Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Revivals of this history play usually reflect the politics of the moment. Now a fresh RSC retelling arrives in a world of instability and fractured alliances
I have long argued that Shakespe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMTuesday, January 13, 2026
As the writer turns 80, his masterful adaptation of the French novel is being revived at the National Theatre. It highlights his lifelong interest in political power play
I once dubbed Chris…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:24AMWednesday, January 7, 2026
The director, who has died aged 98, permanently changed the landscape of British theatre by creating the Young Vic – and it reflected his own energetic and ever innovative nature
Frank Du…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:54AMTuesday, January 6, 2026
The Twelfth Night Reunion gathers some of the grandest names in British theatre, including Simon Callow and Stephen Fry, to explain why Shakespeare’s play continues to bewitch audiences
Ma…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AMFriday, January 2, 2026
Rattigan hoped his 1954 tale about a swindler who exploits his son’s sexual allure would prove him a serious dramatist. Its scandalous story reveals much about the playwright and resonates…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:36AMSaturday, November 29, 2025
The self-described ‘bounced Czech’ created cerebral works centred by a core of genuine emotion – and always understood the ways of our world
All the best dramatists extend the frontier…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06PMMonday, November 17, 2025
Its 1981 New York premiere was a disaster but this told-in-reverse musical became a Tony award-winning hit with Daniel Radcliffe. The film version is a tear-jerking joy
I have made enough mi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:24AMTuesday, November 11, 2025
In his first hit play, now receiving another starry revival, the celebrated dramatist’s analysis of the American psyche is steeped in European tradition
The British theatre’s long love a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:54AMMonday, November 3, 2025
His parable of collective social responsibility is a hardy classic but the Yorkshire playwright’s wider legacy should not be neglected
How on earth does one sum up JB Priestley? He wrote 3…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:06AMTuesday, October 28, 2025
The actor best known as TV’s Sybil Fawlty dazzled over five decades on stage, in roles from from Shakespeare to Alan Bennett • Fawlty Towers actor Prunella Scales dies at the age of 93
P…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AMTuesday, October 7, 2025
When it opened in 1985, Les Mis got some rotten reviews. Forty years on, our writer sees it afresh and Cameron Mackintosh reflects on the show’s spectacular success
So were we wrong? By �…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AMFriday, October 3, 2025
The versatile star, who has died aged 96, portrayed absurdly pretentious and apparently grotesque characters with wonderful sympathy
Patricia Routledge was an actor of uncommon versatility e…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMMonday, September 29, 2025
Following in the footsteps of Peter Hall and Katie Mitchell, Indhu Rubasingham directs an ancient epic at the National Theatre. Bacchae reveals the virtues and vices of creating a new play f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:06AMSunday, September 28, 2025
Harrison’s poetry and plays made an electrifying connection with readers and audiences through his use of Leeds dialect, and his ear for rhyme. Writers remember his greatness
Poet, playwri…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:18PMTuesday, July 8, 2025
The tragedy’s mythic quality appeals to adapters the world over but the Japanese film-maker’s Ran, now rereleased, manages to solve the play’s problems
I have long had mixed feelings a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:18AMMonday, July 7, 2025
Vera; or, The Nihilists concerns a plot to kill a tsar but after Alexander II was assassinated, its London premiere was cancelled. Now receiving a rare production, it captures his conflict b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AMTuesday, June 24, 2025
The maverick behind Tom Holland’s Romeo and Nicole Scherzinger’s Sunset Boulevard is now stunning passersby with Rachel Zegler’s Palladium balcony scene
Rarely can a balcony have cause…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:24AMThursday, June 5, 2025
Moving easily between daring new work from the likes of Jez Butterworth to lucid fresh takes on the canon and heartful musicals, Cooke is an optimal new leader• Dominic Cooke appointed as …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:48PMThursday, May 22, 2025
Actor, playwright and screenwriter who was a stalwart of the National Theatre under Laurence Olivier
The actor and writer Gawn Grainger, who has died aged 87, had an extraordinary career tha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:36AMTuesday, May 6, 2025
What’s behind all the revivals of the shocking parable about terrifying McCarthyism in 1950s America? Our writer reflects on how, through the decades, each fresh production finds new meani…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42AMFriday, January 31, 2025
Faithfull’s casting in Chekhov’s Three Sisters in 1967 caused a perfect storm, yet she held her own against the vastly more experienced cast including Glenda Jackson. It was the start of…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:06AMMonday, January 20, 2025
The Oscar winner stars in the German director’s production of the Chekhov classic where ‘everything is open to interpretation’
How does one stage Chekhov? His plays, embodying symphoni…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42AMFriday, January 17, 2025
The remarkable actor symbolised a radical new generation to her husband Laurence Olivier’s theatrical establishment
• Joan Plowright, celebrated star of stage and screen, dies aged 95•…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:12AMMonday, January 13, 2025
Sophocles’ classic about the bitter pursuit of justice – now revived by Daniel Fish – reveals fresh truths each time
Why do we so rarely see Sophocles’ Electra? John Burgess, in a gu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:36AMTuesday, January 7, 2025
The Nigerian Nobel laureate’s story of a royal servant condemned to kill himself after his master’s death has lost none of its enigmatic appeal
Sheffield is in luck. The Crucible theatre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:32AMTuesday, December 17, 2024
Our Evenings follows an actor through 60 years of treading the boards and holds up a mirror to how society has shapeshifted
Alan Hollinghurst’s remarkable new novel, Our Evenings, is many …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AMFriday, November 29, 2024
Having worked his magic as director of the Almeida theatre, the gifted Goold is bound for greater glories: the National had better watch out
Rupert Goold, as director, has made the Almeida t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:12AMMonday, November 18, 2024
A radical new exhibition celebrates stars including Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart by combining subtly moving artworks with their own voices. The results are uncanny
Great actors have alw…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:48AMThursday, November 14, 2024
The Hollywood star is to appear at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in Shakespeare’s late play about sorcery. But what is the secret to playing the great magician?
I have one thing in common with …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMWednesday, November 13, 2024
With a remarkable knack of bringing history to life on stage and screen, West honed his craft with devotion and delight• Timothy West, star of stage, screen and television, dies aged 90•…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:06AMThursday, November 7, 2024
The 1895 comedy has been staged with age-blind and all-male casts and even David Suchet as Lady Bracknell. Now reinvented again, at the National Theatre, the trick is to be seriously funny
I…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:54AM 
