Sunday, December 6, 2020
Eva O’Connor’s piece about ‘madness, heartbreak and condiments’ loses its bite in this online performance
Writer-performer Eva O’Connor describes her latest play, Mustard, as a “…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:32AMSunday, November 8, 2020
Crucible, SheffieldThree fine actors portray more than 35 characters over decades in Mojisola Elufowoju’s impressive production of Oladipo Agboluaje’s new play
The bad news is: a second …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMSaturday, October 24, 2020
Leeds PlayhouseA fun-filled tale of local authority corruption
This new, outdoor show from the innovative company imitating the dog (ITD) is a sanguinary tale of local authority corruption �…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42PMSunday, September 27, 2020
Old Vic, LondonMichael Sheen, Indira Varma and David Threlfall are magnificent in Matthew Warchus’s enthralling livestreamed production of Brian Friel’s 1979 play
Does faith healing come…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:24AMSaturday, September 19, 2020
St Luke’s Bombed Out Church, Liverpool theatre festival
Prejudice and passion powers Maria Paul’s oral history of three white women who married black men in Liverpool 8
Performers are th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:18AMSunday, August 30, 2020
Minack theatre, Porthcurno, Cornwall; Grosvenor Park Open Air theatre, ChesterAn unflappable duo braved the elements in Willy Russell’s comedy drama, while Shakespeare’s crowd-pleaser ch…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:03AMSunday, March 22, 2020
Crucible, SheffieldDirector Robert Hastie makes the most of the now-nostalgic shared space between audience and cast
Writing a review, today, feels strange. Coriolanus was the last performan…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42AMSunday, March 15, 2020
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghThe comic talents of Elaine C Smith and Steven McNicoll can’t save Denise Mina’s stilted, gender-switching adaptation of a Bertolt Brecht comedyBertolt Brecht and …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AMSunday, March 8, 2020
Storyhouse, ChesterFour female undergraduates in 1890s Cambridge struggle for equality in this buoyant production of Jessica Swale’s 2013 classroom classicA renowned expert has come to the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:06AMSunday, February 23, 2020
Viaduct theatre, HalifaxThis adaptation of JM Barrie’s 1901 romcom doesn’t always hit the mark, but it roars to the sweetest conclusionTo some readers, the name Quality Street may conjur…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:54AMSunday, February 16, 2020
Northern Stage, Newcastle upon TyneSet against the upheaval of world events, music from folk trio the Young’uns and animation combine to tell the story of the young anti-fascist activist
…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:04AMSunday, February 2, 2020
Leeds PlayhouseDavid Greig’s 2001 drama about the doctor who founded an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto continues to educate in this atmospheric production
The first thing we see as we ente…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:24AMSunday, January 26, 2020
Belgrade theatre, CoventryFine performances carry this tale of a young African girl’s arrival in Queen Victoria’s court interlaced with a modern family’s move from London to Cheshire
J…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:18PMSaturday, January 18, 2020
The Studio, Royal Exchange, Manchester; the Bunker; Barbican, LondonTwo young Somali women find themselves on opposite sides of the FGM argument in a fine revival of Charlene James’s 2016 …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:12AMSunday, December 29, 2019
Crucible, Sheffield; Kiln, London; Leeds PlayhouseRobert Hastie’s new Guys and Dolls is an instant classic, Mike Bartlett’s arguments are a slow burn, and for a thrilling trip to Oz, the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:54AMMonday, December 23, 2019
Playhouse theatre, LiverpoolA cracking score and an energetic cast can’t disguise an unconvincing romance in Gemma Bodinetz’s update of the seasonal classic
Kris Kringle believes he is S…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AMSunday, December 15, 2019
Traverse theatre, EdinburghPu Songling’s weird stories are brought to life with a hit-and-miss mixture of cutting-edge video and live performance
A demon with a paintbrush retouches the fe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AMSunday, December 8, 2019
Wardrobe theatre, BristolThe cast sinks its teeth into this extremely adult seasonal mashup of Dracula, Jack and Jill and The Sound of Music
A generalised power cut delayed curtain up(metaph…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:54AMSunday, December 1, 2019
Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal BathHansol Jung’s tale of two lonely Koreans who meet online is witty but overstuffed with ideasWe are in Seoul. Guk Minsung is a “goose father”, one of t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:12AMSunday, November 24, 2019
York Theatre RoyalJo Mousley and Emilio Iannucci excel in this engrossing production of Fugard’s tale of a brother and sister’s ambiguous reunion
“I am a regional writer,” claimed So…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18AMSunday, November 17, 2019
Crucible, SheffieldSilence is both golden and frustrating in Charlotte Keatley’s play about four generations of women featuring deaf actors
Fingersmiths theatre company specialises in “w…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18AMSunday, November 10, 2019
New Wolsey theatre, IpswichNewcomers Jim Barne and Kit Buchan have written a classic Christmas romance enhanced by confident production
“Even impossible dreams come true,” sings the wond…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:03AMSunday, November 3, 2019
Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonHannah Khalil’s ambitious play, set in 1926 and 2006, struggles to dramatise questions of power and gender
A museum is a site of encounter between past and…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:36AMSunday, October 27, 2019
Paisley Arts CentreWinning performances deliver a heartbreaking and unsentimental tale about asbestos poisoning in the workplaceFrances Poet’s latest play is a condemnation of an atrocious…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:48AMSaturday, October 19, 2019
Byker Community Centre, Newcastle upon TyneThe audience is invited to attend a mock UK arms fair in this laudable but underdeveloped production
Travelling to Common Wealth and Northern Stage…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:48PMSunday, October 13, 2019
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughOliver Emanuel’s Canadian log cabin drama goes nowhere slowly
’Tis a dark and snow-stormy night somewhere in Canada. After many years of separation, a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06AMSunday, October 6, 2019
Crucible, SheffieldBy rendering its hero completely passive, Steve Waters loses a key aspect of Giles Foden’s novelGiles Foden describes the narrator-hero of his 1998 multiple prize-winnin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:33AMSunday, September 29, 2019
Sherman theatre, CardiffWriting, acting and design combine brilliantly in Ed Thomas’s new, semi-autobiographical playJohn Daniel (Rhys Ifans) fears that daily wearing of his only pair of t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:54AMSunday, September 22, 2019
Crucible, SheffieldMatt Haig converses with his younger self in this engaging take on his memoir about depression
The novelist Matt Haig wrote his award-wining, bestselling 2015 memoir about…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42AMSunday, September 8, 2019
Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonThis fine revival of August Wilson’s 1992 play finds seven people in 60s Pittsburgh struggling with a turbulent world
Double Pulitzer prize-winning writer Au…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMSunday, September 1, 2019
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughAlan Ayckbourn directs this excellent revival of his 1980 comedy of a family suffering a less than festive Christmas
Playwright Alan Ayckbourn remembers a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:36AM 
