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2003: A Review of the Year (Part IV)By Philip FisherThis review concludes with some of the theatres slightly further from the West End. The Tricycle's usual mix of Black and Irish theatre, with a few surprises such as Pinter's The Dwarfs thrown in, has been as good as ever. They included a revival of Bernard Shaw's John Bull's Other Island, Justifying War, a reconstruction of the enquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, and a return of the South African township musical, Kat and the Kings. Hampstead has had a difficult year in its new building and the Edinburgh import about adolescence and war, The Straits by Gregory Burke, was as good as it got, although Stephen Adly Guirgis' In Arabia We'd All be Kings is an interesting play and featured a memorable performance from Tom Hardy. The Orange Tree in Richmond achieved Sam Walters' aim of providing great variety. This included discovery's like Galsworthy's The Mob, Lady Mary Wortley Montague's Simplicity and Lorca's House of Bernarda Alba. They finished the year with the fascinating King Cromwell written by and starring Oliver Ford Davies. The Kings Head was at its best with Number Two starring the tremendous Madeleine Sami, Singular Women, another one-woman show starring Lesley Joseph, and the world premiere of Terrence McNally's Lisbon Traviata, featuring a great performance from David Bamber. The Gate is one of the more adventurous fringe venues under Erica Wymark. All three plays in the Under the Curse season featuring Greek heroines were enlightening and, though not to everybody's taste, Vaclav Havel's surreal comedy, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, was extremely funny and thought-provoking. In Hammersmith, the Riverside Studios were as eclectic as ever, with Edinburgh award winners like Horse Country and Victory at the Dirt Palace, together with a wide variety of imports of varying quality. Up the road, possibly the most exciting show at the Lyric was Guy Retallack's Faster, in the small studio space. In the main theatre, the pick was Shared Experience's A Passage to India. The usual apologies to all of those neglected. This has been a big task and some great shows may well have slipped through.
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