Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Orange Tree, RichmondFrom art to politics, consumerism and climate change, this is a play that is not afraid to address big ideasI instinctively warm to plays on big issues and they don't co…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:06AMMonday, February 10, 2014
Palace, WatfordDaniel Kanaber's first full-length play makes a sincere case for religion as an aid in the grieving processHow do you cope with the death of a loved one? That is the question …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMWednesday, February 5, 2014
Royal Court, LondonAbi Morgan's play is something of a romcom for the intellectual classes, though it's given a bit of zip by the two actorsAbi Morgan, who has had great success on TV with T…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:09PMTuesday, February 4, 2014
Finborough, LondonA boy has died in care in this debut piece that couples authenticity with moral ambivalence in its exploration of guiltThe title implies that we might be in for a study of …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMThursday, January 30, 2014
Juliet Stevenson gives a remarkable performance in Beckett's story of a woman tragically aware of her mental plightBeckett's Happy Days, with its progressively entombed heroine, would seem t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:49PMNew Diorama, London There's little respite from the noise and rhetoric in Schiller's story of sibling hatred, written under the spell of ShakespeareAs part of a three-play rep season, The Fa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:34AMWednesday, January 29, 2014
Royal Festival Hall, LondonThis Irving Berlin tribute hummed along pleasantly enough, but it failed to face the music and danceThis celebration of Irving Berlin's 125th anniversary offers a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:41AMMonday, January 27, 2014
Those wanting a glimpse into Hollywood's future should pay attention to what British theatre critics are saying today. Ejiofor, Dench, Weisz, Redmayne – the list of graduates goes onIt's t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMSunday, January 26, 2014
Southwark Playhouse, London This triple bill of plays about the women left behind during the first world war makes for uneven yet fascinating viewingTheatrical commemoration of the first wor…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:21AMFriday, January 24, 2014
Hampstead theatre, LondonA grad-school reunion in New England raises pertinent questions about the role of women – and draws disappointing conclusionsGina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw, seen at …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:32AMThursday, January 23, 2014
Olivier, LondonSimon Russell Beale is magnetic and unorthodox in an exceptional production that mixes the epic and the intimateAnother day, another Lear. But, although this is the third prod…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:44PMTuesday, January 21, 2014
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonIf the BBC does not go and record Atkins's masterclass in acting – in which she channels Ellen Terry's informal lectures on Shakespeare's female characters �…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:13AMSunday, January 19, 2014
Royal Court, London Russell Tovey is commanding as a repressed gay footballer in John Donnelly's witty but finally overdone new playJohn Donnelly has the enviable gift of writing plays that …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:19AMFriday, January 17, 2014
Arcola, London This manic farce with a first-rate cast is full of erotic confusion, but its cross-dressing comedy is stretched to breaking pointThis manic farce by Tirso de Molina kicks off …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:01AMThursday, January 16, 2014
His TV work might have upstaged his distinguished career in theatre, but the actor best known as Trigger excelled in work by Bennett, Marber and, especially, PinterYou can often tell the qua…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:56AMWednesday, January 15, 2014
Gemma Arterton brings beauty, determination and moral goodness to one of the great female roles, writes Michael BillingtonA new theatre is often a challenge. Until weathered and worn by use,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:58PMSt James Theatre, LondonGiving this revue of Sondheim numbers a narrative may be a little tenuous, but it's a feast of pleasure delivered with real verveIt's a sign of Stephen Sondheim's fec…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30PMThursday, January 9, 2014
Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonTransferring a winning novel to stage is difficult. Doing it with two – and succeeding – is a special featTurning a novel into a play is always tricky: e…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00AMMonday, December 30, 2013
Michael Billington: Lucy Kirkwood's thrillingly ambitious play tackled global politics, multinational corporations and was bursting with big ideasMichael Billington
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:00AMFriday, December 20, 2013
Susan Stroman's production, with its ironic minstrel-show format, skilfully suggested that the US's outlook on racial injustice had moved on since the 1930s – but not far enough• Read Mi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:26AMThursday, December 19, 2013
Aldwych Theatre, LondonMusical portrayal of the Profumo scandal with nifty songs in 1960s style sits oddly with social and political critiqueStephen Ward, the osteopath at the centre of the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30PMRoyal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonThis reinvention of JM Barrie's story dispenses with the original's dark ambiguity, but there's still plenty to enjoyElla Hickson, who has writt…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:58AMTuesday, December 17, 2013
Donmar Warehouse, LondonA fast, witty, intelligent production that, in Tom Hiddleston, boasts a fine CoriolanusA chamber production of Coriolanus? It sounds a contradiction in terms. But, as…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:51PMOld Vic, LondonA scathing portrait by Turgenev of the cruelties of Russian rural life finally gets a slap-up London productionWe've long thought of Ivan Turgenev as a one-play man who, in A …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AMMonday, December 16, 2013
Hoxton Hall, LondonRuth Wilson excels as actor and director in these three early plays by Eugene O'Neill, making a spellbinding eveningRuth Wilson and Sam Yates have joined forces to direct,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:04AMHe found stardom on screen in Lawrence of Arabia, but O'Toole was a legendary and often mesmerising presence in the theatre• Obituary: Peter O'Toole, 1932-2013• Peter O'Toole: a life in …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:10AMThursday, December 12, 2013
American Psycho, the musical, at the Almeida, LondonIt sounds improbable: a musical thriller about a serial killer. But Sondheim did it in Sweeney Todd. And, although this version of Bret Ea…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:52PMThis satirical piece about the MPs' expenses scandal raises a few titters but lacks the brutal logic of first-rate farceI yield to no one in my love of farce, but this new one by Colin Swash…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:10AMTuesday, December 10, 2013
Hampstead theatre, LondonHoward Brenton's ambitious account of the partition of India in 1947 crams an amazing amount into 25 scenes of cool clarityIt is not often a critic wishes a play wer…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:11AMMonday, December 9, 2013
Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonDouble entendres abound in a family-friendly panto that puts a new spin on a familiar tale.It's not every day you hear 500 people enthusiastically chantin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:48PMSunday, December 8, 2013
Lyttelton, LondonGeorg Kaiser's 1912 expressionist landmark comes to life thanks to a production full of vitality and a beautifully unsentimental central performanceThe National is clearly g…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:40AM 
