“...this sophomore effort from Atuona in its current form feels underwritten and lacking in punch.”
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“ ‘Trouble in Butetown’ masterfully renders the physical and emotional barriers to change which we are all vulnerable to...The play’s company understand their characters down to the marrow, giving authentic and honest performances all around.”
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"Though it errs on being too neat at times, the overall effect is of something warm, spontaneous and true, the ensemble – directed by Tinuke Craig – beautifully serving low-key moments and high-stakes shifts."
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“Craig’s production is consistently entertaining. And beneath its covering of fuzzy warmth, it reminds us how mixed British society has always been, and how recently labels like “coloured” or the N-word were bandied around.”
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“ ‘Trouble in Butetown’ never loses its capacity to engage. It looks at the past with new eyes, trying to pull out the strings of Britain's tangled history, and it has the grace to spend time developing and listening to characters who aren't often heard. “
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“The script packs in period detail...’Trouble in Butetown’ is a glimpse of another time, another world.”
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"The script is deft, never preaching, but some elements are one step removed from a final polish: the winning humour jars in the later, darker scenes when the stakes are raised; a love story feels tacked on and a surge of melodrama comes with clunky plot-turns toward the end."
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“Atuona’s vivid characters are irresistible, in a drama that, at its best, has a piercing loveliness.”
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