Friday, December 7, 2018
As the director and playwright reunite to stage The Cane at the Royal Court, they talk about their friendship and the passion and pain behind their playsAn artistic director has no secrets f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:12AMMonday, September 24, 2018
Leading dancer Laurretta Summerscales has said the endless repeats of crowd-pleasing classics is one reason she left the ENB. So why is it so keen on Swan Lake and The Nutcracker?How many sw…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:06PMSunday, August 12, 2018
Sadler’s Wells, LondonBizet and Hammerstein get a Cuban makeover, played out here with charm and flairCarmen, the heroine of Bizet’s opera, is restless. She won’t be stilled or silence…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:12AMWednesday, June 13, 2018
Barbican, LondonRhiannon Faith’s urgent show uses dance and participatory theatre to raise awareness about domestic violenceThis isn’t your usual game of pass-the-parcel. The silver-pape…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:06AMThursday, June 7, 2018
When Rebecca Hall read it she couldn’t breathe. After Fiona Shaw played the role she got letters full of loneliness. This is the true story behind Sophie Treadwell’s trailblazing playIn …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:32PMMonday, May 21, 2018
Queen Elizabeth Hall, LondonValda Setterfield, doyenne of the New York dance scene, plays the ageing monarch in a collage of movement and textAnyone who has done time watching a theatrical k…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:32AMFriday, March 23, 2018
Superbly expressive dancer who went on to be a choreographer and movement directorA lost man and a feral swan: it’s an unlikely romance. Yet the dancer and choreographer Scott Ambler creat…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:54AMMonday, March 12, 2018
Home, ManchesterDirected by Bijan Sheibani, Baker’s play follows five acting students whose role play reveals more than they expect‘I would like to say that I write for everyone,” the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMMonday, January 8, 2018
From gleaming crowns to bubbling cauldrons, from pink flamingos to forklift trucks, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s gigantic prop store is a place of jaw-dropping theatrical alchemy. Our w…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00AMFriday, December 29, 2017
Crucible, SheffieldThis delightful production boasts a wonderful, wide-eyed Dorothy, a riotous bunch of munchkins – and a scene-stealing turn from Toto the dogPublished in 1900, Frank Baum…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AMFriday, December 8, 2017
Tanya Moodie attacks the script with her highlighters, Pétur Jónasson starts at the end of a score and Sarah Lamb gets a good sleep. They explain how to avoid the moment all performers dre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:33AMColiseum, London Aided by partner Natalia Osipova and designer David LaChapelle, Polunin throws himself into a trio of precise, deeply felt dances about himselfSergei Polunin is a dance star…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:18AMFriday, November 24, 2017
Tchaikovsky’s ballet of betrayal has inspired Darren Aronofsky’s psycho-horror, Matthew Bourne’s feral males and a shocking tale of Irish clerical abuse. Beneath the sparkle, why does …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AMMonday, November 20, 2017
Playing Thatcher? Dab on Bluebell. Got a part in Hairspray? Reach for the Madame Rochas. We lift the lid on how actors use smells – from the finest fragrances to cheap tinned mackerel – …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AMFriday, October 6, 2017
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsReece Dinsdale is increasingly nasty as the predatory architect heading for catastrophe in Zinnie Harris’s sharp rebootSomeone texts the master builder: “I…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMTuesday, October 3, 2017
The brainbox of British dance is creating choreography from his own genetic code in an adventurous new show. It’s the latest experiment at his hi-tech dance HQ, where the lift changes colo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:33AMMonday, September 4, 2017
From mapping the journey of The Curious Incident’s teen hero to putting Shakespeare in prison and erecting a towering newsroom for Ink, Bunny Christie talks through five of her creationsBu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:54AMTuesday, July 25, 2017
Royal Opera House, LondonThis cape-swirling, fan-clacking production is full of enthusiasm and excellent dancing – but where has our heroic knight gone?Traditional Russian ballets can be b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:06AMWednesday, July 12, 2017
Hacktivists in ball pools, teenagers riding unicorns and a world powered by actors on bikes … Chloe Lamford’s playful sets take audiences by surprise. She explains how she creates them�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:18AMThursday, June 15, 2017
Assembling a distinctive programme of work is a balancing act for directors. The team at Richmond’s Orange Tree theatre explain how they pair revivals of quirky classics with bravura exper…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:06AMThursday, May 4, 2017
From a play about Edward Snowden to an opera about Anna Nicole Smith, Miriam Buether’s stage designs always astonish audiences. She talks through six of her greatest creationsEnter the the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:02AMTuesday, March 21, 2017
As she becomes the first black woman to play Cleopatra at Stratford, Josette Simon explains why there is so much more to the queen than a strumpetAs Josette Simon neared the end of her drama…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:32PMFriday, January 20, 2017
Designer whose stagings of classic ballet created an atmosphere of delicate enchantmentBy the time he came to design an elegantly Edwardian Nutcracker for English National Ballet in 2010, Pe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:36PMThursday, January 12, 2017
Coliseum, LondonCojocaru brings exquisite precision to her performance in English National Ballet’s atmospheric and richly picturesque productionThis is an inspired piece of curation. Engl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AMMonday, January 2, 2017
Don’t expect to be in control, never stop looking for the next role: Siân Phillips, Timothy West and Janet Henfrey on how they turned acting into a life’s workActors don’t retire, the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:24AMThursday, December 15, 2016
Sadler’s Wells, LondonAn aspiring ballerina falls under the spell of a charismatic impresario in a vivid stage version of the classic tale of artistic ambitionsWhen Powell and Pressburger�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36PMFriday, November 18, 2016
‘I’m surprised when people recognise my work,’ says Tim Yip. ‘I change my style all the time.’ His notion of ‘new orientalism’ in films, dance, theatre and opera is about commu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:06AMThursday, July 21, 2016
Coliseum, LondonLeanne Stojmenov’s tomboyish vigour transforms Cinders into a resilient and exuberant heroine in this deliciously designed productionCinderella is a story about building a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:15AMFriday, June 24, 2016
Birmingham HippodromeJessica Lang’s rippling Wink, inspired by the sonnets, leads a set of pieces paying tribute to the great playwrightBirmingham Royal Ballet will unveil a full-length Te…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:34AMWednesday, June 22, 2016
She helped Scott shake his hips like a rock god in Birdland and set Fiennes boogying in A Bigger Splash. For actors, Ann Yee has all the right movesRalph Fiennes struts like a chicken, shimm…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48AMTuesday, April 19, 2016
Millennium Centre, CardiffValery Gergiev hares through Alexei Ratmansky’s brain-fizzing dance of dejection before plunging into Sasha Waltz’s ash-filled end of daysRussia’s great balle…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:54AM 
