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Prayers and thoughts: The Inseparables @Finboroughtheatre

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The Inseparables brings Simone de Beauvoir’s posthumously published novel to life. It traces a lifelong friendship between Sylve and Andrée, two unconventional girls who grew up in a stifling world where being a woman meant getting married or entering a convent. With a quick pace and engaging performances from the two leads, it is a journey back into the 20th century that captures two unconventional women trapped in a conventional world that will have you reflecting on how much or little things have moved on in the last century. It’s currently playing at the Finborough Theatre .  We’re introduced to Sylve praying for her country, France, to be saved from the war and indoctrinated into the world of faith and obedience. But too smart for all that, her life was full of detached guilt and boredom. But when she meets Andrée, a new arrival at her school, she is struck by how different she is from everyone else. She was burned in a fire and had a passion for life that nobody else she knew...

Passing glances: The Collector @thevaultsuk


Dark sinister and opressive… That’s just the venue it is playing in. But The Collector at The Vaults in Waterloo turns things up yet another notch with it’s creepy tale of a man who collects butterflies. And the occasional arts student.

Mark Healey has adapted John Fowles’s novel, which tells the story of Frederick Clegg and Miranda Grey. Frederick loves Miranda so much so that he follows her every move. When he wins the lottery, he quits his job, buys a remote farmhouse and prepares the basement for a special house guest.

Starring Daniel Portman (seen in Game of Thrones) as Frederick and Lily Loveless as Miranda. It is a cat and mouse tale of obsession and secrets set in a basement. Together the two spar as one plots how to make her love him, while the other plots her escape.

The thrills come from seeing how everyday activities become a pattern of behaviour that can be your downfall. And how even good people can do bad things.

A stylish production with a smart cast directed by Joe Hufton. It’s playing at The Vaults. Not one for the faint hearted. Or for anyone wearing anything but the barest of clothing given the lack of suitable air conditioning at the venue (perhaps a subtle ploy to put you in the shoes of Miranda)... It runs through to 28 August.

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