Author:

Jeremy Malies in the West End 13 November 2023 Cock jokes it seems, to paraphrase Claudius in Hamlet, “come not

Neil Dowden in south London 12 November 2023 The plays of Federico García Lorca are regularly staged in the UK,

Neil Dowden in north London 12 November 2023 Richard Bean’s new play To Have and to Hold takes a wryly

Jeremy Malies in East Sussex 12 November 2023 In Brian Friel’s Translations the focus is on what is lost or

Tom Bolton in south London 5 November 2023 Cade & MacAskill – Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill – are a performance

Mark Shenton in the West End 3 November 2023 Time famously plays tricks on us all; but what if our

Simon Thomas in the South West 1 November 2023 Deborah Warner’s tenure as artistic director of Bath’s Ustinov Studio continues

Yann Messager in Paris 1 November 2023 Jacques Weber’s Ruy Blas is an aesthetically intriguing and occasionally gripping rendition of

Hans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin October 2023 This year, Anton Chekhov’s plays have been as popular as ever in Berlin. Following

Jeremy Malies in the West End 29 October 2023 Worker solidarity, second chances, and ambition tempered by kindness are the

Jeremy Malies on the South Bank 26 October 2023 “My life would be a beautiful story that would become true,

Neil Dowden in the West End 24 October 2023 Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling 2020 novel Hamnet opened

Neil Dowden in north London 23 October 2023 Over the last four decades Marina Carr has forged a considerable reputation

Simon Thomas in the South West 21 October 2023 The first time I saw Brian Cox on stage was in

Glenda Frank in New York 19 October 2023 Despite the blood-red curtains, the ebony desk with its golden memento mori,

Vincent Macaigne’s vision of  Shakespeare at MC93 (Maison de la culture de Seine-Saint-Denis à Bobigny) Yann Messager reports from Paris

Simon Jenner in the West End 19 October 2023 Caryl Churchill’s first stage play Owners has proved doubly prescient. Premiering

Mark Shenton in the West End 16 October 2023 As the sun finally begins to set on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s

Neil Dowden in west London 16 October 2023 Ten years on from premiering Tanika Gupta’s The Empress, the RSC have

Jeremy Malies in West Sussex 13 October 2023 “It wasn’t as if there was any mystery to unravel” is one

Jane Edwardes on the South Bank 12 October 2023 In 2020, Clint Dyer and Roy Williams launched the first of

Glenda Frank in Manhattan 9 October 2023 This does not open with a bang although Jane (Sydney Lemmon, TÁR, “Succession”)

Dana Rufolo in Ghent October 2023   The first foray into directing opera of the acclaimed Swiss theatre director Milo

Simon Thomas in Somerset 6 October 2023 It seems no time at all since Rupert Everett was appearing in the

Tom Bolton in South London 5 October 2023 There is something about Beyoncé and Thomas Middleton. Within a few minutes,

Dana Rufolo in Luxembourg October 2023 Lovefool is a drama that demands attention; it is a feminist cri de coeur

Mark Shenton in the West End 5 October 2023 Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends was a one-night gala held (appropriately) at

Simon Jenner on the South Bank 1 October 2023 Kim’s having a bad day, and it spans over a century.

Simon Jenner in West Sussex October 1 2023 “In the world of quizzing, the man who has the questions is

Jane Edwardes in the West End 1 October 2023  When Peter Hall was artistic director of the National Theatre, he

Jeremy Malies in south London  1 October 2023  Playwright Charlie Dupré’s imagination and writing skills have been fired by several

Neil Dowden in north London 28 September 2023 It seems that American playwright Lynn Nottage is finally getting the recognition

Mark Shenton in central London 27 September 2023 In Harold Pinter’s 1975 play No Man’s Land two older men meet

Jeremy Malies on the South Bank 26 September 2023 “This is an age of upstarts” is one of Henry Higgins’s

Mark Shenton in east London 25 September 2023 In Jonathan Harvey’s first big hit play Beautiful Thing, originally premiered in

Neil Dowden in north London 25 September 2023 Hampstead Theatre has done sterling work in staging a number of new

Tom Bolton in south London 25 September 2023 It seems 2023 is the year we rediscovered the nuclear bomb. Against

Neil Dowden on the South Bank 20 September 2023 The name Nathuram Godse may not be familiar to most people

Mark Shenton in the West End 18 September 2023 The New York-based comedian, author, filmmaker, and podcaster Mike Birbiglia specializes

Jeremy Malies in west London 18 September 2023  Polly Stenham’s first play That Face (2007) opens by showing a piece

Mark Shenton in the West End 15 September 2023    In a world of seemingly endless re-hashes of popular film

Mark Shenton in the West End 14 September 2023   Like productions of King Lear or Hamlet, you never have

Neil Dowden in west London 12 September 2023 French playwright Yasmina Reza is best known for her dark comedies satirizing

Simon Jenner in West Sussex 9 September 2023   After April De Angelis’ Kerry Jackson at the National last year,

Simon Thomas in the West Country 2 September 2023 A play like Farewell Mister Haffmann shouldn’t really be as entertaining as it

Mark Shenton in the West End 1 September 2023 London had to wait 35 years for the arrival of the

Simon Jenner in East Sussex 25 August 2023 If you were thinking The Playgirl of the Western World as the

Jeremy Malies in north London 25 August 2023 “Bach Cello Suite No. 1!” said a critic who I hang about

Mark Shenton in the West End 24 August 2023 Mamma Mia! – the jukebox musical forged out of the back

Hans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin Since Peter Stein’s legendary staging of Three Sisters in 1984, remembered above all for the magnificent

Glenda Frank in Manhattan 22 August 2023 Towards the end of Act II of The Cottage, the comedy takes a

Mark Shenton in north London 15 August 2023  August 23 marks the 40th anniversary of the Broadway opening night of

Neil Dowden on the South Bank 13 August 2023 Premiered to acclaim in 2012 in the intimate Cottesloe (now Dorfman),

Simon Jenner in the West End 7 August 2023 Restoration panto meets The Comedy About a Bank Robbery? Based on

Neil Dowden in west London 2 August 2023 Postponed from last September, Rabiah Hussain’s intriguing new work Word-Play is, as

Simon Jenner in West Sussex 1 August  2023 Some have waited 46 years. Dominic Cooke brings back Howard Schuman and

Jeremy Malies in east London 27 July 2023 Imagine one of Iain Sinclair’s psychogeography books about London in a skilful

Neil Dowden in west London 19 July 2023 Michael Wynne’s new play Cuckoo – his eighth for the Royal Court

Mark Shenton in West Sussex 18 July 2023 Early on in The Sound of Music, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final musical

Jeremy Malies in the West End 13 July 2023 “Observe first, interpret later.” This is the advice of nineteenth-century physician

Simon Jenner in West Sussex 8 July 2023 At the end of his life Wagner announced he’d revise his early

Jeremy Malies on the South Bank 7 July 2023 Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park shows a character arriving on stage 15

Mark Shenton in the West End 7 July 2023 “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” Dorothy tells her dog, after

Hans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin Five years ago, the Komödie was compelled to go into temporary exile when wrecking balls started

Mark Shenton in the West End 4 July 2023 When Crazy for You originally premiered on Broadway in 1992, Frank

Mark Shenton in south London 3 July 2023 A truly sublime musical version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Curious Case of

Mark Shenton in central London 3 July 2023 After Groundhog Day, a musical about a man trapped in a recurring

Neil Dowden in north London 30 June 2023 Shomit Dutta’s debut play Stumped is based on the delightful conceit of

Neil Dowden in the West End 27 June 2023 With a premiere at the National Theatre starring David Tennant in

Neil Dowden on the South Bank 25 June 2023 James Graham has forged a reputation as a political playwright with

Mark Shenton in the West End 23 June 2023   The original production of Mrs. Doubtfire began previews on 9 March

Simon Jenner in West Sussex 21 June 2023  “I can’t believe you’re Laurence Olivier!” Thus Adrienne Kennedy addresses the actor

Simon Thomas in the West Country 21 June 2023 A brand new Cole Porter musical has to be a good

Neil Dowden in the West End 19 June 2023 Jack Thorne must be one of the busiest dramatists around. While

Mark Shenton in north London 15 June 2023 “Think of musical comedy, the most glorious words in the English language!”

Simon Thomas in the South West 11 June 2023   In the 1960s, Bristol Old Vic mounted a very successful

Jane Edwardes in west London 11 June 2023 The three monologues or, as he would say, poems that make up

Simon Jenner in West Sussex 11 June 2023 “Everybody’s got the right to… dream” American. Stephen Sondheim’s 1990 Assassins –

Mark Shenton on the South Bank 10 June 2023 If I ever found myself paralysed by time into re-living the

Jeremy Malies in East Sussex 7 June 2023 “Ever and ever, forever and ever you’ll be the one / That shines

Natalia Isaeva in Paris 15 December 2016 In 1965 Marguerite Duras created her La Musica initially as a radio play

Neil Dowden in north London 2 June 2023 Neil LaBute 2001’s romantic comedy-drama The Shape of Things is his most

Maggie Rose in Lombardy 31 May 2023   The Pathological Theatre’s Medea, directed and adapted by Dario D’Ambrosi, has been

“Rose” at Ambassadors Theatre Neil Dowden in the West End 29 May 2023   Martin Sherman – best known for

Mark Shenton in the West End 26 May 2023   Aspects of Love, originally premiered in the West End in

Maggie Rose in Milan 25 May 2023   The tenth anniversary of Franca Rame’s death (29 May 2013) has been

Mark Shenton in north London 25 May 2023   I recently attended a gala at New York’s Classic Stage Company

Mark Shenton in south London 24 May 2023   Frank Loesser’s timeless 1950 masterpiece Guys and Dolls is currently receiving

Mark Shenton in the West End 23 May 2023   Director Jonathan Butterell and composer Dan Gillespie Sells, two of

Dana Rufolo in Luxembourg 12 May 2023 Complicité is a member of the UK Touring Theatre Companies and Drive Your

Simon Jenner in West Sussex 12 May 2023 As in the plot of the play, waves of past calamity are

Mark Shenton at the Brighton Festival 9 May 2023 Premiered at the Brighton Festival which is curated this year by

Jane Edwardes in west London 7 May 2023   Lenny Henry here exhibits his many talents with his first stage

Mark Shenton in West Sussex 5 May 2023   Hot on the heels of the scintillating revival of Noël Coward’s

Glenda Frank in New York 4 May 2023   They’re back – the Mischief Production zannis who last brought us

Robert Schneider in Connecticut 3 May 2023   I write in order to describe taking a trip to theatrical Never-Never

Mark Shenton in north London 28 April 2023    Composer Duncan Sheik wrote the music for Spring Awakening, one of

Mark Shenton in north London 28 April 2023   Ryan Calais Cameron is currently represented in the West End by

Simon Jenner on the South Bank 26 April 2023   Though Mary’s family want to stage a small surprise reception

Neil Dowden in west London 22 April 2023   First staged 80 years ago, Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of

Jeremy Malies on the South Bank 22 April 2022   It’s August 1936 in Ballybeg (literally “Little Town” in Gaelic),

Neil Dowden in the West End 19 April 2023   Noël Coward’s masterly comedy of manners Private Lives has rarely

Hans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin 18th April 2023   Chekhov’s dramatic work features regularly in the repertoire of Berlin’s theatres, particularly

Dana Rufolo in Luxembourg 18 April 2023   The Writer by Ella Hickson was staged under the auspices of Les

Sasho Ognenovski in Sofia 17th April 2023   Nora (often used as an alternative title for A Doll’s House) is

Sasho Ognenovski in Belgrade 17 April 2023   This sharp and observant play speaks of an inherited and politically instinctive

Ken Edwards in the West End 17 April 2023   Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–81) was one of the

Mark Shenton in the West End 6 April 2023 There’s nothing little about the huge emotional intensity of Ivo van

Mark Shenton in the West End 3 April 2023 David Hare recently wrote a diary column for The Spectator (https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/musicals-are-killing-theatre/)

Jeremy Malies in East Sussex 1 April 2023   “Lady (Hear Me Tonight)” by Modjo is hardwired into me now

Robert Schneider 29 March 2023   The difficulty in adapting Medea for modern audiences is clear: we must be horrified

Annie Loui in Los Angeles 28 March 2023   Anna Deavere Smith’s iconic play about the LA riots of 1992 has

Glenda Frank in New York 28 March 2023   Like Shakespeare, Chekhov and Miller, Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett wrote

Neil Dowden in west London 28 March 2023   Actor and activist Danny Lee Wynter’s first work as a playwright

Neil Dowden in west London 21 March 2023 Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist may have premiered in Italy

Neil Dowden in South London 19 March 2023 The Menier Chocolate Factory deserve much credit for staging the UK premiere

Simon Jenner in south London 19 March 2023 Slow-burn seems an inevitable phrase for Zinnie Harris’s second (1999) play Further

Glenda Frank on the Upper East Side 18 March 2023   At first the title Love seems bizarre, misleading, even

Axel Hörhager in Austria 18 March 2023 Only Thomas Bernhard, with his acerbic and typically Austrian wit, could have commented

Mark Shenton on the South Bank 17 March 2023 In Nicholas Hytner’s fully immersive production of Frank Loesser’s Guys &

Jeremy Malies in Barcelona 16 March 2023   “An opera project” is how the official blurb describes this, so I

Mark Shenton in the West End 13 March 2023 Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn has lost more money for theatre producers

Axel Hörhager in Austria 12 March 2023 The advance publicity by the Burgtheater, suggesting that their version of Friedrich Schiller’s

Tom Bolton in south London 3 March 2023   For Tim Crouch, challenge is inherent to performance. Walking onto a

Neil Dowden in the West End 3 March 2023   Willy Russell’s 1986 monodrama Shirley Valentine may seem a bit

Dana Rufolo at the Grand Théâtre 1 March 2023   Who else but the Berliner Ensemble, Bertolt Brecht’s own theatre

Neil Dowden in South London 1 March 2023   It seems highly appropriate for Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce to

Mark Shenton in the West End 1 March 2023   “And when we say; Ee-ee-ow! A-yip-i-o-ee-ay! We’re only sayin’, You’re

Maggie Rose in Lombardy 26 February 2023   Caryl Churchill’s work is enjoying unprecedented success in Italy. After many decades

Maggie Rose in Lombardy 26 February 2023   Milan’s Franco Parenti Theatre is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year, with

Jeremy Malies in North London 26 February 2023   Lulu Raczka’s first play Nothing, a set of interconnected monologues about

Jeremy Malies in the West End 23 February 2023   Worst mother in Greek tragedy? It’s a competitive field but

Mark Shenton in the West End 21 February 2023   A personal note to begin: I first met playwright Diana

Neil Dowden in south London 19 February 2023   Tom Kempinksi’s 1980 drama Duet for One is an intense two-hander

Mark Shenton on the South Bank 14 February 2023   After producing one of the biggest musical misfires of the

Neil Dowden on the South Bank 14 February 2023   Simon Stone has made an international reputation as a writer-director

Neil Dowden in the West End 13 February 2023   Stefano Massini’s epic three-act play The Lehman Trilogy adapted by

Mark Shenton in the West End 7 February 2023   Words matter, in reviews as in life. But life is

Hans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin 31 January 2023   Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s play Minna von Barnhelm was premiered in 1767 at

Neil Dowden in the West End 29 January 2023   Michael Frayn’s perennially popular 1982 meta-comedy Noises Off deconstructs farce

Jeremy Malies in West Sussex 26 January 2023   Girl from the North Country is a play by Conor McPherson

Robert Schneider 24th December 2022   Remember Pearl Harbor! The injunction that screamed from recruiting posters during WWII still brings

Maggie Rose in Lombardy 18th December 2022   Milan’s Carcano Theatre (founded 1803), has, for the first time, two women

Jeremy Malies on the South Bank 13th December 2022   I could tell from seeing three-quarters of the capacity audience

Jeremy Malies in the West End 9 December 2022   Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel has struck adaptors as potentially genre

Simon Jenner on the South Bank 9th December 2022   In April De Angelis’s new play, Kerry Jackson, opening at

Hans-Jürgen Bartsch in Germany 22 October 2022   Had they not been compelled to go into a (temporary) exile four

Maggie Rose in Lombardy 2nd December 2022   Theatre Protons’s Winterreise is being performed at the Triennale theatre’s small studio

Jeremy Malies on the South Bank 1st December 2022   Adaptor Jack Thorne, quite rightly, impresses upon us that this

Simon Jenner in south-west London 25 November 2022    Talk about art aspiring to the condition of music. Shaw the

Simon Jenner in the West End 27th November 2022   “Congratulations! Your pain is commercially viable.” Jasmine Naziha Jones’ Baghdaddy

Tom Bolton in north London  24th November 2022    A middle-aged man steps up to a spot-lit microphone on a

Jeremy Malies in east London 23 November 2022    Frank McGuinness’s new play is inspired by the unlikely but real-life

Neil Dowden in south London 22 November 2022   The Menier Chocolate Factory has reopened after a six-month refurbishment with

Simon Thomas in the south-west 18th November 2022   A tour that takes in Bath, Richmond, Chichester, Guildford, and Cheltenham

Glenda Frank on Broadway 6 October 2022   Some directors take a minute or two but from the first, Diane

Tom Bolton in west London 11 November 2022   Not Now is the third new David Ireland play staged at

Jeremy Malies in Dorset 10th November 2022   In August I reported on the wonderful character actor Pip Utton being

Maggie Rose in Lombardy 9 November 2022   Erba is one of the few contemporary playwrights in Italy to have

Ludovico Lucchesi Palli in Vienna [8th November 2022]   We know her as an actress, singer, talent agent and activist.

Neil Dowden in north London 6 November 2022   Rona Munro had a big success with her 2014 trilogy The

Glenda Frank on Broadway 31 October 2022   Death of a Salesman, directed by Miranda Cromwell, meets all the criteria

Simon Jenner in north London 29 October 2022   Tammy Faye: A New Musical – making its world premiere at

Neil Dowden in the West End 27 October 2022   @sohoplace is the first new, purpose-built theatre in the West

Tom Bolton in north London 27th October 2022   Performed on a bare stage that contains only a trunk and

Robert Schneider in Connecticut 24 October 2022   With 70 years of practice, reviewers have learned how to write about

Robert Schneider in Connecticut 24 October 2022   Skylar Lynn Matthews holds her arms out, banking left and right like

Simon Jenner on the South Bank 23 October 2022   Pearl Cleage’s 1995 play Blues for an Alabama Sky is

Neil Dowden in the West End 20 October 2022   Twice delayed by Covid, Dominic Cooke’s revival of C.P. Taylor’s

Maggie Rose in Lombardy 19 October 2022   One of the best definitions of a classic has to be that

Robert Schneider in Connecticut 18th October 2022   Like many people who work in higher education, I’m trained every year

Ludovico Lucchesi Palli in Austria [18th October 2022]   Following the success of JA EH! – Beisl, Bier und Bachmannpreis

Simon Jenner in west Sussex 18th October 2022   Happer, the comet-gazing CEO of Knox Oil (played by Jay Villiers)

Simon Jenner on the South Bank 14 October 2022   Cramped in car boots, in hidden lorry compartments, not breathing.

Jeremy Malies in south-west London 14 October 2022   This is a play that shows two competing groups trying to

Glenda Frank on Broadway 12 October 2022 Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard, now at the Longacre Theatre, is a sprawling Chekhovian

Neil Dowden in the West End 12th October 2022 Created by Robert Icke, The Doctor (loosely based on Arthur Schnitzler’s

Jeremy Malies in west London 10th October 2022   Another play about altruism. In his The Hard Problem, Tom Stoppard

Simon Jenner in the West End 8 October 2022   “This happened not too long ago. You probably won’t have

Neil Dowden on the South Bank 5 October 2022   Ibsen certainly lives up to his reputation for gloominess in

Neil Dowden on the Southbank 2 October 2022   The trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692–3 which led to 19

Simon Jenner in west Sussex 29 September 2022 “Squeezy.. squeezy… Score grounds appeal cumquat doggy Martha hat sick on the

Neil Dowden in east London 28th September 2022 Anthony Neilson’s The Wonderful World of Dissocia is very much a play

Ludovico Lucchesi Palli in Austria 28 September 2022 Werk X-Petersplatz have kicked off the new season with the world premiere

Simon Jenner in Waterloo 25 September 2022 Something about the fall of 2017 seems to haunt American playwriting just now.

Neil Dowden in north London 20 September 2022 The timing of this revival by the Kiln Theatre of Moira Buffini’s

Jeremy Malies in east London 20 September 2022 It’s every sound engineer’s nightmare. How do you create the sound of

Neil Dowden in north London 19 September 2022 Richard Eyre has had a distinguished career as a director of plays,

Simon Jenner in north London 15 September 2022 Six into five won’t go. When overworked British-Nigerian junior doctor Ore (Gloria

Neil Dowden in central London 14 September 2022 Inua Ellams is a British-Nigerian playwright, poet, and performer best known for