Sunday, June 29, 2025
Leeds PlayhouseChris O’Connor’s comedy-drama unites a paean to former Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa with the story of a married couple living with dementia during the club’s promotion s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMThursday, May 1, 2025
Everyman, LiverpoolNathan Powell sets out his stall with a crowd-pleasing play about intergenerational tensions in a Caribbean cafe
This play by Nathan Powell, appointed creative director at…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42AMSunday, September 29, 2024
Crucible, SheffieldWith few directorial flourishes and a compelling central performance, this bare-bones version of the domestic drama gives the story its full due
Perhaps the best thing to …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:12PMSunday, September 22, 2024
The Lowry, SalfordThe original magic that made the play the most successful in the National Theatre’s history still holds, with its visceral impact perhaps now more relevant than ever
Joe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:02PMFriday, March 22, 2024
Royal Exchange, ManchesterJill Halfpenny and Rowan Robinson star in a revival of the 1958 play, staged near its setting of Salford
Gather a group of writers together and they will soon be co…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMSunday, March 10, 2024
Crucible, SheffieldDirector Anthony Lau brings his fiercely rigorous intellect to bear on this intensely felt love story, with standout performances from Simon Manyonda and Anoushka Lucas
Th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:48AMSunday, February 18, 2024
A Colchester theatre is picking works out of a hat. In a defunded and exclusive sector, at least someone will get a chance
Nick Ahad is a presenter for BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and the auth…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:02AMLeeds PlayhouseImitating the Dog follow their innovative Dracula and Night of the Living Dead with a version of Shelley’s classic that bolts on a contemporary story about impending parenth…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMFriday, January 5, 2024
Adapting Onjali Q Raúf’s novel for the stage proved a challenge but her refugee story, which has a new nod to Harper Lee, is both urgent and unforgettable
When I was young, my Bangladeshi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AMMonday, December 18, 2023
The organisation’s incoming artistic director shares plans to tour a ‘massive immersive experience’ to empty spaces across the country
It might not have dominated the headlines quite l…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:18AMWednesday, November 15, 2023
Manchester Opera House Show built around Stock Aitken Waterman’s songs flies so long as the pop classics are playing
Having been born at the end of the 1970s and come of age in the 1980s, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AMFriday, October 6, 2023
Crucible, Sheffield It takes a while to get going but when it hits its straps, thanks to the cast’s skilful handling of farce, Sarah Tipple’s production from the Roger McGough translatio…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:25AMThursday, September 14, 2023
Royal Exchange theatre, ManchesterTanika Gupta brings authority and nuance to her adaptation, exploring class, colonialism, partition and invasion – and finding unexpected resonance
The So…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AMWednesday, July 19, 2023
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonTanika Gupta’s historical drama has only got more relevant since 2013, but there’s an awful lot of migration stories to get through in three…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:25AMFriday, May 19, 2023
Royal Exchange theatre, ManchesterAn updated version of Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s 1974 satire speaks to our times but also suffers from a lack of cohesion
It is quite startling to witness…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:03PMSaturday, April 1, 2023
Maxine Peake and Christopher Eccleston among performers as venue put on final show after losing Arts Council funding
In the end, if indeed it is the end (many on stage would have you believe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMFriday, March 17, 2023
Crucible, Sheffield Anthony Lau brings rich cultural authenticity to the stinging China-set capitalist critique – as well as slides and giant frogs
The success of Everything Everywhere All…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:02AMWednesday, September 14, 2022
Crucible, SheffieldDaneka Etchells is the most compelling Beatrice you might ever see in an exceptional production of the romantic comedy
Post lockdown, theatres are looking for sure things …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:04AMWednesday, August 3, 2022
Nottingham PlayhouseThis earnest musical, which features three sets of real twins across its cast, has a deeply moving pay-off
This is an implausible musical, and you may spend the overlong …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:07AMWednesday, July 20, 2022
Hope Mill theatre, ManchesterHeading to the Edinburgh fringe, Justin Huertas’s wildly original musical is sweet and likable but takes itself too seriously
In 2004, the off-kilter American …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:37AMFriday, April 1, 2022
Home, ManchesterSophie Anderson’s novel about a ‘yaga’ ushering the newly dead to the next world is put on its feet in this exuberant show
Is the house going to grow chicken legs and r…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMSunday, March 27, 2022
Leeds PlayhouseWhile unrefined, this show based on Tess Seddon’s failed attempt to stand for parliament, has a heart the size of at least one of the Ridings
There is a neat irony here: had…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AMSunday, February 27, 2022
Hull TruckOne-liners and vernacular idiosyncrasies at the ready, the Hull-born One Man, Two Guvnors playwright Richard Bean takes us back to 1971 and the founding of a local institution
Ori…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48AMFriday, February 11, 2022
Crucible, SheffieldWith hula hoops and a giant cake, this show bashes the narrative with disco glitz but keeps tragedy at its centre
That the props department had to source a giant birthday …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMThursday, February 10, 2022
Octagon, BoltonThe regional premiere of Vinay Patel’s six-decade, three-continent story features a fantastic first professional performance from Saba Shiraz
Early on in this three-act, two…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMFriday, January 28, 2022
Studio, SheffieldRyan Calais Cameron’s story of two young men who grew up together in care is flawed yet has a visceral rawness
A writer singled out as a future star, Ryan Calais Cameron (…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:03PMThursday, January 6, 2022
Leeds PlayhouseAfter a run at the Tokyo Olympics, this production arrives in Britain with every ounce of humour and verve exploited to the full
A witty retelling of a classic that leaves no …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMFriday, December 17, 2021
Crucible, SheffieldThis story of loneliness and romantic disappointment is not obvious Christmas show material but has a lot to say about the season
An attempted suicide, characters in the g…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMWednesday, December 1, 2021
Derby theatreJim Hawkins becomes a young woman (or two) in this joyous but flawed adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale
While this is a sometimes flawed production, with an o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:24AMMonday, October 25, 2021
The Civic, BarnsleyProper Job’s staging of Kafka’s unfinished novel has a watchable lead and some cracking jokes, but leaves us short on connection
There is a clue about what is to come …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AMThursday, September 30, 2021
Leeds PlayhouseFor a tale of the undead, Imitating the Dog’s inventive blend of live theatre and tech is bursting with life
Having tackled zombies in its most recent production, Night of t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:42AM 
