Taking its inspiration from Marks’ 1996 autobiography of the same name, Mr Nice is unsurprisingly reverential and seems reluctant to ask any real questions of its protagonist. Most crucially, by presenting Marks as ‘Mr Nice’, the film fails to explore the moral dilemma inherent to his profession. Instead, Rose’s script opts for a rather shallow pro-legalisation, pro-Marks stance which ultimately suggests, to quote one glib piece of dialogue, that ‘it’s the law that’s wrong’.

Doctor Faustus, Royal Exchange, 10th September 2010 When Robert Johnson went to the crossroads to sell his soul to the devil, he did so in exchange for an awesome mastery of the guitar and revolutionised the blues forever more. The tale of Faust recounts how he did the same thing in his quest for knowledge […]

Parade, The Lowry, 27th – 28 Any members of the audience taking their seats as the cast broke into ‘The Old Red Hills of Home’ would have thought that they had arrived two hours late for the evening’s performance. The opening chorus of Parade possessed all the qualities of a number preceding a curtain call […]