“Reykjavik” at Hampstead Theatre
Neil Dowden in North London 28 October 2024 Richard Bean’s atmospheric new play Reykjavik about distant-water trawlermen from his hometown
Read MoreNeil Dowden in North London 28 October 2024 Richard Bean’s atmospheric new play Reykjavik about distant-water trawlermen from his hometown
Read MoreAnnie Loui in Cluj, Romania 16-20 October 2024 With the compelling vitality and political lens which are among the hallmarks
Read MoreRobert Schneider in Connecticut 23 October 2024 Adolescence is a former nationality that we renounce as we emigrate to adulthood.
Read MoreJeremy Malies in east London 22 October 2024 The ushers at Hackney Town Hall won’t let us in despite the
Read MoreRobert Schneider in Connecticut 21 October 2024 If Luke Cantarella’s set for Fever Dreams (of animals on the verge of
Read MoreGlenda Frank in New York 21 October 2024 While The Roommate, a two-hander by Jen Silverman, offers the actors substantial
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 21 October 2024 Every revival of a classic play is, of course, an opportunity
Read MoreTom Bolton in South London 21 October 2024 The title of Jon Berry’s new play is the Welsh word for
Read MoreJeremy Malies in South London 21 October 2024 Stage left the drawing of President McKinley struck down by Leon Czolgosz
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 20 October 2024 Not that it’s ever been in abeyance for too long, but
Read MoreGlenda Frank in New York 20 October 2024 Yellowface is a quasi-autobiographical work by David Henry Hwang produced by Roundabout
Read MoreJeremy Malies in west London 18 October 2024 “What happens to a dream deferred?” In his poem “Harlem”, Langston Hughes
Read MoreJane Edwardes on the South Bank 13 October 2024 Playwright Alexander Zeldin is best known for The Inequalities trilogy of
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Luxembourg October 9, 2024 It is always a sign that theatre is well integrated into the cultural
Read MoreFranco Milazzo in the West End 12 October 2024 “Much-anticipated” is a phrase that is often recklessly bandied about in
Read MoreJeremy Malies in East Sussex 10 October 2024 Director Iqbal Khan has reinvigorated Art by Yasmina Reza. I wonder how
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 9 October 2024 A maimed young man, two paramilitary executions, disappointment over an inheritance,
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex 8 October 2024 “Hello. Hi. You don’t know me yet … but my name is
Read MoreJeremy Malies in North London 6 October 2024 John Osborne’s 1956 play Look Back in Anger hasn’t been seen in
Read MoreNeil Dowden in South London 6 October 2024 Born in 1855 – the year between the births of Oscar Wilde
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 5 October 2024 “Queenie! Come in! The water is lovely!” Rarely have such clichés
Read MoreJeremy Malies in North London 4 October 2024 “My people are not caricatures. They are real (though fiction), and if
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 2 October 2024 In a 1982 TV interview, when asked how he’d like to be
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 30 September 2024 Coriolanus is the least known of Shakespeare’s three late Roman tragedies
Read MoreJane Edwardes in north London 29 September 2024 Playwright Rob Drummond is not to be trusted. At the beginning of
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 29 September 2024 At one time Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot tended to be
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the South West 27 September 2024 It is tempting to think that in 2024 we are edging
Read MoreJeremy Malies in south-west London 27 September 2024 A play is a poem in which “the action is not related
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 25 September 2024 Kwame Kwei-Armah’s final show as director while leading the Young Vic
Read MoreRobert Schneider in East Haddam, Connecticut 17 September 2024 This new musical by Scottish-born country star Johnny Reid in collaboration
Read MoreDana Rufolo in the Czech Republic 8 September 2024 If This Is A Man by Primo Levi has always been
Read MoreJeremy Malies in west London 15 September 2024 “You can pretend you’re her!” “No, I have to be her –
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 14 September 2024 First staged in 1982, The Real Thing is deservedly one of
Read MoreJeremy Malies in north London 12 September 2024 The Boys from Syracuse is a 1938 musical by Richard Rodgers and
Read MoreJeremy Malies in north London 10 September 2024 Accustomed to tricksy titles at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where I missed
Read MoreTom Bolton in East London 9 September 2024 In the basement studio at the Arcola Theatre, instruments are set up
Read MoreJeremy Malies in West Sussex 4 September 2024 When the novel on which this play is based first came out
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 3 September 2024 Peter Hall used to say that good politics always makes bad
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 2 September 2024 A hit during last year’s season at the Globe, Sean Holmes’s
Read MoreTom Bolton in West London 31 August 2024 Upstairs at the Royal Court the set, by Madeleine Boyd, consists of
Read MoreGlenda Frank in Greece 30 August 2024 I had never seen a production of The Birds, a comedy by Aristophanes,
Read MoreSimon Jenner in East Sussex 21 August 2024 Behind every Ideal Husband there’s an idealist wife: or so Wilde mischievously
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 19 August 2024 From Lawrence Krauss to Stephen Hawking by way of Oppenheimer, Einstein,
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 15 August 2024 “Go to, then. Your considerate stone.” Enobarbus is silenced. Yet here,
Read MoreTraverse Theatre To 25 August. (Times vary) Venue 15 Duration: 80 minutes Jeremy Malies in Edinburgh 12 August 2024 ****
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Edinburgh 11 August 2024 **** Four-star review Duration: 120 minutes Another radical treatment of a Greek tragedy
Read MoreSimon Thomas in South West England 10 August 2024 On paper, director Richard Jones and playwright Harold Pinter is a perfect combination.
Read MoreSummerhall – Old Lab To 11 August 2024 (Times vary) Duration: 60 minutes Jeremy Malies in Edinburgh 10 August 2023
Read MoreSimon Jenner in East Sussex 10 August 2024 It seems the year for Oliver Twist. The Matthew Bourne/Cameron Mackintosh production
Read MoreTom Bolton in Stratford-upon-Avon 10 August 2024 Of all the plays William Shakespeare is credited with, Pericles is perhaps the
Read MoreMark Shenton in North London 9 August 2024 After the sheer, unadulterated joy of the current Palladium revival of Hello,
Read MoreMark Shenton in North London 5 August 2024 “Who am I anyway? / Am I my résumé? / That is
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 5 August 2024 Death of England: The Plays by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Portugal at the 41st edition of the Almada Theatre Festival (Dates 4-18 July 2024) Because I want
Read MoreMark Shenton in West London 25 July 2024 In an evolving musical theatre landscape, shows that are designed to both
Read MoreMark Shenton in West Sussex 25 July 2024 Producer Cameron Mackintosh has his own name alone above the title of
Read MoreGlenda Frank in New York 25 July 2024 For almost a decade, some of the best theatre has been played
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 24 July 2024 What is it with food on stage now? Everything from Next
Read MoreJeremy Malies in West London 21 July 2024 “We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” said Joan Didion. But
Read MoreSimon Jenner in East Sussex 19 July 2024 “Is there a serious production of this?” asked one audience member en
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 19 July 2024 “Well hello, Dolly, it’s so nice to have you back where
Read MoreSimon Jenner in East Sussex 18 July 2024 It seems pure Patrick Barlow, but as a programme detail reminds us,
Read MoreNeil Dowden in North London 16 July 2024 Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig’s 1922 novella Letter from
Read MoreAnnie Loui in Perugia, Italy 6 July 2024 A simple, full and oddly moving presentation took place in the Piazza
Read MoreAnnie Loui in Perugia, Italy 6 July 2024 The Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto has kicked off with a
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 13 July 2024 Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play garnered a then record-breaking 12 nominations
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 13 July 2024 Plays and musicals set in factories include The Factory Girls, The
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 10 July 2024 The impressive programme brochure for Your Lie in April is designed
Read MoreRobert Schneider in France 8 July 2024 Angelica Liddell’s Dämon: Ingmar Bergman’s funeral A long file of wheelchairs waits stage
Read MoreMark Shenton in north London 2 July 2024 The third-longest running Andrew Lloyd Webber musical to be launched across the
Read MoreTom Bolton in North London 2 July 2024 English is set in a classroom of the kind recognizable throughout the
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 1 July 2024 Give this your best attention if you want to see a
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 1 July 2024 Joe Penhall’s absorbing new play The Constituent is a pertinent dramatization
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 30 June 2024 “He was part of my dream. But then I was part
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 28 June 2024 London is awash with back to high school musicals: Babies, currently
Read MoreTom Bolton in West London 23 June 2024 The entirety of Stewart Pringle’s The Bounds takes place on a small
Read MoreMark Shenton in central London 20 June 2024 The biggest and splashiest new production to open in London in the
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 17 June 2024 Musicals about teenagers are all the rage right now. The Outsiders,
Read MoreJeremy Malies in West Sussex 17 June 2024 “You’ve got a lot of stuff here!” says Ian McDiarmid playing Davies,
Read MoreTom Bolton in west London 16 June 2024 Italian company lacasadargilla bring their touring production of Caryl Churchill’s short play
Read MoreDana Rufolo in the Czech Republic The International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC) was invited by PerformCzech with financial backing
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the South West 14 June 2024 During her all-too-brief tenure as Artistic Director of the Ustinov Studio,
Read MoreSimon Jenner in west London 7 June 2024 “It’s wrong to hate, they say. It’s wrong to love, too,” the
Read MoreJane Edwardes in south-west London 7 June 2024 In 1965, Noël Coward finished three plays, one full-length and two short
Read MoreJane Edwardes on the South Bank 4 June 2024 There’s a watery theme developing at the National Theatre. In London
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 4 June 2024 Jenna Innes and Keelan McAuley. Photo credit: Pamela Raith Photography. Yet
Read MoreJeremy Malies in west London 2 June 2024 “Suit the action to the word, the word to the action …”
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Luxembourg 2 June 2024 Once again, Frank Hoffmann, artistic director of the Théâtre National du Luxembourg (TNL)
Read MoreSimon Jenner in west London 2 June 2024 “Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in
Read MoreSasho Ognenovski in Bulgaria 1 June 2024 Purely through its duration across 12 decades, the National Theater “Ivan Vazov” from
Read MoreRobert Schneider in New Haven, Connecticut 31 May 2024 In 1970, a park ranger discovered Chinese characters carved into
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex 31 May 2024 Mid-eighteenth-century gothic is a niche genre, but Jamila Gavin’s 2,000 novel Coram
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Romania 30 May 2024 “No quote from Schopenhauer ever raised a penis.” Well, the authors of the
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 29 May 2024 Richard III is, of course, one of Shakespeare’s most villainous characters
Read MoreMark Shenton in south London 28 May 2024 The Young Vic has long pivoted itself on the more experimental spectrum
Read MoreSimon Jenner in south-east London 25 May 2024 In some ways composer/lyricist Jerry Herman (1931–2019) was a pioneer; and for
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Romania 25 May 2024 Quiz Harold Pinter as to the meaning of one of his plays and
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Romania 24 May 2024 Live video of actors with social media face-altering filters! Even Ivo van Hove,
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Romania 23 May 2024 At festivals worldwide, be it Timișoara or Brighton, we return to the Greeks
Read MoreSimon Jenner at Brighton Festival 21 May 2024 The UK regional premiere of Steven Dykes’s 2004 Homestead opens at Brighton
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 20 May 2024 All credit to Hampstead Theatre for once again staging the UK premiere
Read MoreFranco Milazzo in the West End 17 May 2024 In her first scene, Denise Gough’s aspiring actress Emma loudly declares
Read MoreJeremy Malies in West Sussex 10 May 2024 Strindberg’s 136-year-old play Miss Julie (albeit in a radical workover) proves its
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the South West 10 May 2024 A few decades ago seeing a Terence Rattigan play seemed like
Read MoreFranco Milazzo in the West End 9 May 2024 If the avalanche of movie-to-stage adaptations is becoming something of a
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 8 May 2024 The outdoor season at Shakespeare’s Globe has got off to a
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 8 May 2024 My last exposure to The Cherry Orchard, in Hackney, took me
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Austria 6 May 2024 Frank Castorf, the director of this Thomas Berhard play, certainly never learned to
Read MoreSimon Jenner in west London 3 May 2024 A story by American sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick isn’t the first
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 23 April 2024 “This is the story of a river / That springs from
Read MoreSimon Jenner in north London 19 April 2024 A woman sits and plays the piano at St Pancras International Station
Read MoreTom Shortland in Cambridgeshire 18 April 2024 The School for Scandal is a Restoration comedy about a perfectly innocent woman
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London April 17 2024 Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has established himself as one of the leading young American
Read MoreGlenda Frank on Broadway 15 April 2024 Water for Elephants is one of the most beautifully crafted musicals to vault
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 15 April 2024 Robert Icke has made his name creating radical reinterpretations of classic
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 9 April 2024 As Mary, the morphine-addicted matriarch hurtling towards oblivion at the end
Read MoreMark Shenton in south London 8 April 2024 The late Kevin Elyot wrote only a handful of plays, but they
Read MoreSimon Jenner in west London 8 April 2024 This is the purest theatre I’ve seen at the Royal Court in
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 8th April 2024 “This … is not about me,” Charlotte Brontë (Gemma Whelan) keeps
Read MoreTom Bolton in north London 8 April 2024 “Make Mine a Double”, the Park Theatre’s initiative to get more early
Read MoreJeremy Malies in south-east London 4 April 2024 “They wouldn’t have lasted a day in the Sixties!” For me, it’s
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 1 April 2024 Known as the “King of Pop”, Michael Jackson has cast a
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the South West 1 April 2024 Premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre in
Read MoreSimon Jenner in north London 30 March 2024 April De Angelis is back tackling a subject at which she often
Read MoreJeremy Malies in West London 28 March 2024 “I always knew when nothing was going to happen.” Frank Hardy, the
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 27 March 2024 “You gotta make magic out of tragic,” we are repeatedly told
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 26 March 2024 Tyrell Williams won a clutch of awards for most promising playwright
Read MoreGlenda Frank on Broadway 24 March 2024 “Sex.” “Scandal”. These words snag our attention. Other words stimulate the imagination –
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 24 March 2024 Why are nuns so irreverently and inherently funny, at least for
Read MoreYann Messager reports from 6th arrondissement February 2024 How does one wrap one’s head around the idea of suffering? To
Read MoreTom Bolton in south London 18 March 2023 As Figs in Wigs point out, it takes a lot of development
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 15 March 2024 Philip Brugglestein, Harry Clarke’s lonely narrator and fabulist who invents an
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 13 March 2024 Tim Price’s new play Nye is an entertaining if episodic portrait
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 8 March 2024 Harold Pinter used to banter with friends by quoting bizarre moments
Read MoreRobert Schneider in New Haven, Connecticut 4 March 2024 Productions of this wonderful play abound internationally. Chichester Festival Theatre
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 5 March 2024 I had been transfixed for much of it, transported through three
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 4 March 2024 Lucy Kirkwood’s ambitious new play The Human Body packs in a
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 1 March 2024 German playwright Marius von Mayenburg’s 2022 work Nachtland (here given its
Read MoreMark Shenton in south London 28 February 2024 With the ever-alarming rise of the threats of fascism and antisemitism around
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 26 February 2024 First seen at Watford Palace Theatre a year ago, the nationwide
Read MoreMark Shenton in east London 24 February 2024 When the original 2004 production of The Big Life transferred from the
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 23 February 2024 In its satire of political corruption and media bias, Ibsen’s 1882
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 22 February 2024 Like The Who’s Tommy, which began its rock-opera life as a
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 21 February 2024 John Logan’s fascinating new play Double Feature is a close-up view of
Read MoreYann Messager in Paris 19 February 2024 Simon Stone’s Traviata, with gripping musical direction by Giacomo Sagripanti, is a grandiose
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 19 February 2024 This second major London production of King Lear within a couple of
Read MoreGlenda Frank in Manhattan 19 February 2024 We slip into Days of Wine and Roses — now at Studio 54
Read MoreJane Edwardes on the South Bank 19 February 2024 It is difficult to approach the National Theatre’s revival of Dodie
Read MoreJeremy Malies in London Docklands 18 February 2024 “If you try to be in any way spectacular with it, you’re
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Hove 14 February 2024 They say only organists go to organ concerts. Whether audience members who surrounded
Read MoreMark Shenton on the South Bank 14 February 2024 Jukebox musicals have become the lazy bane – or easy balm,
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 11 February 2024 Frantic Assembly’s first new commission since the pandemic is an adaptation by
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the South West 10 February 2024 The origins of the legend of Bluebeard, the serial wife-killer, are not
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 10 February 2024 Write Jerusalem – which many people consider to be the best
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Antwerp February 2024 Imagine you are not on this earth and yet you are in a theatre,
Read MoreHans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin January 2024 The staging history of Yasmina Reza’s Trois versions de la vie (literally: Three Versions
Read MoreRobert Schneider in Connecticut 4 February 2024 Nearly every day brings us traumatic news from distant parts of the globe:
Read MoreJane Edwardes on the South Bank 4 February 2024 Wedding days that are joyful and run smoothly are hardly likely
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 4 February 2024 Nicholas Hytner once said that every second line in Iago’s speeches
Read MoreGlenda Frank in New York After a banner run Off Broadway and 2022 Drama Desk awards for outstanding play as
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Luxembourg We choose to remain blissfully unaware of the fact that life as we know it would
Read MoreJeremy Malies in east London 28 January 2024 One of the many merits of Last Rites performed by Ramesh Meyyappan
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Luxembourg I went to the Grand Théâtre in Luxembourg City on Saturday evening 14 January 2024 to
Read MoreDana Rufolo The most brilliant, dramatic and beautiful performance I have had the privilege to see in a long time
Read MoreTom Bolton on the South Bank 20 January 2024 Founded in 2001, Gecko Theatre are a collective with an unmistakable
Read MoreTom Bolton in west London 19 January 2024 Transferring from Stratford-upon-Avon, Charlie Josephine’s queer fantasy Western Cowbois breezes into town
Read MoreSimon Jenner in the West End 12 January 2024 Paul Unwin’s The Enfield Haunting – about the alleged supernatural incidents
Read MoreRobert Schneider in New Haven, Connecticut 10 January 2024 It’s comparatively rare that a dramatist hatches a work that
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Brussels Milo Rau, Swiss-born director of the theatre company NTGent in Ghent, Belgium, is no stranger to
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 24 December 2023 Plays set in a rehearsal room as actors prepare is a
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 22 December 2023 Max Webster’s superbly atmospheric production of Macbeth is ground-breaking in its
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 20 December 2023 Riverside Studios have a hot ticket (with a top price of £175,
Read MoreJane Edwardes in the West End 19 December 2023 It was clear going into the Phoenix Theatre on the second
Read MoreJeremy Malies in north London 18 December 2023 Cold War is an adaptation by Conor McPherson of Paweł Pawlikowski’s
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 16 December 2023 The Cold War is back this winter – at least in north
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 15 December 2023 Peter Pan, of course, is famously the boy who refuses
Read MoreJeremy Malies in south-east London 12 December 2023 A novitiate who only recently came under the spell, I am now
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 11 December 2023 Matthew Dunster’s compelling revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming opens in
Read MoreYann Messager reports from Nanterre 10 December 2023 Christophe Rauck’s Richard II is a captivating version. It has gripping and
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the South West 10 December 2023 An opera staged at Bath’s Ustinov Studio is always going to
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 4 December 2023 The new production at the National Theatre of The House of
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 2 December 2023 “It’s very weird and great.” A woman is trying to read
Read MoreYann Messager reports from the 6th arrondissement Stéphane Braunschweig’s “Andromaque” at the Théâtre de l’Odéon is a grand and harrowing performance
Read MoreMark Shenton on the South Bank 27 November 2023 Every year theatres up and down the land chase the
Read MoreJeremy Malies in west London 26 November 2023 “I wonder why London cannot keep its own fools at home!” is
Read MoreJane Edwardes on the South Bank 24 November 2023 It is well known that the first performances of Ibsen’s play
Read MoreYann Messager reports from Ile-de-France 23 November 2023 Astrid Bayiha’s latest creation, “M comme Médée,” is a tediously self-indulgent
Read MoreTheatre Royal Brighton Jeremy Malies in East Sussex “The past is never dead. It’s not even past” said William Faulkner.
Read MoreRobert Schneider in New Haven, Connecticut 13 November 2023 Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here places the friendship of six
Read MoreJane Edwardes in west London 13 November 2023 Comedies are rarely seen at the Royal Court, but times are harsh,
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 13 November 2023 Cock jokes it seems, to paraphrase Claudius in Hamlet, “come not
Read MoreNeil Dowden in south London 12 November 2023 The plays of Federico García Lorca are regularly staged in the UK,
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 12 November 2023 Richard Bean’s new play To Have and to Hold takes a wryly
Read MoreJeremy Malies in East Sussex 12 November 2023 In Brian Friel’s Translations the focus is on what is lost or
Read MoreTom Bolton in south London 5 November 2023 Cade & MacAskill – Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill – are a performance
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Eastbourne 4 November 2023 As a satire on military conflicts of all kinds, Joan Littlewood’s Oh! What
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 3 November 2023 Time famously plays tricks on us all; but what if our
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 3 November 2023 Still occasionally exhilarated by memories of Sir Kenneth Branagh’s perfect Macbeth
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the South West 1 November 2023 Deborah Warner’s tenure as artistic director of Bath’s Ustinov Studio continues
Read MoreYann Messager in Paris 1 November 2023 Jacques Weber’s Ruy Blas is an aesthetically intriguing and occasionally gripping rendition of
Read MoreHans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin October 2023 This year, Anton Chekhov’s plays have been as popular as ever in Berlin. Following
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 29 October 2023 Worker solidarity, second chances, and ambition tempered by kindness are the
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 26 October 2023 “My life would be a beautiful story that would become true,
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 24 October 2023 Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling 2020 novel Hamnet opened
Read MoreThis year’s annual theatre festival in Cluj-Napoca was a showcase for several of the productions of the Teatrul Național –
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 23 October 2023 Over the last four decades Marina Carr has forged a considerable reputation
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the South West 21 October 2023 The first time I saw Brian Cox on stage was in
Read MoreGlenda Frank in New York 19 October 2023 Despite the blood-red curtains, the ebony desk with its golden memento mori,
Read MoreVincent Macaigne’s vision of Shakespeare at MC93 (Maison de la culture de Seine-Saint-Denis à Bobigny) Yann Messager reports from Paris
Read MoreSimon Jenner in the West End 19 October 2023 Caryl Churchill’s first stage play Owners has proved doubly prescient. Premiering
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 16 October 2023 As the sun finally begins to set on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 16 October 2023 Ten years on from premiering Tanika Gupta’s The Empress, the RSC have
Read MoreJeremy Malies in West Sussex 13 October 2023 “It wasn’t as if there was any mystery to unravel” is one
Read MoreJane Edwardes on the South Bank 12 October 2023 In 2020, Clint Dyer and Roy Williams launched the first of
Read MoreJeremy Malies in west London 9 October 2023 “I am not what I am …” Iago tells us in an
Read MoreGlenda Frank in Manhattan 9 October 2023 This does not open with a bang although Jane (Sydney Lemmon, TÁR, “Succession”)
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Ghent October 2023 The first foray into directing opera of the acclaimed Swiss theatre director Milo
Read MoreSimon Thomas in Somerset 6 October 2023 It seems no time at all since Rupert Everett was appearing in the
Read MoreTom Bolton in South London 5 October 2023 There is something about Beyoncé and Thomas Middleton. Within a few minutes,
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Luxembourg October 2023 Lovefool is a drama that demands attention; it is a feminist cri de coeur
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 5 October 2023 Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends was a one-night gala held (appropriately) at
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 1 October 2023 Kim’s having a bad day, and it spans over a century.
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex October 1 2023 “In the world of quizzing, the man who has the questions is
Read MoreJane Edwardes in the West End 1 October 2023 When Peter Hall was artistic director of the National Theatre, he
Read MoreJeremy Malies in south London 1 October 2023 Playwright Charlie Dupré’s imagination and writing skills have been fired by several
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 28 September 2023 It seems that American playwright Lynn Nottage is finally getting the recognition
Read MoreMark Shenton in central London 27 September 2023 In Harold Pinter’s 1975 play No Man’s Land two older men meet
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 26 September 2023 “This is an age of upstarts” is one of Henry Higgins’s
Read MoreMark Shenton in east London 25 September 2023 In Jonathan Harvey’s first big hit play Beautiful Thing, originally premiered in
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 25 September 2023 Hampstead Theatre has done sterling work in staging a number of new
Read MoreTom Bolton in south London 25 September 2023 It seems 2023 is the year we rediscovered the nuclear bomb. Against
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 20 September 2023 The name Nathuram Godse may not be familiar to most people
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 18 September 2023 The New York-based comedian, author, filmmaker, and podcaster Mike Birbiglia specializes
Read MoreJeremy Malies in west London 18 September 2023 Polly Stenham’s first play That Face (2007) opens by showing a piece
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 15 September 2023 In a world of seemingly endless re-hashes of popular film
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 14 September 2023 Like productions of King Lear or Hamlet, you never have
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 12 September 2023 French playwright Yasmina Reza is best known for her dark comedies satirizing
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 12 September 2023 The final show in the Globe’s summer season – which has
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex 9 September 2023 After April De Angelis’ Kerry Jackson at the National last year,
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the West Country 2 September 2023 A play like Farewell Mister Haffmann shouldn’t really be as entertaining as it
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 1 September 2023 London had to wait 35 years for the arrival of the
Read MoreTampere is a quiet university city with beautiful brick buildings erected in its industrial era, broad streets, trams, buses as
Read MoreSimon Jenner in East Sussex 25 August 2023 If you were thinking The Playgirl of the Western World as the
Read MoreJeremy Malies in north London 25 August 2023 “Bach Cello Suite No. 1!” said a critic who I hang about
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 24 August 2023 Mamma Mia! – the jukebox musical forged out of the back
Read MoreHans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin Since Peter Stein’s legendary staging of Three Sisters in 1984, remembered above all for the magnificent
Read MoreGlenda Frank in Manhattan 22 August 2023 Towards the end of Act II of The Cottage, the comedy takes a
Read More40th Almada Theatre Festival (4 – 18 July, 2023) In 2019 when – little imagining what was waiting for
Read MoreMark Shenton in north London 15 August 2023 August 23 marks the 40th anniversary of the Broadway opening night of
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 13 August 2023 Premiered to acclaim in 2012 in the intimate Cottesloe (now Dorfman),
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 12 August 2023 Bad luck may come in threes, but the “unluckiest” play Macbeth
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Edinburgh 11 August 2023 ***** Five-star review If there is a show in Edinburgh that has
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Edinburgh 10 August 2023 There are two shows about Tennessee Williams in the city but no productions
Read MoreSimon Jenner in the West End 7 August 2023 Restoration panto meets The Comedy About a Bank Robbery? Based on
Read MoreC ARTS | C venues | C aquila – Temple 14:30 – 1 hour Group: Rec Room Arts and Art
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 2 August 2023 Postponed from last September, Rabiah Hussain’s intriguing new work Word-Play is, as
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex 1 August 2023 Some have waited 46 years. Dominic Cooke brings back Howard Schuman and
Read MoreJeremy Malies in east London 27 July 2023 Imagine one of Iain Sinclair’s psychogeography books about London in a skilful
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 19 July 2023 Michael Wynne’s new play Cuckoo – his eighth for the Royal Court
Read MoreMark Shenton in West Sussex 18 July 2023 Early on in The Sound of Music, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final musical
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 13 July 2023 “Observe first, interpret later.” This is the advice of nineteenth-century physician
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex 8 July 2023 At the end of his life Wagner announced he’d revise his early
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 7 July 2023 Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park shows a character arriving on stage 15
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 7 July 2023 “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” Dorothy tells her dog, after
Read MoreHans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin Five years ago, the Komödie was compelled to go into temporary exile when wrecking balls started
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 4 July 2023 When Crazy for You originally premiered on Broadway in 1992, Frank
Read MoreMark Shenton in south London 3 July 2023 A truly sublime musical version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Curious Case of
Read MoreMark Shenton in central London 3 July 2023 After Groundhog Day, a musical about a man trapped in a recurring
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 30 June 2023 Shomit Dutta’s debut play Stumped is based on the delightful conceit of
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 27 June 2023 With a premiere at the National Theatre starring David Tennant in
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Italy 25 June 2023 This year’s 51st Venice Theatre Biennale (15 June to 1 July), directed by
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 25 June 2023 James Graham has forged a reputation as a political playwright with
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 23 June 2023 The original production of Mrs. Doubtfire began previews on 9 March
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex 21 June 2023 “I can’t believe you’re Laurence Olivier!” Thus Adrienne Kennedy addresses the actor
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the West Country 21 June 2023 A brand new Cole Porter musical has to be a good
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Vienna 19 June 2023 Vienna’s May-June Wiener Festwochen date back to 1951 when the city decided to
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 19 June 2023 Jack Thorne must be one of the busiest dramatists around. While
Read MoreJeremy Malies in north London 16 June 2023 Rebecca Frecknall is too experienced and reflective to be tempted into a
Read MoreMark Shenton in north London 15 June 2023 “Think of musical comedy, the most glorious words in the English language!”
Read MoreJeremy Malies in central London (Notting Hill Gate) 15 June 2023 It will always be a cruel play in which
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the South West 11 June 2023 In the 1960s, Bristol Old Vic mounted a very successful
Read MoreJane Edwardes in west London 11 June 2023 The three monologues or, as he would say, poems that make up
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex 11 June 2023 “Everybody’s got the right to… dream” American. Stephen Sondheim’s 1990 Assassins –
Read MoreMark Shenton on the South Bank 10 June 2023 If I ever found myself paralysed by time into re-living the
Read MoreJeremy Malies in East Sussex 7 June 2023 “Ever and ever, forever and ever you’ll be the one / That shines
Read MoreNatalia Isaeva in Paris 15 December 2016 In 1965 Marguerite Duras created her La Musica initially as a radio play
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 2 June 2023 Neil LaBute 2001’s romantic comedy-drama The Shape of Things is his most
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Lombardy 31 May 2023 The Pathological Theatre’s Medea, directed and adapted by Dario D’Ambrosi, has been
Read More“Rose” at Ambassadors Theatre Neil Dowden in the West End 29 May 2023 Martin Sherman – best known for
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 26 May 2023 Aspects of Love, originally premiered in the West End in
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Milan 25 May 2023 The tenth anniversary of Franca Rame’s death (29 May 2013) has been
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the Southbank 24 May 2023 On her own website, Pentabus Theatre artistic director Elle While is quick
Read MoreMark Shenton in north London 25 May 2023 I recently attended a gala at New York’s Classic Stage Company
Read MoreMark Shenton in south London 24 May 2023 Frank Loesser’s timeless 1950 masterpiece Guys and Dolls is currently receiving
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 23 May 2023 Director Jonathan Butterell and composer Dan Gillespie Sells, two of
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the Southbank 23 May 2023 With both this production of The Comedy of Errors, directed by Sean
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Luxembourg 12 May 2023 Complicité is a member of the UK Touring Theatre Companies and Drive Your
Read MoreSimon Jenner in East Sussex 15 May 2023 If someone prophesied that John Lyly’s 1583 Galatea would be the
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex 12 May 2023 As in the plot of the play, waves of past calamity are
Read MoreMark Shenton at the Brighton Festival 9 May 2023 Premiered at the Brighton Festival which is curated this year by
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