Thursday, March 9, 2017
A rush of new plays offer fictionalised versions of Labour’s 1981 split, the revamp of the Sun, a TV quizshow scandal and other real events. Playwrights James Graham and Steve Waters discu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:03PMThursday, February 2, 2017
Barely out of Rada, Tamara Lawrance cruised into TV and stage roles. Now she’s taking on Twelfth Night at the National. Can it beat her weird student version?Playing Viola in Twelfth Night…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AMSaturday, January 21, 2017
Theatre 503, LondonNeil LaBute and Caryl Churchill contribute to an evening of plays that make every effort to empathise with Trump votersNews that a London fringe theatre had commissioned a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42AMFriday, January 20, 2017
In the past, his plays have enraged the right. But Howard Barker’s new foes are liberals – angry at the ‘yellowface’ casting in his latest work. Why is he so unbothered?At the bottom…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMMonday, January 16, 2017
Her plays arrive fully formed – and she refuses to talk about what they mean. Mark Lawson talks to actors, directors and her publisher about what really makes Churchill tickSince the death…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24PMSunday, December 18, 2016
The writer remains nationally visible and professionally treasured, just don't be fooled into using the obvious label• B is for Betty's, S is for splother ... An A-Z of Alan Bennett• 80 …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMSaturday, December 17, 2016
A new season of shows, on stage and screen, give a strong sense of deja vu. But are remakes always an artistic upgrade?The top-grossing films of 2016 in the UK are The Jungle Book and B…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AMWednesday, December 7, 2016
Soho theatre, LondonPhoebe Waller-Bridge expertly controls the audience as she performs the original monologue that led to her TV smash It’s unusual for the text of a theatrical monologue …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMMonday, November 14, 2016
How do you top a hit play about global politics? By tackling the end of the world – from nuclear meltdown to Brexit and Trump. The writer talks eavesdropping and honestyWomen who go to see…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AMTuesday, November 1, 2016
From One Man, Two Guvnors to Noises Off and What the Butler Saw, trouser-dropping and door-slamming is back with a vengeance in the West End and on Broadway. How come?On radio phone-ins at t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMSaturday, October 15, 2016
The playwright discusses referendum gloom, turning down I’m a Celebrity, and why his third volume of diaries may be his last. Read an extract hereHaving been a Spitting Image puppet, voice…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:15AMFriday, October 7, 2016
Part motivational seminar, part big-budget Blue Peter feature, this somersaulting lecture about human survival is unlike anything on the planetSuspended on wires high above Wembley arena, ru…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:06AMSunday, October 2, 2016
London Palladium The Dynasty star treads a line between spontaneity and laziness in the company of her fifth husband and an adoring audienceAlthough the London Palladium is famous for hostin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:25AMWednesday, September 21, 2016
The daughter of a Vietnam vet, Suzan-Lori Parks has now written an epic trilogy set during the American civil war. She talks about the military, Obama-era racism and loving Downton AbbeyAs a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:09PMSaturday, September 17, 2016
The three-time Pulitzer prize-winning playwright had an extraordinary career trajectory that saw him conquer critics and alcoholism to win more trophiesPerhaps the most remarkable achievemen…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:00AMFriday, September 16, 2016
G is for The Goat, L is for lizards and U is for umbrella … As A Delicate Balance returns to Broadway, dip into our guide to the great American playwrightAfter being born – on 12 March 1…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:10PMFrom Dan Brown to Graham Greene, the papacy has long proved fascinating to writers. Mark Lawson examines the mysteries around this powerful figure and the church he leadsThe first duty of a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:08AMTuesday, September 6, 2016
After his success with E4's Glue, Thorne is returning to the theatre with Hope, a drama at the Royal Court about local government budget cutsDespite having been up late last Monday night at …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:48PMSunday, September 4, 2016
Soho theatre, LondonMaria Alyokhina’s dramatisation of artists targeted by Putin is most powerful when it evokes the dark political farce of PinterThe arrest and imprisonment of the Russia…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:55AMTuesday, August 30, 2016
John Osborne’s classic allegory The Entertainer is back. But the UK is now so fragmented that no modern playwright could pen a drama to sum up who we areKenneth Branagh, whose career has o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:02AMFriday, August 19, 2016
Screenwriters often find themselves in a straitjacket – but comedy shows written for the theatre have free rein to be as foul-mouthed and foul-minded as they like. The world needs more of …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:36AMTuesday, August 16, 2016
From the Brexit vote to the US presidential race, the tumult of the year’s news shows how nimble – or lucky – artists need to be to stay relevantMost would agree that timing is vital t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:34PMThursday, July 21, 2016
As previews of the West End show reveal its gasp-inducing illusions, hanky-inducing scenes and Harry as a 40-year-old dad, the producers behind the darkest ever Potter project discuss secrec…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:26PMMonday, July 11, 2016
As she prepares to appear in the Young Chekhov trilogy, the star of Last Tango in Halifax and W1A talks about playing outsiders, growing up surrounded by white faces – and how it feels to …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:09PMSaturday, July 9, 2016
A lifetime achievement in musical theatre acknowledges Lansbury’s prolific career spanning seven decadesPeople like to pass landmark birthdays in meaningful places, so it seems right that …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:43PMSunday, June 19, 2016
Life with Father, about a sexist patriarch and submissive wife, holds the record for the longest-running non-musical play in New York. Now, 75 years after it premiered, Mark Lawson…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:51PMThursday, June 16, 2016
Minerva, ChichesterMark Hayhurst’s play about a court-martialled first world war soldier is sharply intelligent and emotionally joltingThe canon of first world war drama is already vast. M…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:34PMSaturday, June 11, 2016
With gift for solitude, and dialogue, prolific award-winning scriptwriter is unusually natural collaborator for Harry Potter playTelevision and theatre playwrights who spend a lot of time al…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:18AMThursday, June 9, 2016
Wales Millennium Centre, CardiffThe singer has co-authored a fascinating update on Hans Christian Andersen, pitting her sea nymph against marine pollution and malign capitalismWhile church m…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:07PMMonday, June 6, 2016
The playwright was a commercial success, but his works could only have been created in subsidised venuesPeter Shaffer obituaryFew writers achieve the lucrative double of writing an internati…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:49PMShakespeare’s Globe, LondonAoife Duffin is an electrifying Kate in Caroline Byrne’s splendid Irish version, which injects touches of Yeats, Wilde and Beckett Shakespeare’s comedy of Pe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:15AM 
