“Hadestown” at Lyric Theatre
Mark Shenton in the West End 22 February 2024 Like The Who’s Tommy, which began its rock-opera life as a
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: bombardments
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 neatly
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 2018
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 to
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 holy
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 piece
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 Rau
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 titles
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 14 September 2023 Like productions of King Lear or Hamlet, you never have to
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, another
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 2023Mamma Mia! – the jukebox musical forged out of the back catalogue
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 more
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 production
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 performed
Read More“Rose” at Ambassadors Theatre Neil Dowden in the West End 29 May 2023 Martin Sherman – best known for his
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 26 May 2023 Aspects of Love, originally premiered in the West End in 1989,
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 off-Broadway
Read MoreMark Shenton in south London 24 May 2023 Frank Loesser’s timeless 1950 masterpiece Guys and Dolls is currently receiving an
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 23 May 2023 Director Jonathan Butterell and composer Dan Gillespie Sells, two of the
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 most
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
Read MoreJane Edwardes in west London 7 May 2023 Lenny Henry here exhibits his many talents with his first stage play,
Read MoreMark Shenton in West Sussex 5 May 2023 Hot on the heels of the scintillating revival of Noël Coward’s Private
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 5 May 2023 Jack Thorne’s entertaining new play The Motive and the Cue puts
Read MoreGlenda Frank in New York 4 May 2023 They’re back – the Mischief Production zannis who last brought us the
Read MoreRobert Schneider in Connecticut 3 May 2023 I write in order to describe taking a trip to theatrical Never-Never land,
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Kingston, London 2 May 2023 This is a concept production based on a pretext that soon runs
Read MoreMark Shenton in north London 28 April 2023 Composer Duncan Sheik wrote the music for Spring Awakening, one of the
Read MoreMark Shenton in north London 28 April 2023 Ryan Calais Cameron is currently represented in the West End by the
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 26 April 2023 Though Mary’s family want to stage a small surprise reception for
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 22 April 2023 First staged 80 years ago, Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 22 April 2022 It’s August 1936 in Ballybeg (literally “Little Town” in Gaelic), the
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 19 April 2023 Noël Coward’s masterly comedy of manners Private Lives has rarely been
Read MoreHans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin 18th April 2023 Chekhov’s dramatic work features regularly in the repertoire of Berlin’s theatres, particularly the
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Luxembourg 18 April 2023 The Writer by Ella Hickson was staged under the auspices of Les Théâtres
Read MoreSasho Ognenovski in Sofia 17th April 2023 Nora (often used as an alternative title for A Doll’s House) is Ibsen’s
Read MoreSasho Ognenovski in Belgrade 17 April 2023 This sharp and observant play speaks of an inherited and politically instinctive “tyranny”,
Read MoreKen Edwards in the West End 17 April 2023 Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–81) was one of the
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 6 April 2023 There’s nothing little about the huge emotional intensity of Ivo van
Read MoreMark 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/)
Read MoreJeremy Malies in East Sussex 1 April 2023 “Lady (Hear Me Tonight)” by Modjo is hardwired into me now such
Read MoreRobert Schneider 29 March 2023 The difficulty in adapting Medea for modern audiences is clear: we must be horrified
Read MoreAnnie Loui in Los Angeles 28 March 2023 Anna Deavere Smith’s iconic play about the LA riots of 1992 has a
Read MoreGlenda Frank in New York 28 March 2023 Like Shakespeare, Chekhov and Miller, Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett wrote plays
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 28 March 2023 Actor and activist Danny Lee Wynter’s first work as a playwright –
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 21 March 2023 Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist may have premiered in Italy
Read MoreNeil Dowden in South London 19 March 2023 The Menier Chocolate Factory deserve much credit for staging the UK premiere
Read MoreSimon Jenner in south London 19 March 2023 Slow-burn seems an inevitable phrase for Zinnie Harris’s second (1999) play Further
Read MoreTom Bolton in south London 18 March 2023 It is an unusual Macbeth that comes to life with the Porter’s
Read MoreGlenda Frank on the Upper East Side 18 March 2023 At first the title Love seems bizarre, misleading, even ironic
Read MoreAxel Hörhager in Austria 18 March 2023 Only Thomas Bernhard, with his acerbic and typically Austrian wit, could have commented
Read MoreMark Shenton on the South Bank 17 March 2023 In Nicholas Hytner’s fully immersive production of Frank Loesser’s Guys &
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Barcelona 16 March 2023 “An opera project” is how the official blurb describes this, so I don’t
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 13 March 2023 Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn has lost more money for theatre producers
Read MoreAxel Hörhager in Austria 12 March 2023 The advance publicity by the Burgtheater, suggesting that their version of Friedrich Schiller’s
Read MoreTom Bolton in south London 3 March 2023 For Tim Crouch, challenge is inherent to performance. Walking onto a stage
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 3 March 2023 Willy Russell’s 1986 monodrama Shirley Valentine may seem a bit dated
Read MoreDana Rufolo at the Grand Théâtre 1 March 2023 Who else but the Berliner Ensemble, Bertolt Brecht’s own theatre company
Read MoreNeil Dowden in South London 1 March 2023 It seems highly appropriate for Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce to
Read MoreMark 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 doin’
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Lombardy 26 February 2023 Caryl Churchill’s work is enjoying unprecedented success in Italy. After many decades when
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Lombardy 26 February 2023 Milan’s Franco Parenti Theatre is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year, with a
Read MoreJeremy Malies in North London 26 February 2023 Lulu Raczka’s first play Nothing, a set of interconnected monologues about sexual
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 26 February 2023 Shakespeare’s Globe’s new production of The Winter’s Tale marks the start of
Read MoreMark Shenton on the South Bank 23 February 2023 On consecutive nights this week, theatre travellers have been summonsed
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 23 February 2023 Worst mother in Greek tragedy? It’s a competitive field but Medea
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 21 February 2023 A personal note to begin: I first met playwright Diana Nneka
Read MoreNeil Dowden in south London 19 February 2023 Tom Kempinksi’s 1980 drama Duet for One is an intense two-hander revolving
Read MoreMark Shenton on the South Bank 14 February 2023 After producing one of the biggest musical misfires of the last
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 14 February 2023 Simon Stone has made an international reputation as a writer-director in
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 13 February 2023 Stefano Massini’s epic three-act play The Lehman Trilogy adapted by Ben
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Surrey 10 February 2023 “There’s no way back / Move right outta here baby!” Perhaps Liz Truss
Read MoreMark Shenton in the West End 7 February 2023 Words matter, in reviews as in life. But life is more
Read MoreTom Bolton in south London 3 February 2023 Jude Christian’s new production of Shakespeare’s least respected play, Titus Andronicus, has
Read MoreHans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin 31 January 2023 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s play Minna von Barnhelm was premiered in 1767 at a
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Luxembourg 31 January 2023 Songes d’une nuit…, an interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, developed as a
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 29 January 2023 Michael Frayn’s perennially popular 1982 meta-comedy Noises Off deconstructs farce while
Read MoreJeremy Malies in west London 29 January 2023 Frantic Assembly’s version of Othello, previously staged in 2008 and 2014, has
Read MoreJeremy Malies in West Sussex 26 January 2023 Girl from the North Country is a play by Conor McPherson with
Read MoreTom Bolton in north London 23 January 2023 Chloe Rice and Natasha Roland are New York-based performers, a two-person company
Read MoreSimon Thomas in Somerset 20 January 2023 Starry casts are not commonplace in venues with a capacity of just over
Read MoreTom Bolton in south London 19 January 2023 Lazarus Theatre, and their artistic director Ricky Dukes, specialize in introducing classic
Read MoreSasho Ognenovski in Sofia 19 January 2023 “Woven From Dreams or Prospero’s Twisted Mind” With his treatment of The Tempest,
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Luxembourg 17 January 2023 Tom doesn’t mind the gaps in his memory; The Nature of Forgetting, a
Read MoreJeremy Malies in north London 16 January 2023 “I don’t want realism. I want magic!” These are the words of
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 14 January 2023 American playwright, screenwriter, memoirist, and activist Lillian Hellman is probably best
Read MoreLudovico Lucchesi Palli in Vienna 10 January 2023 Following the success of Gott ist nicht schüchtern, director Susanne Draxler returns
Read MoreRobert Schneider in East Haddam, Connecticut 9th January 2023 The book writers of the new musical Christmas in Connecticut say
Read MoreRobert Schneider in New Haven, Connecticut 9 January 2023 From her poignant family drama God Said This, winner of the
Read MoreRobert Schneider 24 December 2022 Remember Pearl Harbor! The injunction that screamed from recruiting posters during WWII still brings together
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Lombardy 23 December 2022 In late November, Shakespeare and the Law. Romeo, Mercutio, Juliet and Tybalt on
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 23rd December 2022 Be careful what you call a musical, particularly would-be-catchy one-word titles
Read MoreAnnie Loui in California 20th December 2022 The iconoclastic director Peter Sellars, and the pioneer video artist Bill Viola met
Read MoreGlenda Frank on Broadway 20th December 2022 August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson opens with Boy Willie’s noisy arrival up North
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 19th December 2022 The first in-house production @sohoplace is an engaging, innovative, and inclusive
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Lombardy 18th December 2022 Milan’s Carcano Theatre (founded 1803), has, for the first time, two women artistic
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 13th December 2022 I could tell from seeing three-quarters of the capacity audience take
Read MoreJeremy Malies in the West End 9 December 2022 Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel has struck adaptors as potentially genre as
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 9th December 2022 In April De Angelis’s new play, Kerry Jackson, opening at the
Read MoreHans-Jürgen Bartsch in Germany 22 October 2022 Had they not been compelled to go into a (temporary) exile four years
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Lombardy 2nd December 2022 Theatre Protons’s Winterreise is being performed at the Triennale theatre’s small studio space.
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Lombardy 2 December 2022 In November I caught Shakespeare’s The Tempest at Milan’s Piccolo Teatro, in a
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 1st December 2022 “Where should Othello go?” One of the lines cut from Othello‘s
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 1st December 2022 Adaptor Jack Thorne, quite rightly, impresses upon us that this is
Read MoreSimon Jenner in south-west London 25 November 2022 Talk about art aspiring to the condition of music. Shaw the music
Read MoreSimon Jenner in the West End 27th November 2022 “Congratulations! Your pain is commercially viable.” Jasmine Naziha Jones’ Baghdaddy premiering
Read MoreTom Bolton in north London 24th November 2022 A middle-aged man steps up to a spot-lit microphone on a dark
Read MoreJeremy Malies in east London 23 November 2022 Frank McGuinness’s new play is inspired by the unlikely but real-life meeting
Read MoreNeil Dowden in south London 22 November 2022 The Menier Chocolate Factory has reopened after a six-month refurbishment with Terry
Read MoreSimon Thomas in the south-west 18 November 2022 A tour that takes in Bath, Richmond, Chichester, Guildford, and Cheltenham may
Read MoreGlenda Frank on Broadway 6 October 2022 Some directors take a minute or two but from the first, Diane Paulus
Read MoreTom Bolton in west London 11 November 2022 Not Now is the third new David Ireland play staged at the
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Dorset 10 November 2022 In August I reported on the wonderful character actor Pip Utton being Bob
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Lombardy 9 November 2022 Erba is one of the few contemporary playwrights in Italy to have enjoyed
Read MoreLudovico Lucchesi Palli in Vienna 8 November 2022 We know her as an actress, singer, talent agent and activist. In
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 6 November 2022 Rona Munro had a big success with her 2014 trilogy The James
Read MoreGlenda Frank on Broadway 31 October 2022 Death of a Salesman, directed by Miranda Cromwell, meets all the criteria for
Read MoreJeremy Malies in south-east London 30 October 2022 A seldom-performed Shakespeare play by a newish company at a new venue
Read MoreSimon Jenner in north London 29 October 2022 Tammy Faye: A New Musical – making its world premiere at the
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 27 October 2022 @sohoplace is the first new, purpose-built theatre in the West End
Read MoreTom Bolton in north London 27 October 2022 Performed on a bare stage that contains only a trunk and a
Read MoreRobert Schneider in Connecticut 24 October 2022 With 70 years of practice, reviewers have learned how to write about The
Read MoreRobert Schneider in Connecticut 24 October 2022 Skylar Lynn Matthews holds her arms out, banking left and right like a
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 23 October 2022 Pearl Cleage’s 1995 play Blues for an Alabama Sky is set
Read MoreSimon Thomas in Bristol 23 October 2022 As the UK’s oldest continually working theatre, Bristol Old Vic can boast a
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 20 October 2022 Twice delayed by Covid, Dominic Cooke’s revival of C.P. Taylor’s 1981
Read MoreMaggie Rose in Lombardy 19 October 2022 One of the best definitions of a classic has to be that is
Read MoreRobert Schneider in Connecticut 18 October 2022 Like many people who work in higher education, I’m trained every year on
Read MoreLudovico Lucchesi Palli in Austria 18 October 2022 Following the success of JA EH! – Beisl, Bier und Bachmannpreis in
Read MoreSimon Jenner in west Sussex 18th October 2022 Happer, the comet-gazing CEO of Knox Oil (played by Jay Villiers) sends
Read MoreSimon Jenner on the South Bank 14 October 2022 Cramped in car boots, in hidden lorry compartments, not breathing. How
Read MoreJeremy Malies in south-west London 14 October 2022 This is a play that shows two competing groups trying to wrest
Read MoreGlenda Frank on Broadway 12 October 2022 Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard, now at the Longacre Theatre, is a sprawling Chekhovian
Read MoreDana Rufolo in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 11th International Meetings at the National Theatre (Teatrul National). 28 September through 2 October 2022
Read MoreNeil Dowden in the West End 12th October 2022 Created by Robert Icke, The Doctor (loosely based on Arthur Schnitzler’s
Read MoreJeremy Malies in west London 10th October 2022 Another play about altruism. In his The Hard Problem, Tom Stoppard discusses
Read MoreSimon Jenner in the West End 8 October 2022 “This happened not too long ago. You probably won’t have heard
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 5 October 2022 Ibsen certainly lives up to his reputation for gloominess in his
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the Southbank 2 October 2022 The trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692–3 which led to 19 people
Read MoreSimon Jenner in west Sussex 29 September 2022 “Squeezy.. squeezy… Score grounds appeal cumquat doggy Martha hat sick on the
Read MoreNeil Dowden in east London 28th September 2022 Anthony Neilson’s The Wonderful World of Dissocia is very much a play
Read MoreLudovico Lucchesi Palli in Austria 28 September 2022 Werk X-Petersplatz have kicked off the new season with the world premiere
Read MoreSimon Jenner in Waterloo 25 September 2022 Something about the fall of 2017 seems to haunt American playwriting just now.
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 20 September 2022 The timing of this revival by the Kiln Theatre of Moira Buffini’s
Read MoreJeremy Malies in east London 20 September 2022 It’s every sound engineer’s nightmare. How do you create the sound of
Read MoreNeil Dowden in north London 19 September 2022 Richard Eyre has had a distinguished career as a director of plays,
Read MoreSimon Jenner in north London 15 September 2022 Six into five won’t go. When overworked British-Nigerian junior doctor Ore (Gloria
Read MoreNeil Dowden in central London 14 September 2022 Inua Ellams is a British-Nigerian playwright, poet, and performer best known for
Read MoreJeremy Malies on the South Bank 12 September 2022 Who Killed My Father – the absence of a question mark
Read MoreLudovico Lucchesi Palli in Austria 9 September 2022 After a last-minute cancellation last June due to illness, the highly awaited
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex 4 September 2022 Harry Lloyd’s Jim stands on the abyss of his smartphone downstage on
Read MoreSimon Thomas in Somerset 26 August 2022 Eleven years ago former Monty Python Terry Gilliam made his operatic debut with
Read MoreGlenda Frank on Broadway 14 August 2022 The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini’s first novel (2003) was on The New York
Read MoreJeremy Malies in north London 12 August 2022 Sustained applause in the middle of a show is rarely the will
Read MoreGlenda Frank in Manhattan 28 July 2022 Murder is how the characters in Robert Icke’s rewriting of Aeschylus’ Oresteia attempt
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 4 August 2022 Shakespeare’s last solo play The Tempest – with Prospero’s renunciation of
Read MoreSimon Jenner in West Sussex 1 August 2022 How times have changed. When Roy Williams’ Sing Yer Heart Out For
Read MoreCrysse Morrison in the West Country 31 July 2022 Remember reading Treasure Island as a child or quite possibly as
Read MoreDana Rufolo on the Tagus River 31 July 2022 The 39th edition of the Almada, Portugal Theater Festival which began
Read MoreNeil Dowden in west London 26 July 2022 Patrick Marber’s play Closer became a big hit when first produced at
Read MoreJeremy Malies in Surrey 26 July 2022 It’s a magical conclusion to Shakespeare’s career as a writer of plays on
Read MoreNeil Dowden on the South Bank 24 July 2022 Hot on the heels of revivals of Much Ado About Nothing
Read MoreHans-Jürgen Bartsch in Berlin 23 July 2022 The musical comedy Happy End , which Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill opened
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