Friday, July 12, 2019
London PalladiumSheridan Smith and Jason Donovan bring charisma to a jubilant revival – but neither can match the young dreamer at its centre
I first saw this show in 1972 when it was a mo…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:33AMThursday, July 11, 2019
The Lowry, SalfordInternationaal Theater Amsterdam present a constantly inventive, four-hour staging of the overheated 1943 polemic
Ivo van Hove is the most ubiquitous of modern directors. B…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:18AMWednesday, July 10, 2019
Olivier, LondonHare updates Ibsen’s 1867 dramatic poem with wit and ingenuity, resulting in a sharp satire on contemporary mores
This play is credited as “by David Hare after Henrik Ibs…
Linked From The Guardian at 12:54AMSunday, July 7, 2019
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonGregory Doran’s assured production offers a perfectly judged portrait of public hypocrisy and seething sexuality
Gregory Doran is not the firs…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:54PMFriday, July 5, 2019
Family and politics collide as a British man sets out to unearth his South African roots – and get the audience off their seats
This show has the aura of a big event. It helps kickstart th…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:48AMThursday, July 4, 2019
Royal Court, LondonBeautifully staged by John Tiffany, Thorne’s new drama explores the pitfalls of socialist parenting
How does one cope with being reared by radical parents? It’s a them…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:24PMWednesday, July 3, 2019
Lyric Hammersmith, LondonMichael Frayn’s witty parody of backstage antics endures in an entertaining production that hit a real-life on-stage glitch
What irony! Just as Michael Frayn’s f…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:36AMTuesday, July 2, 2019
Chiswick House, LondonCal McCrystal brings a woozy vibe to Giffords Circus, though these hippies are versatile performers and formidable athletes
We expect a display of random skills. But th…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:42AMSunday, June 30, 2019
Minerva, Chichester Nancy Carroll is magnificent as a woman shamed by a failed affair with a younger man, in a play that seethes with postwar English anger
Two critics, a Young Turk and an O…
Linked From The Guardian at 06:36AMFriday, June 28, 2019
Donmar Warehouse, London David Greig’s 1994 play about yearning for a united Europe as fascists gather strength is deeply resonant
Refugees desperately seek shelter, neo-fascist thugs roa…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:24AMThursday, June 27, 2019
Almeida, LondonRupert Goold directs a taut adaptation of Thomas Vinterberg’s film about an innocent man falling prey to clannish locals
Back in 2004 the Almeida had a big hit with a stage …
Linked From The Guardian at 01:03PMWednesday, June 26, 2019
Old Vic, London Scott is richly funny as a peacocking Peter Pan whose theatrical bohemia is threatened by outsiders
Andrew Scott gives a virtuosic performance in Noël Coward’s imperishabl…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:18AMSunday, June 23, 2019
Finborough, LondonDion Boucicault’s convoluted melodrama is elevated by the earnestness and imagination of Phil Willmott’s canny revival
“Spare me the theatricals,” pleads a characte…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:33AMFriday, June 21, 2019
Vaudeville theatre, LondonLev Dodin’s masterly production allows the actors to truly inhabit their roles and presents a familiar play afresh
We live in an age of director’s theatre. But …
Linked From The Guardian at 09:36AMThursday, June 20, 2019
Barbican, LondonThis adaptation of Luchino Visconti’s 1969 film, performed by the Comédie-Française, is full of startling set pieces
When Luchino Visconti’s movie, The Damned, opened i…
Linked From The Guardian at 06:54AMWednesday, June 19, 2019
Garrick theatre, LondonJohn Malkovich works overtime to squeeze depth into David Mamet’s predatory Hollywood tycoon Barney Fein
David Mamet’s new play, we are assured, is fiction and any…
Linked From The Guardian at 06:36PMTuesday, June 18, 2019
Bush theatre, LondonNancy Medina directs a slow-burning story of a family caught between two cultures in 80s Britain
As part of its policy of reviving neglected plays by writers of colour, t…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:18AMMonday, June 17, 2019
Orange Tree, RichmondSuperb performances power the ingeniously plotted story of a young earl’s marriage to the daughter of an impoverished duke
The whirligig of time, as Shakespeare observ…
Linked From The Guardian at 02:12AMFriday, June 14, 2019
Chichester Festival theatreRachael Stirling is excellent in Kate Hewitt’s invigorating production of a play about individual and national unease
There seems a cunning plan to Chichester’…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:06AMThursday, June 13, 2019
Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonRivalry and shared guilt combine as Pope Benedict XVI meets his successor, Pope Francis, in Anthony McCarten’s drama
Having written films about Winston Chur…
Linked From The Guardian at 11:42AMWednesday, June 12, 2019
Ustinov, BathStrong performances buoy up a lightweight story about characters fated to fulfil the destinies of their fictional namesakes
I find it mildly astonishing that this piece won the …
Linked From The Guardian at 06:54PMTuesday, June 11, 2019
Bridge theatre, London Festive fun, ear-nibbling and high-wire antics infuse Nicholas Hytner’s startling role-reversal production
A promenade Julius Caesar was one of the Bridge’s bigges…
Linked From The Guardian at 06:18PMFriday, June 7, 2019
White Bear, LondonSophie Treadwell’s long-lost tale of Freudian fear gets its first outing with a cast who foster high tension in an intimate venue
Sophie Treadwell is best known for her e…
Linked From The Guardian at 05:54AMThursday, June 6, 2019
Barbican, LondonA pair of Lion King fans blunder into a highbrow drama in Declan Donnellan’s gallant update of the class-collision comedy
In Francis Beaumont’s 1607 burlesque, a grocer a…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:06AMWednesday, June 5, 2019
Kiln, LondonSamuel Adamson’s stimulating family saga revolves around A Doll’s House and is inventively staged by Indhu Rubasingham
The slam of the door at the end of A Doll’s House was…
Linked From The Guardian at 11:33AMFriday, May 31, 2019
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonPrasanna Puwanarajah’s edge-of-the-seat revival of Thomas Otway’s 1682 tragedy looks like Blade Runner but deals in age-old themes of hypocrisy, corruption a…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:42AMThursday, May 30, 2019
Old Red Lion, LondonEmma Hemingford’s promising debut gets under the skin of a troubled relationship and refuses to take sides
Emma Hemingford has written and co-stars in this promising de…
Linked From The Guardian at 12:03PMWednesday, May 29, 2019
Wyndhams, LondonKenneth Lonergan’s tale of astronomy and midlife misery makes fine use of an A-list cast but never truly explodes into life
With Matthew Broderick and Elizabeth McGovern he…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:06PMLyttelton, LondonAllam shines as the tyrannical capitalist patriarch at the heart of Githa Sowerby’s powerful story of a society in transition
It has been exactly 25 years since a National…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:24PMTuesday, May 28, 2019
King’s Head theatre, LondonKnown for her sharp tongue and love affairs, the eccentric Australian actor is celebrated in this entertaining one-woman show
If the title is outrageous, so was …
Linked From The Guardian at 01:12AMFriday, May 24, 2019
Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonAugust Wilson’s overheated story of an ex-con attempting to rebuild his life is buoyed by an energetic cast with meaty roles
The parts are sometimes big…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:48AM 
