Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonSet in a post-Brexit dystopia, Melly Still’s production is odd, excessive and over-stuffed with ideas but it’s unafraid of emotion and boast…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AMBranagh channels Olivier, Isabelle Huppert lusts after her stepson and Ralph Fiennes gets the royal hump. Meanwhile there’s magic in the air as Harry Potter grows up – and Groundhog Day …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:52AMTuesday, May 10, 2016
Arcola, LondonMay Sumbwanyambe’s promising play, set in 1998, pits a white farm-owning family against a government agent sent to acquire their landThe Papatango new writing prize has uncov…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:26AMSaturday, May 7, 2016
The Henry VI plays are condensed into two servings of power battles, sex and witchcraft with fine performances from Hugh Bonneville and Sophie OkonedoShakespeare’s early histories used to …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:56PMFriday, May 6, 2016
Hampstead theatre, LondonWhy did TE Lawrence turn his back on fame after assisting the Arab uprising? Brenton’s solidly acted play explores the mystery of a troubled figureThe centenary of…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AMWednesday, May 4, 2016
Chichester festival theatreBonneville precisely captures the recklessness and egotism of Dr Stockmann in a vigorous production of Ibsen’s frighteningly topical playThis is the fifth major …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:34PMMill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud, GuildfordPrivate passion coincides with the public chaos of 1947 in this tale of an affair featuring a first-rate castHoward Brenton’s Drawing the Line dramatis…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:00AMMonday, May 2, 2016
Ibsen was sane, progressive and formal. Strindberg was neurotic, reactionary and fragmented. The two were arch enemies - but together they laid the foundations for modern drama, says Michael…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:14PMBranagh channels Olivier, Isabelle Huppert lusts after her stepson and Ralph Fiennes gets the royal hump. Meanwhile there’s magic in the air as Harry Potter grows up – and Groundhog Day …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:38PMSunday, May 1, 2016
Finborough, LondonAthena Stevens’ drama about a girl with cerebral palsy and a teacher overstates the message that disability is no bar to ambition, but it’s laudable propagandaThis play…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:46AMFriday, April 29, 2016
The Space, LondonGotthold Ephraim Lessing’s European drama, given an admirable revival at this fringe theatre, is an assured attack on unfettered princely powerThis 1772 tragedy by Gotthol…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AMThursday, April 28, 2016
Donmar Warehouse, London Payne’s utterly relatable characters make this play about scientific progress an exploration of the very human concepts of love, identity, faith and lossNick Payne…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:46AMWednesday, April 27, 2016
Minerva, ChichesterPatricia Hodge is superb as a madcap aunt, whisking her buttoned-up nephew on a world tour, in a perfectly pleasant show that lacks the novel’s ambiguitiesGraham Greene�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:53AMTuesday, April 26, 2016
Through intelligent handling of its racial themes, Daniel Evans’s revival has steered this much-loved 1927 show smoothly into the modern ageWhat is it about Show Boat? Why is it that a mus…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:43AMDuke of York’s, London The Game of Thrones actor gives us a sense of the scholar’s flailing despair but Jamie Lloyd’s excessive version of the tragedy comes with a trite messageChristo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:14AMSunday, April 24, 2016
Composer and conductor who wrote music for RSC productions of all Shakespeare’s playsIf music is now seen as an integral part of modern Shakespeare productions, the credit belongs to Guy W…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:54AMBBC2 The show perked up when it got round to the plays but tried to cram too much into one eveningIt is always worrying when an entertainment promises “something for everybody”. That usu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AMFriday, April 22, 2016
As celebrations kick off around the world – including an immersive Romeo and Juliet in a Dubai mall – we look at why his plays are still staged 400 years after his deathOn Saturday the R…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:22AMWednesday, April 20, 2016
Dorfman theatre, London Astonishing New York hit goes behind the scenes at a cinema to expose the desperate longings of its three young protagonists Arnold Wesker in The Kitchen introduced u…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:58AMTuesday, April 19, 2016
St James theatre, LondonPaul Robinson delivers an impeccable revival of Charlotte Keatley’s 1987 play about the trials and tribulations of mothers and daughters Charlotte Keatley’s play,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AMSunday, April 17, 2016
Temporary theatre at the National, LondonDrawing on interviews and first-hand accounts, Gillian Slovo’s enlightening play puts the rise of Isis, and its appeal to young Europeans, in conte…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:34AMFriday, April 15, 2016
Lyttelton, LondonSuhayla El-Bushra brings Nikolai Erdman’s 1928 social comedy into the modern day, but leaves its eccentricity and subversion behindThe National Theatre these days seems su…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:04AMThursday, April 14, 2016
Print Room at the Coronet, London Two prisoners and a condemned man vie for dominion of their cell in a well-executed production leavened by fantasy sequencesThis is Jean Genet’s first pla…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:09PMWednesday, April 13, 2016
Gielgud theatre, LondonHair is more than just a musical: it is a social and cultural phenomenon, a jubilant assertion of life and freedom and a cry of protest against politicians who, in the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:58PMWith interrogations of class, labour and politics entwined around the lives of ordinary people – including plenty of well-written women – Arnold Wesker created plays that showed his endl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:57AMAlmeida, LondonLeo Butler’s play follows a teenager adrift in cold, modern London, but its compassion is sometimes overwhelmed by a restless productionLeo Butler has attempted something tr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AMTuesday, April 12, 2016
As playwright Arnold Wesker turns 80, he talks about his early successes, his later battles – and the day he tried to flog his entire oeuvre for £10,000'I don't feel I'm known as a playwr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:04PMArcola, London This compelling portrait of how the Maoist revolution gripped one particular village is a big, ambitious and thought-provoking playThere is a growing body of plays about China…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:39PMSwan, Stratford-upon-AvonNo one any longer has to make a case for this once-despised play. But, whether it is viewed as a neo-Senecan study in stoic acceptance of grief or a Tarantino-like e…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:40PMMonday, April 11, 2016
David Ireland’s story about a Belfast loyalist is a blackly comic examination of sectarian hatred – and a subversive drama that has never been more relevant Related: Cyprus Avenue review…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:10AMSwan, Stratford-upon-AvonAlan Bennett makes a shrewd point in his Diaries. Attending a performance by Complicite, he remarks that some theatre companies have become like rock groups attracti…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:45AM 
