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Sex, violence and caviar: Men's Business @finborough

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Life's a dog in Men's Business. It's a nasty, cruel life where amongst the banality of everything, love, or something resembling a bit of it, exists out of a butcher's shop. And in between feeding dogs or chopping up offcuts of meat to sell as pet food, there's always time for sex and violence. The play gets into these dark and disturbing themes, inviting the audience to immerse themselves in this claustrophobic world. It's not a pleasant night at the theatre. Still, the intensity of the piece in the confined space of the Finborough Theatre and the exploration of these ideas make for an engrossing experience.   This is a new translation by Simon Stephens of Franz Xaver Kroetz's work. Initially published in 1972 and would later be expanded in the piece Through The Leaves, the action is set in a butcher's shop.  We're introduced to Charlie (Lauren Farrell), who inherited the shop from her father. Family don't seem to be around anymore. All she has...

Love and marriage: Mrs Orwell @ORLTheatre

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London in 1949 was a grim time with ration books and strange fish from South Africa. But it's amazing the lengths people will go to keep up morale. Or secure a future income. The business of marriage is explored in Mrs Orwell, currently playing at the Old Red Lion Theatre . It opens shortly after the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four. George Orwell is dying of tuberculosis in hospital. But in his rage against the dying light he believes he has at three more novels in him. So to keep up his morale he proposes to his friend Sonia Brownell, an assistant magazine editor. Brownell is clear that she is not in love with him, but she does care for him. And she realises she could be his only hope to keep him going. Her heart is with a French Philospher and her body is often with Lucien Freud. Well, such is the glamorous life living with artists.