Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Perth theatreTwo working-class lads become modern-day highwaymen in this adaptation of the Scottish film but the plentiful songs slow down the story
One of the stories British cinema loves t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42AMSunday, April 6, 2025
Tron theatre, GlasgowMartin O’Connor’s witty and provocative show casts the 18th-century equivalent of the Hitler Diaries in a fresh light
Martin O’Connor calls it “the first Outlan…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:24AMFriday, April 4, 2025
New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme Ambitious adaptation of Powell and Pressburger’s romantic fantasy is intelligently rendered, with well-chosen music added to the period mix
The propaganda bri…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMWednesday, March 26, 2025
Òran Mór, GlasgowMasculine pals who shudder at intimacy help grieving addict Donny find viral success and unlikely solace in this brilliant, funny three-hander
Your standard group-therapy …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:54AMMonday, March 24, 2025
Loch Ness Monster hunters have included the Chuckle Brothers – and even David Lean. As the Scottish icon is honoured in a new stamp and a stirring musical, we separate the classy from the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:48AMSunday, March 16, 2025
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghAdapted from the film, this vibrant show has plenty of joyful foot-stomping, with a star who gives us the raw fragility behind the fanfare
If you can’t be sentimenta…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AMSunday, March 9, 2025
Pavilion theatre, GlasgowA fine cast capture the emotional damage and inarticulate anger at the lie they have all been sold in this taut no-nonsense production
He lies to gain status. His e…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:36AMFriday, March 7, 2025
Everyman, LiverpoolBack at the theatre where it premiered in 1986, Willy Russell’s play about a midlife voyage of self-discovery retains both its local and universal appeal
There is a marv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AMThursday, March 6, 2025
Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonThe new joint boss of the Royal Shakespeare Company makes an impetuous king in Daniel Raggett’s production of Marlowe’s history play
The temptation is to…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:32AMWednesday, March 5, 2025
Shakespeare North Playhouse, PrescotElizabeth Godber and Nick Lane relocate Shakespeare’s comedy of abstinence to the throbbing heart of 90s hedonism
Standards have declined. When Shakespe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AMMonday, March 3, 2025
Perth theatre, ScotlandNicola Werenowska’s enterprising adaptation tackles DH Lawrence’s novel back to front
Adapting a novel is rarely straightforward and playwright Nicola Werenowska …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:18AMSaturday, March 1, 2025
Veteran director, who originally opposed adapting 1967 film for the stage, is ‘very proud’ as Menier Chocolate Factory production will move to London’s Garrick theatre
The Menier Choco…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:42PMWednesday, February 26, 2025
Tron theatre, GlasgowJemima Levick’s superb production sets Arthur Miller’s tale of family, immigration, poverty and passion in the modern-day Brooklyn docks
Is it an innocent domestic m…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:36AMSunday, February 23, 2025
Tramway, GlasgowSandy Grierson is astonishing as a talking monkey working in a Japanese bathhouse in this slight but theatrically beguiling slice of magical-realism
Mizuki Ando has a distres…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AMWednesday, February 19, 2025
Live theatre, NewcastleA South Shields family are torn by opposing forces as Ishy Din cleverly taps into the emotive memories of a weekend in the summer of 1977
It is a reasonable question. …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:06AMFriday, February 14, 2025
Hull Truck theatreSnappy movement and a Billy Nomates score can’t make up for the lack of emotional range in this portrait of the 18th-century writer
It was quite a life. Having escaped a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54PMThursday, February 13, 2025
Royal Exchange theatre, ManchesterHiding behind the fluttering dialogue and domestic chatter lies a dark poetry in a pair of plays that address terrifying futures head on
Last month, wildfir…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:36PMWednesday, January 29, 2025
Royal Court, LiverpoolBubbling with quirky detail, Sarah Whitehead’s full-length debut captures the contradictions of close relationships between sisters without sentimentality
The past ha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:06AMThursday, January 23, 2025
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghJohn Douglas Thompson is a commanding Shylock in a vision of an apparently benign city where tolerance buckles all too quickly
He likes a bit of a laugh, this Shylock…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:32AMTuesday, December 10, 2024
The Dukes, LancasterWith a cumbersome script and no sense of danger or atmosphere, this production loses its way
If you are in any doubt that this adaptation of the 1952 Mary Norton novel ha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:54AMMonday, December 9, 2024
Derby theatreAbsorbing adaptation is faithful to the original, with sepia lighting and a whiskery, curmudgeonly Scrooge pinching pennies in hard times
Even the proportions of Ebenezer Scroog…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AMStephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughThe titular hero’s coming-of-age tale takes advantage of local tourist attractions and a bright hard-working cast in this brisk and cheerful production …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:02AMFriday, December 6, 2024
Octagon, BoltonThis musical adaptation of the classic tale is full of charm and catchy new numbers with a captivating turn by Kiara Nicole Pillai as Mowgli
There is a startling piece of tran…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:12AMMonday, December 2, 2024
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghDuncan McLean’s riotous adaptation begins in a care home for retired pirates, from which the resourceful heroes set sail in a washtub buoyed by imagination
Who is th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:36AMFriday, November 29, 2024
Royal Exchange theatre, ManchesterJustin Greene and the late Steve Brown’s musical about a working-class woman who wins big on the pools and blows the lot is given a moving dream twist
As …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:12AMWednesday, November 27, 2024
Tron theatre, GlasgowThere are cursory mentions of crocodiles, clocks and boys who never grow up, but Johnny McKnight’s script charts its own course in a hilariously daft production
I have…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMThursday, November 21, 2024
Pitlochry Festival theatreIn our dark times, the Rodgers and Hammerstein classics offer a sugar-coated disguise for a show with political heft
Elizabeth Newman’s six-year tenure as Pitloch…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AMFriday, November 15, 2024
Royal Court, LiverpoolWolf-like property developers are set to evict the grandmother, who is on a night of drug-fuelled abandon, in this enjoyable show
This is Liverpool, so the most frighte…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:48PMThursday, November 7, 2024
Alphabetti, NewcastleWritten and performed by Matt Miller, this tender solo show weaves in bittersweet childhood memories with car maintenance metaphors
We have signed up for a 12-week cours…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:54AMFriday, November 1, 2024
Playhouse, SheffieldThe actor plays a dozen roles with aplomb in a small-town US tale co-written with Ed Stambollouian
What an astonishing performance. In a kind of true-crime version of Und…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:31AMThursday, October 31, 2024
Birmingham RepRae Mainwaring’s award-winning drama about a young woman with multiple sclerosis is given a playful production
This play’s title refers to the patches of an MRI scan that i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:06PM 
