Monday, June 8, 2020
Our series on forgotten theatre classics continues with Wertenbaker’s stylish dissection of Thatcher-era morality
I recently caught on BBC Four a repeat of Andrew Marr’s History of Moder…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:48AMMonday, June 1, 2020
Our new series on lost theatre classics begins with an exceptional play about the dashed hopes of a middle-aged Jamaican woman
When the theatrical lockdown ends, I suspect there will be a te…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54AMWednesday, May 13, 2020
He was our ‘greatest theatrical architect’, the creator of 150 magnificent buildings that delighted crowds from Glasgow to Blackpool to London. On the centenary of his death, we celebrat…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:36AMFriday, April 17, 2020
A lengthy 2017 interview, to be streamed online, shows the acting great opening up about her craft and sharing priceless memories
One of the many tantalising shows lost to the lockdown was …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:06AMFriday, April 3, 2020
Dramatists have long focused on the agonies and irritations of self-imposed or enforced isolation
‘I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space,” says Hamle…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:42AMThursday, March 19, 2020
This is the art form that makes us feel most acutely human. We are going to need it more than ever
How will society cope with the total shutdown of theatres for the foreseeable future? It wi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:18AMMonday, March 16, 2020
A versatile master of stage, radio and TV, Hudd survived changes in popular taste through his good-hearted skill
I last saw Roy Hudd, who has died at the age of 83, at a lunch organised by t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48PMThursday, March 5, 2020
From Olivier’s strangled fury to Ralph Fiennes’ Oedipal embraces, this complex political play is extraordinarily flexible
‘The tragedy of Coriolanus is one of the most amusing of our a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:33AMMonday, March 2, 2020
To kick off our critical tour of Europe’s cultural hotspots, Michael Billington reports on thrilling theatre in a post-slump Greece – from a minimalist Doll’s House to Beckett like he�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:03AMThursday, February 27, 2020
The playwright’s new work has been seen as a departure from his intellectual stock-in-trade. But look deeper, and passion has always been present
What kind of writer is Tom Stoppard? In co…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:54AMTuesday, February 18, 2020
The Royal Shakespeare Company has vowed to drill the Bard’s rhythms into its actors – but our alienation from his language runs deeper
‘Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AMTuesday, February 4, 2020
The former RSC director had a stellar career, seeing the depth in derided plays and restoring the Histories to their rightful stage
I was saddened to hear of the death of Terry Hands at the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:36AMMonday, January 20, 2020
From Rome to Paris to London, Uncle Vanya delivers fresh meanings wherever and whenever it’s performed
Which is Chekhov’s greatest play? It tends to be the one you’ve seen most recentl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:42AMThursday, December 19, 2019
Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonAstrid Lindgren’s nine-year-old rebel is suitably anarchic and altruistic in a festive musical show that leaves you chuckling
I’ve come late in life to Ast…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:42AMTuesday, December 17, 2019
Katori Hall gave us a miracle, Caryl Churchill delivered a dark quartet and Tom Hiddleston astounded in Betrayal. But the year’s highlight was a breathtaking Ibsen with Hayley Atwell
More …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:33AMSunday, December 15, 2019
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonElla Hickson’s Elizabeth I story vividly portrays her battles with men and a patriarchal system but doesn’t make a strong case for contemporary parallels
E…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AMFriday, December 13, 2019
Donmar Warehouse, LondonMike Lew’s American update of Shakespeare, directed by Michael Longhurst, captures the king’s complexity
Mike Lew’s relocation of Richard III to a US high schoo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:48AMThursday, December 12, 2019
Royal Court, London Race and relationships are the focus of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s deeply moving drama that presents an honest picture of multi-cultural Britain
There’s a great story by …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18PMWednesday, December 11, 2019
Lyttelton, LondonBuoyed by first-rate performances, this production transforms the Russian classic into an eye-opening account of the Biafran war
Inua Ellams describes his new play, his firs…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AM11 December 1972: on the evidence of recent shows, the musical is in dead trouble: the more one watches dancers catapulting across the stage as if fired from a cannon and leading ladies bari…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:48AMMonday, December 9, 2019
With shows such as Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Six and The Boy in the Dress, the musical is in rude health in this country – whether Broadway knows it or not
Has the British musical…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:18PMSunday, December 8, 2019
Playhouse, LondonVisual flummery and the famous nose are dispensed with in Martin Crimp’s modern take on Rostand’s proxy-wooing play
This version of Edmond Rostand’s play, as adapted b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:12PMFriday, December 6, 2019
Hampstead theatre, LondonBoris Spassky and Bobby Fischer’s 1972 match is a proxy war in this intriguing but overcomplicated chess drama
There has already been a musical, Chess, inspired by…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:12AMThursday, December 5, 2019
Young Vic, London Directed by Nadia Latif, this Pulitzer prize-winning play by Jackie Sibblies Drury is definitely one to see – and argue over
This play by Jackie Sibblies Drury is tricky …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMWednesday, December 4, 2019
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonThis pitch-perfect revival of Sandy Wilson’s 1953 musical is a positive invitation to dance
Time has been good to Sandy Wilson’s 1953 musical. Although se…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:54PMAs Michael Billington, the Guardian’s chief theatre critic, prepares to step down, he discusses what has changed – and what hasn’t – in his 48 years as a nightly aisle-squatter
Ten o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:54PMFriday, November 29, 2019
Finborough, LondonA Welsh teenager is hailed as the second coming in this fascinating revival of Emlyn Williams’ long-forgotten play
This enterprising theatre struck gold in 2011 with its …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:48AMThursday, November 28, 2019
The Guardian’s theatre critic was at the sketch group’s first show in 1960. It was the beginning of a friendship … and a satire boom that changed the world
My first sighting of Jonatha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48PMRoyal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonA resplendent cast sing the praises of self-expression in Mark Ravenhill’s adaptation of the feelgood football novel
The boy who defies tribal…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48PMWednesday, November 27, 2019
Orange Tree, Richmond upon ThamesThis production of George Bernard Shaw’s remarkable play about a poet and a priest in love with the same woman induces giddy delight
Paul Miller is almost …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:18AMTuesday, November 26, 2019
Bush theatre, LondonBijan Sheibani’s writing debut about two half-Iranian brothers relies on a puzzling backstory, yet vivid staging and beautiful performances fill it with vitality
You ca…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:36PM 
