a doctor involved in an incident surrounding the death of a 14 year old girl at a hospital of which the doctor was the head. The play works on several levels and explores the nature of gender and identity as well as the role of medicine and religion and the people who work within these institutions in contemporary society.

The play also explores the changing nature of what it means to be a doctor, the part played by medical ethics and the more practical problems faced by an organisation dealing with an incident of this nature amid the braying nature of social media, the press and public opinion searching for a scapegoat to blame. Heartrending, human but reflective of the appalling society embedded in the digital culture we now live in.