The Years review: The uncensored inner life of women that’s unsettling men, writes PATRICK MARMION

The Years Verdict: A whole lot of woman Rating: There was drama on stage and off this week at Islington’s boutique Almeida Theatre when their latest show, The Years, was briefly stopped after a number of men began feeling unwell. Recounting it, Garai also reduces the normally unshockable Almeida to mute silence — thanks in part to liberally deployed ketchup, but also because of unsparing descriptions recalling a ‘baby doll on an umbilical cord’. There was drama on stage and off this week at Islington’s boutique Almeida Theatre when their latest show, The Years, was briefly stopped after a number of men began feeling unwell The Years is on at The Almeida until end of August The five women create a frank, unsettling and thoughtful performance that might best be described as a game of cherchez la femme, writes Patrick Marmion We meet her as a toddler, recalling the liberation of Paris in 1944 before the end of World War II. The original production and adaptation of The Years was first produced as De Jaren by Het Nationale Theater in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2022 The play is directed by Eline Arbo Five different actors bring one woman’s personal and political story to life, set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing post-war Europe in The Years Pictured: Deborah Findlay and Anjli Mohindra The Grapes Of Wrath Verditc: Labour of Love Rating: John Steinbeck’s mighty American novel The Grapes Of Wrath has always been a labour of love. Joanna Parker’s clunky set design features bizarrely motorised wooden islands transporting actors and furniture — including an entire Cabinet table and chairs with wonky legs.