Thursday, November 21, 2019
Gate theatre, LondonDespite Temi Wilkey’s best efforts, including rolling in slime, Tue Biering’s play can’t decide whether it is a critique of utopianism or a message of reassurance
…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:12AMWednesday, November 20, 2019
Shaftesbury theatre, LondonSongs of the prolific Swedish tunesmith are shoehorned into a silly Shakespeare-derived story for this misguided West End musical
Romeo and Juliet, the starting po…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:03PMTuesday, November 19, 2019
Noël Coward theatre, LondonSam Tutty shines as the lonely student who fabricates a friendship with a dead boy, but this award-winning musical has plot holes
This musical arrives from the US…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:12PMFriday, November 15, 2019
David Greig’s survival-story adaptation has clawed its way to the West End – and it is a triumph of resolve and innovation
When this adaptation of Joe Simpson’s mountaineering memoir, …
Linked From The Guardian at 07:33AMThursday, November 14, 2019
Hampstead theatre, LondonChinonyerem Odimba’s subtle play is a celebration of female friendship, given an intimate production by Daniel Bailey
There is much to admire in this play by Chin…
Linked From The Guardian at 04:03PMWednesday, November 13, 2019
Prince Edward theatre, LondonZizi Strallen is excellent as the buoyant nanny in Eyre’s chippy and enduring show, which also calls on Julian Fellowes, Matthew Bourne and Petula Clark
I was …
Linked From The Guardian at 09:12PMTuesday, November 12, 2019
Theatre 503, LondonWriter John Webber shows edgy promise with this story of a woman’s contrasting encounters with two men
Like many emerging dramatists, John Webber is an actor. He doesn…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:36AMFriday, November 8, 2019
After two incidents in six years, visitors may need reassurance before they return to the West End
“Don’t clap too hard: it’s a very old building,” says Archie Rice in John Osborne…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:54PMThursday, November 7, 2019
The Other Palace, London This new musical by Alick Glass carries its fight against 30s movie plagiarism with pleasant songs, but lacks the showbiz sparkle to land a killer punch
This theatre…
Linked From The Guardian at 05:36PMWednesday, November 6, 2019
Park theatre, LondonDark comedy peeks through the relationship between a malevolent mum and her paranoid middle-aged son in Eugene O’Hare’s Pinteresque play
This is the second play by Eu…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:06AMTuesday, November 5, 2019
Southwark Cathedral, LondonJasper Britton is outstanding as Thomas Becket in Scena Mundi’s revival, but the church acoustics make the rest of the cast hard to hear
How do you stage TS Elio…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:18PMMonday, November 4, 2019
Turbine theatre, LondonA delightfully tuneful adaptation of the Broadway musical returns the unlucky-in-love record-shop owner to his London roots
Nick Hornby’s bestselling 1995 novel abou…
Linked From The Guardian at 12:48PMFriday, November 1, 2019
Pioneering black British-based playwright who examined the effects of colonialism on his native TrinidadMustapha Matura, who has died aged 79 after a heart attack, was a pioneering black pla…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:36PMFinborough theatre, LondonDepression provides the tough backdrop for an intense affair in Jacob Marx Rice’s smart, flawed and compellingly acted play
Depression is a subject the theatre is…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:48AMThursday, October 31, 2019
Dorfman, National Theatre, LondonBaker probes the relevance of stories in her new play, seemingly set at a strategy meeting, but the concept runs out of steam
I was enthralled by Annie Bake…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:33AMWednesday, October 30, 2019
Royal Exchange, ManchesterSarah Frankcom says her farewell as the Exchange’s artistic director with this moving testament to the power of family life
This has the air of an event. It is th…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:24AMTuesday, October 29, 2019
In an era of uncertainty and anxiety, New York theatre is shunning its obsession with private lives to throw a powerful spotlight on politics
It used to be argued that British drama is drive…
Linked From The Guardian at 06:24AMMonday, October 28, 2019
On the actor’s birthday, our critic picks three key performances that illuminate her gift for earthy honesty
Joan Plowright, who celebrates her 90th birthday today, is the senior figure in…
Linked From The Guardian at 03:06AMMonday, October 21, 2019
Almeida, LondonSiobhan Redmond is impressive as a tyrannical mother trying to rescue her debt-ridden family in Tinuke Craig’s strangely rootless production
This production of Maxim Gorky…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:48PMFriday, October 18, 2019
Donmar Warehouse, LondonThe playwright throws down the gauntlet to directors, and the result is a show full of ideas but lacking unity
Alice Birch’s new play, whose title comes with built-…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:18AMTuesday, October 15, 2019
Royal Court, LondonPoet Sabrina Mahfouz uses songs, music and humour to deliver an impassioned assault on British imperialism
Passion counts for a lot in the theatre. That is proved by this …
Linked From The Guardian at 08:33AMMonday, October 14, 2019
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonThis vigorously performed play confronts the country’s past issues with a battle between the disgraced ex-president, Jacob Zuma, and one of his fiercest critic…
Linked From The Guardian at 02:37AMThursday, October 10, 2019
Vaudeville, London From age six to 30, Mischief Theatre’s engaging band of classmates bicker and play but rarely test the assumption that character is formed in childhood
Mischief Theatre,…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:12PMWednesday, October 9, 2019
Wyndham’s theatre, London With fart jokes and skiffle songs, this Sean Foley adaptation ditches the innocence of the 1950s capitalist comedy, but has plenty of drive
This is Sean Foley’s…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:03AMTuesday, October 8, 2019
Barbican, LondonA gifted cast from Moscow’s Theatre of Nations brings Soviet-era stories of folly and obsession to enchanting life
I confess to knowing little of Vasily Shukshin (1929-74) …
Linked From The Guardian at 03:24PMThe Guardian’s theatre critic reflects on why the stage remains such a vital means of distilling society
We live, to put it mildly, in volatile times. No one knows for sure where this coun…
Linked From The Guardian at 06:24AMFriday, October 4, 2019
Finborough theatre, LondonA patriotic history professor clashes with her activist student in a smart play sustained by an early surge of ideas
First produced in Boston in 2018, Eleanor Burge…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:12AMThursday, October 3, 2019
Trafalgar Studios, LondonThere are excellent performances from a cast including Toby Stephens and Claire Skinner, in a fine revival of Nichols’ humane play
It is 52 years since Peter Nicho…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:24AMWednesday, October 2, 2019
Lyttelton, London Athol Fugard explores South Africa in 1950 through a white teenager and two black men who practise ballroom routines
The plays Athol Fugard co-created with John Kani and Wi…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:24AMTuesday, October 1, 2019
Unfinished Jane Austen novels have been adapted for television and the stage. Theatre’s room for experiment delivers the most satisfying imaginative leap
By a strange chance it is currentl…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:18AMSunday, September 29, 2019
Chichester Festival theatreThe murderous thane faces witches, relentless video and a musical assault in this lengthy production but emerges as a figure of rare complexity
Read interview with…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:12AM 
