★★★½

“The script glimmers with astute judgements, informative history, and shrewd wit”

Cian Griffin’s new play, Lee, delights with an emotive and well-researched take on a formidable artist. However, much like the organised chaos of Krasner’s recreated studio and Abstract Expressionist paintings, the show’s message at times felt jumbled and hard to discern.

Springs, New York, 1969: 13 years after the death of her husband, Jackson Pollock, Krasner is working on her latest painting, ‘Portrait in Green’. Hank, local delivery boy and art student, interrupts Krasner’s flow to seek advice on his portfolio and authenticate a painting given by Pollock to settle a debt with Hank’s father. The play weaves together imagined conversations between Krasner, Pollock and Hank, exploring her continued fight to make men see the worth in the work of female artists. The question remains, however: what freedoms lie in store for Krasner should she herself shake the weight of valuing their opinions?

Before a word is spoken, Jason Moore’s insightful direction sets the scene as Pollock (Tom Andrews) wanders onstage to cast an ever-critical eye upon Krasner’s paintings. Setting up their power struggle, Krasner, played by Olivier-nominated Helen Goldwyn, sets foot onstage with instant stage presence. In a captivating moment of live painting, Goldwyn lays down long brushstrokes with the unstudied air of a great artist’s intuition. The play certainly shines in its exciting and unique interactions – if only there had been more of them – with Ian Nicholas’ exceptional set design. There is certainly a commendable eye for detail in recreating Krasner’s Springs studio, with copies of Lee Krasner’s artworks and paint splatters on the floor that concretise the space and anchor the imagined action.

In 85 minutes, Griffin packs in a lot, although perhaps too much. Dialogue moves through meditations upon the artist’s raison d’être, Hank’s relationship with his father, Krasner’s with Pollock, the sexism of the American art scene. The script glimmers with astute judgements, informative history, and shrewd wit. This is excellently brought out in pacy back-and-forths between Goldwyn, superbly convincing as an acerbic Krasner, and Andrews, hands shaking from Pollock’s excessive alcoholism as he holds cigarettes to his sour face. Will Bagnall provides a welcome relief to the artists’ pessimism, perfectly embodying a young artist’s creative passion and naivety in a wide-eyed stare and shy smile.

That said, emotional highs and lows feel unexpectedly sudden at times, and the play’s structure could be improved for clarity. Pollock appears rather sporadically throughout the play, in scenes that can detract from a clear understanding and progression between the production’s main plot points. It is also clear Griffin completed extensive research, although evidence of such felt a touch heavy-handed at times. This historical reimagining, interspersing fantasy and reality, made it difficult to decipher fact from fiction – although perhaps this device was employed to encourage the audience to investigate further, which I certainly did.

The play’s attempt to centralise the too-oft marginalised ‘wife’ to the celebrity male artist is mostly successful, albeit obscured at times by the interwoven storylines of the male parts themselves. Overall, Lee is worth the watch – it draws audiences into the wonderful wit, work and world of Lee Krasner, bringing her out of the shadows and shedding light upon her enormous influence on generations of artists.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

★★★★★

“an electrifying mix of tradition and tragedy, with the flashes of humour searing through it like bolts of lightning”

Towards the end of the first act of “Fiddler on the Roof”, the sun is gently sinking behind the trees of Regent’s Park and candlelight casts its quivering, magical glow across the stage. A lone fiddler plays the opening bars of the achingly beautiful wedding song, ‘Sunrise, Sunset’. When we reach the bittersweet and hypnotic strains of the chorus, it is as though the number was written for this very moment: for this one particular sunset shared by a thousand people beneath a clear, unifying sky. It is one of many instants that make Jordan Fein’s current staging of “Fiddler on the Roof” one to remember for a long time.

When Sholem Aleichem’s “Tevye’s Daughters: Collected Stories” was first published in Yiddish at the dawn of the twentieth century, he was praised for the naturalness of his characters’ speech and the accuracy of his portrayal of life in the Shtetels of Eastern Europe. His writings combined cheerfulness in the face of adversity with the tragedy of the fate of the societies and their traditions. He probably had no idea that it would one day spawn one of the most successful and highly acclaimed musicals. Revived many times over the half century since its premiere, never before has it reflected the true nature of Aleichem’s writing with such accuracy and sensitivity. The creative elements of Jordan Fein’s interpretation come together in an electrifying mix of tradition and tragedy, with the flashes of humour searing through it like bolts of lightning.

The story centres on Tevye (Adam Dannheisser), the milkman in the village of Anatevka who is trying to cling onto his Jewish traditions as the outside world encroaches upon his family’s and the villagers’ lives. Not only that, but he is also up against his rebellious and progressive daughters who question the conventions, shunning the idea of arranged marriages; choosing instead to marry for love. The highly charged yet affectionate subversiveness of his daughters, however, is nothing compared to the dark shadow of the Imperial Russian pogroms rapidly approaching.

Tom Scutt’s imaginative set looms large over the action. A wheatfield uprooted from the ground, wrenched upwards in an arc exposing the name of the village embossed deep into the earth like an indelible stamp. Times are changing but the heritage runs deep. Beneath the canopy the orchestra is visible, the ensemble cast rarely leave the stage and the leading players watch from the sidelines when not in their own scenes. The community spirit is captured before a word is spoken (or sung). Nick Lidster’s clear-cut sound lends fragility to the solo numbers alongside the power of the rousing choruses of the ensemble. Julia Cheng’s choreography conjures a series of grand tableaux, like fine art in real life animation – meticulous yet shapeshifting: the comedy of ‘The Dream’ drifting into a macabre nightmare, or the rousing joy of ‘The Wedding’ that sinks into sinister violence as the Tsar’s officers intrude.

Adam Dannheisser, as Tevye, shifts superbly between the darkness and the light. A dominant figure yet dominated by the women in his life, he brings out the inherent comedy in the script with a true glint in his eye. A standout performance, but one of many; including Lara Pulver, as his wife Golde who really pulls the strings, along with Liv Andrusier’s feisty Tzeitel and Georgia Bruce’s pocket-rocket portrayal of Hodel. These strings snap when it comes to Chava, whose desire for marriage outside the Jewish faith is a line Tevye will not cross. Hannah Bristow adds poignancy with some evocative clarinet playing, endowing her character with a significance almost as symbolic as the eponymous ‘fiddler’ (the virtuosic Raphael Papo).

The pulse of the piece is the score. Jerry Bock’s music and Sheldon Harnick’s lyrics have gained fame and familiarity over time, but the company inject fresh individuality into the songs. Full of imagery they range from intimate to anthemic, from the major to the minor, backed by the twelve-piece orchestra. The emotional impact of the music never fails to stab, and then soothe the heart, culminating in an aching finale that feels global yet is inseparable from its ethnic origins. This is musical theatre at its heartfelt best.

LEE

Park Theatre

★★★½

“The script glimmers with astute judgements, informative history, and shrewd wit”

LEE

Park Theatre

Reviewed on 30th September 2025

by Lara Bainbridge

Photography by Giacomo Giannelli

Previously reviewed at this venue:

LEE

LEE

LEE

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

★★★★★

“an electrifying mix of tradition and tragedy, with the flashes of humour searing through it like bolts of lightning”

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Reviewed on 6th August 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Marc Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

JOIN US