John Malkovich: 'I've read more books on the Middle East than any British journalist' - video by Andrew Dickson, Alex Healey and Mustafa Khalili

As he arrives at London's Barbican to play an operatic serial killer, John Malkovich talks to Andrew Dickson about being back on stage, doing the Edinburgh festival for the first time – an…

Does your nuclear shelter have a bar? Michael Smith on 40 years of mocking America by Andrew Dickson

Scared at airport security? Anxious about ageing? Fearful your fallout shelter doesn’t quite cut it? The artist Michael Smith has been reliving the horrors of modern life since the 70s –…

Barbarians review – like a furious, punk Godot by Andrew Dickson

Young Vic, LondonBarrie Keeffe’s fable of three working-class men adrift in society gets an urgent update in Liz Stevenson’s muscular, bleakly humorous productionA generation has been th…

Ben Hur review – biblical epic with a cast of … four by Andrew Dickson

Tricycle theatre, LondonThe team behind The 39 Steps are back with a multitasking troupe, plus more quick changes and tomfoolery than an entire run of Monty PythonIn September, Patrick Barlo…

Electric review – cinema flickers into life in immersive drama by Andrew Dickson

Rio cinema, LondonA young cast bring verve to the history of a century-old filmhouse – but the plot gets lost in the dark“No point looking sheepish, darling,” says the usherette, fixin…

Caryl Churchill’s Prophetic Drama by Andrew Dickson

Two things are frequently said about Caryl Churchill: that she is the greatest playwright alive, and that she is one of the most elusive. While she occasionally discusses her work with resea…

Somersaults in six-inch heels: the punishing world of Peking Opera by Andrew Dickson

They start as young as nine and wear costumes so lavish, heavy and painful some of them faint. As Chinese opera heads for Britain, our writer goes behind the scenes at its Beijing HQAn elabo…

As You Like It: was it the world's first sketch show? by Andrew Dickson

Is As You Like It the first ever sketch show? The duo behind the National’s new staging reveal how they gave it ‘the wow factor’Who’s the greatest Shakespearean heroine of them all? …

War, migration and revenge: Shakespeare is the bard of today’s world | Andrew Dickson by Andrew Dickson

From Hamlet in Syrian refugee camps to Macbeth in Kolkata, the plays have a resonance far beyond middle EnglandIt is impossible to look at Sarah Lee’s photographs of actors from the Globe …

Inside the world's most haunted theatre by Andrew Dickson

Shadowy presences in the wings, glimpses of long-dead performers … ghosts have long plagued the theatre. We descend into the bowels of the West End’s spookiest playhouse – home to the …

Best Shakespeare films: a Russian Lear, an Indian Othello … and a Danish Hamlet by Andrew Dickson

Film-makers around the world have re-imagined the Bard’s plays with staggering results. Here are five of the bestThe release of Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender and M…

Iliad review – Homer's epic is the theatrical event of the year by Andrew Dickson

The Ffwrnes, LlanelliThe audience becomes the raw material of this vital National Theatre Wales version of one of our oldest narratives An army straggles along the beach in improvised encamp…

From Globe to global: a Shakespeare voyage around the world by Andrew Dickson

Anti-apartheid hero, Nazi favourite, Bollywood inspiration – no other writer’s work is embedded in such a variety of cultures, and today takes such different formsIt was a Monday morning…

John Lahr: 'I got death threats for not liking a Sondheim musical' by Andrew Dickson

Basketball with Woody Allen, a hunting knife from David Mamet, hanging out with Groucho Marx … the legendary critic remembers half a century in showbizJohn Lahr has something to show me. U…

Thomas Ostermeier: 'Hamlet? The play's a mess' by Andrew Dickson

Michael Sheen's take on the Dane is getting all the attention – but could director Thomas Ostermeier's radical version blow it away?Thomas Ostermeier's production of Hamlet is a shambles �…

To be, or not to be: does it matter? by Andrew Dickson

The production of Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch has been criticised for moving around the play’s most famous soliloquy. The furore ignores the fact that people have been messing wit…

The Heresy of Love review – a glimmering, timely revival by Andrew Dickson

Shakespeare’s Globe, London Helen Edmundson’s powerful play about the life and works of proto-feminist Juana Inés de la Cruz boasts powerful performances and a quiet witIt’s scandalou…

946 review – Kneehigh's D-day drama brings cats and razzmatazz by Andrew Dickson

The Asylum, CornwallThis all-singing, all-dancing adaptation of a Michael Morpurgo novella has plenty of fizz, but only in its dying moments does it strike an emotional chordGiven the globe-…

Patrick Marber: ‘Your heart skips when someone is saying your lines’ by Andrew Dickson

After early success writing for the National Theatre and for Alan Partridge, Patrick Marber’s career stalled. As he returns with two plays, he explains how Lewes FC, Turgenev and an escape…

{150} review – fragments of an epic slog from Wales to Patagonia by Andrew Dickson

Royal Opera House Stores, AberdareArtist Marc Rees thinks big with this multimedia account of Welsh settlers in South America, told in a vast storage facility with the help of an Eisteddfod …

Othello: the role that entices and enrages actors of all skin colours by Andrew Dickson

The RSC’s new production of Shakespeare’s tragedy has a black Iago in Lucian Msamati while Hugh Quarshie is battling with the lead role of the wise yet murderous Moor. But is the play ev…

A Marxist take on Magna Carta by Andrew Dickson

Written in the 1960s to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the sealing of the charter, John Arden’s radical play Left-Handed Liberty still has lessons to teach us Continue reading...

A life in theatre: Nicholas Hytner by Andrew Dickson

Learn direct: can theatre directing be taught? by Andrew Dickson

My piece on training courses for young directors raises the question of what makes a good one - skill, instinct or funding?

Jonathan Pryce takes on Shylock: ‘I’d love it if they booed me’ by Andrew Dickson

He’s played everyone from Mahler to Cardinal Wolsey and once did King Lear and Winnie the Pooh in the same day. So why is Jonathan Pryce so worried about playing Shylock in The Merchant of…

Judi Dench and the anarchists: why British theatre has gone election mad by Andrew Dickson

From a doom-metal George Osborne to Judi Dench placing her cross live on polling day, British theatre has caught election fever. Can playwrights swing the vote? Andrew Dickson talks to David…

The director’s cut: David Lan of the Young Vic by Andrew Dickson

With 11 nominations, the Young Vic is set to dominate this weekend’s Olivier awards. Its artistic director, David Lan, explains how a theatre once housed in a converted butcher’s shop be…

Who Cares: the play that puts the NHS under the knife by Andrew Dickson

How do you make a play about something as vast as the NHS and its 1.6 million workers? As playwright Michael Wynne explains, you need to speak to nurses, executives and whistleblowers – an…

Richard III has inspired a foul plot to dig up Shakespeare by Andrew Dickson

What could we possibly want to discover from the Bard’s bones? The thing that made him extraordinary was his brain – no one is going to unearth that Continue reading...

Harvest review – Beckettian menace and wit in Belarussian drama by Andrew Dickson

Ustinov Studio, BathThere is doleful humour and quiet despair in this piece by Pavel Pryazhko, directed by Michael Boyd and designed by Tom Piper Continue reading...

Romeo and Juliet review – tweeny Shakespeare with a touch of steampunk by Andrew Dickson

Tobacco Factory, BristolThe Montagues and Capulets face off like Anthony Burgess’s droogs in a Verona on the edge of meltdownThe kids are taking over the theatre company Shakespeare at the…