Sunday, June 11, 2017
Katie Mitchell returns with a powerful account of depression and despairDorothy Parker’s take on suicide is called “Resumé”: it goes, “Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:33PMWednesday, June 7, 2017
New play about fatherhood and masculinity has an enjoyably global reachThe strapline for this joyful show is: “One day; six cities; a thousand stories”. Allowing for hyperbole, this is j…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:18PMTuesday, June 6, 2017
Epic new play about the Enclosures gets bogged down in obscurityHistory is a tricky harlot. She is bought and sold, fought for and thrown over, seduced and betrayed – and always at the mer…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:48PMTuesday, May 30, 2017
Three monologues brilliantly summon up a punchy world of pain and violenceThe monologue is a terrific theatre form. Using this narrative device, you can cover huge amounts of storytelling te…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:24PMTuesday, May 23, 2017
Finn from Star Wars dominates a radical rewrite of Georg Büchner classicWelcome back John Boyega. Less than a decade ago, he was an unknown budding British stage actor, then he took off as …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:24PMTuesday, May 9, 2017
New twist on the biblical story gets bogged down in a portentous production Is God female? It says a lot about Yaël Farber’s overblown new version of this biblical tale that, near the end…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:02PMWednesday, May 3, 2017
New epic from the ‘Jerusalem’ playwright is a breathtaking experienceI hate the kind of hype that sells out a new play within minutes of tickets becoming available. I mean isn’t there …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:36PMSaturday, April 29, 2017
Colourful and vivid revival of Martin Crimp’s 1993 tale of New YorkPlaywright Martin Crimp’s 1993 satirical epic, The Treatment, is a fabulous work, but it’s rarely revived. Although m…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:12AMThursday, April 27, 2017
Masterpiece of 'New York Trilogy' is visually amazing and intellectually satisfying on stagePlaywright Duncan Macmillan has had a good couple of years. In 2015, his play People, Pl…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:03AMFriday, April 21, 2017
New play about loss offers an unusually experimental and immersive experienceText can sometimes be a prison. At its best, post-war British theatre is a writer’s theatre, with the great pen…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:24PMWednesday, April 12, 2017
New writing venue reopens with a play about another architectural marvelThe Bush is back! After a whole year of darkness, the West London new writing venue has reopened its doors following a…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:36PMThursday, April 6, 2017
A tale of two toilets: Edinburgh Fringe First winner comes to Soho TheatreIt’s hot. Real hot. And you’re dancing, just lost in music. You’re at the legendary Shrine nightclub in Lagos,…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:06AMTuesday, April 4, 2017
Anna Maxwell Martin stars in Nina Raine's compelling play about rape and justiceRape is such a serious social issue that it’s hardly surprising that several recent plays have tackled …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:18PMThursday, March 30, 2017
David Tennant charms and excites in Patrick Marber’s energetic rewrite of Molière Updating the classics is not without its pitfalls. How can a modern audience, which has a completely diff…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:06AMThursday, March 23, 2017
Cut! Simon McBurney muddles the story of Hollywood mogul Robert EvansThe beauty of fiction is that its stories have both compelling shape and deep meaning – they are dramas where things fe…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:48PMMonday, March 13, 2017
Michelle Collins stars in haunting account of belief and lonelinessMichelle Collins, actor and TV presenter, is so strongly associated with her roles in EastEnders and Coronation Street that…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:48PMFriday, March 10, 2017
The poet laureate’s verbatim play about Brexit sinks into banalityOh dear. The first explicit play about Brexit is being staged by the National Theatre in a production that has all the acr…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:54PMThursday, March 9, 2017
Docudrama about the 1981 Labour Party split is a treat – for politics buffsPolitics is a serious business, but it’s also a spectator sport. Think of the duels in Prime Minister’s Quest…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:42AMMonday, March 6, 2017
New play by debbie tucker green is too abstract for its own goodLove, we know, will tear us apart again. And again. And yet again. It will shred our nerves and rip through our guts; it will …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:36PMThursday, March 2, 2017
American play about virtual reality therapy is a bit thinTheatre increasingly uses digital delights to enhance audience enjoyment. And you can easily see why. Visual effects that mimic the e…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:54PMTuesday, February 21, 2017
Neat revival of 1980s feminist comedy is more curiosity than classicThe 1980s were a great decade for British women playwrights. During those Thatcher-dominated years, Caryl Churchill produc…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:06PMFriday, February 17, 2017
Real sex workers take the stage for a brilliantly devised showSex workers come in all shapes and sizes. Everyone knows that. But why do they do it? Why does anyone take the risk of being int…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:03PMThursday, February 16, 2017
Stage version of dystopian classic returns – lively but cartoonishThere are few modern literary fables that really resonate in the wider culture. And most that do are dystopias. Think of G…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:48PMFriday, February 3, 2017
Jamie Lloyd tackles Philip Ridley’s modern classic — with terrific resultsPlaywright Philip Ridley has one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary theatre. His imagination is lace…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:12PMThursday, February 2, 2017
New drama about literary ambition is neat, but not nearly disturbing enoughOdd bedfellows are an ideal subject for comedy, and for passion — because opposites attract, right? Well this is …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:36PMWednesday, January 25, 2017
Hit rom-com show is LOL funny, but also a bit thinAs the only inhabitant of Planet Earth who wasn’t completely knocked senseless by La-La Land, it does occur to me that I might not be the …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:04PMThursday, January 19, 2017
New play about the cultivated face of fascism is fascinating if flawedA day or so after Theresa May’s keynote speech about Brexit the words Europe and European carry an electric charge. Fo…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:12PMThursday, January 12, 2017
New play about casual work is thinly written and lacks dramaYou could call it the Corbynisation of new writing. In the past couple of years, a series of plays have plumbed the lower depths, …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:04PMMonday, December 19, 2016
Revival of Shaw classic is a tour de force for Gemma ArtertonHow’s this for a Christmas-week story? Joan, a young peasant girl – played in this version by the charismatically attractive …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:18PMMonday, December 12, 2016
Top director Ivo van Hove makes an uneven National Theatre debutTheatre conventions are a funny thing. Today, it’s actually quite difficult to see a modern classic dressed in the clothes a…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:24PMFriday, December 9, 2016
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s television hit returns to the stage – and still rocksIt’s television, not theatre, that has real power. Real cultural force. Cultural muscle. Take the case of Ph…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:54PM 
