Tuesday, December 1, 2015
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonThe queen’s relationship with Sarah Churchill (an icily seductive Natascha McElhone) is central to this fascinating, topical production on the last Stuart quee…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:00AMMonday, November 30, 2015
Garrick, LondonLast year in Chichester I found Philip Prowse's production of Shaw's indestructible play coarse and overstated. If it has improved, it is partly because it fits more snugly in…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:38PMSunday, November 29, 2015
Lyttleton Theatre, LondonCaryl Churchill has written a striking memento mori for an age without faith that evokes the idea that we are here for a short time and then are suddenly goneMany pl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:14PMFriday, November 27, 2015
Almeida, London A striking production, starring Lydia Leonard, vividly captures what Henry James called ‘the hard compulsion’ of this terrifying masterpieceThe Almeida is fast becoming t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:34AMThursday, November 26, 2015
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonIt’s easy to be swept along by the humour and heroism in Dominic Dromgoole’s poignant, beautifully staged productionDominic Dromgoole’s production of Per…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:26AMWednesday, November 25, 2015
Dorfman, LondonIn his blunt new play, set in a genteel private club, Shawn tackles political barbarism via showbiz bitcheryWith airstrikes in Syria being debated in the UK and a massive inve…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:14AMTuesday, November 24, 2015
Arcola, LondonPatrick Marmion’s ambitious play about the commune created by RD Laing in the 1960s leaves the audience deeply dividedIt was possible to have double vision while watching Pat…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:58AMMonday, November 23, 2015
Trafalgar Studios, LondonAn unexpected family reunion retains its power to shock and haunt in Jamie Lloyd’s bold, impeccably acted and psychologically astute revival Fifty years after its …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:56PMFinborough, LondonRobert Bolt’s 1957 play highlights the domestic tensions of a man at loggerheads with his family – and the echoes of Death of a Salesman are deafening Robert Bolt wrote…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:41AMFriday, November 20, 2015
Sadler’s Wells, LondonChina National Peking Opera’s female revenge tale blends music, acrobatics and invisible horses in a riot of colour and imagination Related: Somersaults in six-inch…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00AMTuesday, November 17, 2015
Shaftesbury theatre, LondonSkilful money-making from Britain’s Got Talent’s Jamie Raven and forensic mind-reading from Colin Cloud add charm to this gaudy, showbiz affair Astonishingly, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:40AMSaturday, November 14, 2015
Trafalgar Studios, LondonHaving put a girdle round the Earth, Jeff Baron's 1996 American play finally gets a West End showing. But, for all its global popularity, it strikes me as a thin-tex…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:10AMThursday, November 12, 2015
Young Vic, London A spirit of jaunty anarchy, violent incontinence and a prankster king belie this deeply political tale of what it’s like to live under an irrational dictatorship Anyone f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:22AMWednesday, November 11, 2015
Lovers of good drama and politics junkies should flock to Samuel West's superb revival of Harley Granville Barker's play. Written in 1907 and revised in 1926, it takes its time (just over th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:56AMLyttelton theatre, LondonMorals, sexual politics and hypocrisy are the big themes in this tragic psychological portrait of a man for whom ideals matter more than individuals Harley Granville…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:00AMTuesday, November 10, 2015
Gate, LondonKate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks’s radical update of Euripides’ tragedy shows events from the perspective of the heroine’s two sonsEuripides’ Medea has achieved such my…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:26AMSunday, November 8, 2015
Garrick, LondonZoë Wanamaker is in soul-baring form in Rattigan double-bill depicting the actor-manager tradition the Branagh season is designed to subvertIronically, co-directors Rob Ashfo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:50AMGarrick, LondonIn a production unafraid to hint at the darker elements of Shakespeare’s fable, Branagh and Dench are surrounded by a first-rate teamThe image of the West End suddenly brigh…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:50AMFriday, November 6, 2015
Dominion, LondonBen Forster sleighs them as Buddy, the Christmas-loving Laplander set down in Manhattan with Girls Aloud’s Kimberley Walsh, but this show doesn’t so much invoke the festi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:34AMThursday, November 5, 2015
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonDirector Selina Cadell gives a fine cast room to breathe in this delightful RSC revival of the sharp-witted restoration comedyWhy is William Congreve’s great 1…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:09AMWednesday, November 4, 2015
Olivier, LondonRosalie Craig gives us an eminently sane Rosalind in director Polly Findlay’s richly textured version, where Lizzie Clachan’s set is the starOur march towards a Germanic d…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:20AMTuesday, November 3, 2015
Southwark Playhouse, London The tender bond between a girl and her carer illuminates the debate about the ethics of genetic screening in James Rushbrooke’s intelligent debut The annual Pap…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:48AMSunday, November 1, 2015
A critic once described Alan Bennett as 'England's cultural teddy bear'. As his new play, People, prepares to open in London, Michael Billington argues that he is a more complicated –…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:08AMFriday, October 30, 2015
Hampstead theatre, LondonSexual passion, art, Englishness and the creativity of refugees blend in David Hare’s enjoyably complex story of the foundation of Glyndebourne opera houseIt initi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:10AMThursday, October 29, 2015
Old Vic, LondonBertie Carvel lends his extraordinary physicality to Eugene O’Neill’s play that reminds us how much 1920s American drama owed to German artEugene O’Neill’s 1922 play i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:27PMWednesday, October 28, 2015
Dorfman, London The performance impress, but Ben Power and Marianne Elliott falter when they try to weave three singular DH Lawrence plays into an ill-conceived wholeThe autumn season is awa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:51AMMonday, October 26, 2015
Salisbury Playhouse Four short plays set corrupt Russians, a African president and free-market dystopia against our rights, suggesting Magna Carta may be due an update“Does Magna Carta mea…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:07AMSaturday, October 24, 2015
Victoria Palace, LondonTurning small-scale movies into big musicals is a treacherous business. It failed with The Full Monty, which lost all of its gritty truth when musicalised. But Billy E…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:28AMFriday, October 23, 2015
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, LondonI suppose there are two ways to approach this mega-musical: either as a paid-up Tolkien aficionado or as a wide-eyed newcomer. Having dipped only briefly int…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:42AMFinborough theatre, LondonThis inventive production of a Yiddish classic takes potshots at the corrupting power of moneyThis astonishing theatre’s latest discovery is a Yiddish classic by …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:22AMThursday, October 22, 2015
Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London Nicola Wilson’s debut drama gives affecting snapshots of one woman at different points in her mental decline, but too many facts stifle the emotional i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:40AM 
