Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Southwark Playhouse, LondonThis revival of Michael Hastings’s 1973 play immaculately captures the rhythms and tensions inside a tailor’s workshop in the 1950sWork is not only a four-lett…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:07AMTuesday, March 17, 2015
Arcola theatre, LondonThe arms trade and the Turkish government are targeted in this piece about the bombing of 34 unarmed Kurds, mistaken by a US drone for terrorists Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:56AMMonday, March 16, 2015
Théâtre du Châtelet, ParisA stylish and intelligent re-imagining of the classic MGM movie by a mainly British team drives audiences wildWho would have thought it? The French have fallen i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:25AMSunday, March 15, 2015
Orange Tree, RichmondMustapha Matura’s sharp 1974 satire is richly informative and offers a potent metaphor for the post-colonial process. It’s also very funny Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00PMFriday, March 13, 2015
JW3, LondonIn this remake of a classic routine by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, a very old man recalls brushes with Jesus, Shakespeare and Helen of Troy’s sister Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:13AMThursday, March 12, 2015
Soho theatre, LondonA couple must murder their way to a perfect property in this morality play about a materialistic world where enough is never enough Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:43AMTuesday, March 10, 2015
As Nicholas Hytner leaves the spotlight at the National Theatre, Michael Billington presents a subjective selection, in chronological order, of the 10 best shows during his tenure as its dir…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:08PMDid he duck the big issues? Did he capture the diversity of today’s Britain? And were his choices a bit blokey? As Nicholas Hytner’s 12-year reign as director of the National Theatre end…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:03PMMonday, March 9, 2015
Startling omissions include Ben Miles as Thomas Cromwell and Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk. Even Dirty Rotten Scoundrel Robert Lindsay can’t charm his way on to the shortlistThere are some thin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:04AMSunday, March 8, 2015
Langham hotel, LondonBen Ellis’s ingenious three-parter, tracing the history of this luxury London abode, tracks power found and lost at a luxury hotel Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:23AMThursday, March 5, 2015
Teaming Juliette Binoche with A View From The Bridge director Ivo van Hove, along with Anne Carson’s fine translation, creates a prestige show Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:39PMViaduct theatre, HalifaxIn the director’s wonderfully lucid period production for Northern Broadsides, starring Barrie Rutter, Shakespeare’s tragedy becomes an intimate domestic drama Co…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:23AMWednesday, March 4, 2015
Almeida, LondonThis experimental piece about tourists who pay to fell a young couple with tranquilising shots is certainly disturbing – but what’s the aim?There is an element of voyeuris…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMTuesday, March 3, 2015
Gate, LondonAndrew Whaley’s play is well directed by Elayce Ismail but demands a familiarity with the country’s history that obscures its allegorical meaning Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:30AMFriday, February 27, 2015
Young Vic, LondonA relentlessly bleak look at a suicide pact made between four women in a small Irish town leaves us no wiser about their motivations Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:25AMThursday, February 26, 2015
Tricycle, LondonThe debut play from actor John Hollingworth uses a divided Bradford family and a Tory party conference to confront the problems facing Muslims in Britain Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:23AMLyttelton theatre, LondonSimon Godwin’s modern-dress revival sprinkles fun on the social debate as it reduces a very masculine hero to helplessness in the face of feminine seduction“My m…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:04AMTuesday, February 24, 2015
Aldwych, LondonThis West End musical’s attempts to weave King’s songs into her life story leaves you none the wiser as to who she wasFans of the singer-songwriter Carole King may be happ…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMMonday, February 23, 2015
Donmar Warehouse, London David Leveaux’s fine production featuring an expertly balanced cast shows Patrick Marber’s play is much more than the product of its time Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PMSam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonClaire van Kampen mixes story and song superbly in a tale about the celebrated castrato Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30AMFriday, February 20, 2015
Royal Court, LondonThe young leads in Dalia Taha’s play about family life in Gaza paint a frightening picture of lost innocence Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:39AMThursday, February 19, 2015
Barbican, LondonRimas Tuminas’s production, though witty and full of memorable, inventive imagery, misses some of Pushkin’s deft lightness Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:50AMThursday, February 12, 2015
Crucible, SheffieldTime lends prescience to this dissection of Labour’s election failure – but its revival delivers a warning to all parties about authenticity in a campaign yearThere is…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:04AMWednesday, February 11, 2015
Royal Court, LondonZinnie Harris’s apocalyptic new play sends its heroine on a downward spiral as Europe goes into financial freefallMaxine Peake was last seen on stage in Manchester as Ha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:28AMTuesday, February 10, 2015
Palace, Watford This sweeping study of US history uses a nine-strong ensemble to tell a riveting and richly complicated storyTimberlake Wertenbaker clearly has a taste for the epic. After he…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMMonday, February 9, 2015
Orange Tree, RichmondSuspense turns to frustration as this well-acted family mystery keeps the audience guessing Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:35AMThe playwright claims he now has to dumb down some lines for his literary references to be understood. But that doesn’t mean audiences are less clever than they used to beI see Tom Stoppar…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:53AMFriday, February 6, 2015
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonThis revival of a piece about a single mother reveals the largely forgotten Edwardian dramatist St John Hankin as something of a proto-feminist Continue reading.…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:50AMThursday, February 5, 2015
Barbican, LondonThis striking French production of Pirandello’s play shows how a classic can be reimagined without being subverted Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:56AMWednesday, February 4, 2015
Theatre Royal, BrightonBlanche McIntyre’s promising production of the manor-house play needs to work harder to help the audience understand the scientific theories Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:22AMSunday, February 1, 2015
McEwan, who has died aged 82, excelled in an extraordinary range of roles, always displaying impeccable timingMy first sighting of Geraldine McEwan was as Olivia in Peter Hall’s 1958 Strat…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:22AM 
