Sunday, 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 07:40AMFriday, December 6, 2013
Royal Court, London While the story is about the mutual love between two marginalised people, it lacks any coherent frameworkI came fresh to Jack Thorne's play never having seen the film or …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:01PMWednesday, December 4, 2013
National Theatre, London Bijan Sheibani's play is at its best when it returns to the human values of Erich Kastner's storyThe National has set the bar high when it comes to family entertainm…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:17PMTuesday, December 3, 2013
Jude Law's performance as Shakespeare's contradictory king brings to mind John Sutherland's provocative essayJude Law is the big draw in the fifth and final production of Michael Grandage's …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMMenier Chocolate Factory, LondonLeonard Bernstein's musical gets a restless, comic-strip production that has a jaunty ebullience and two outstanding leadsI suspect there are two ways to appr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:02AMSunday, December 1, 2013
Guildhall School, LondonA beautifully staged show about the brutal Depression-era dance marathons is something of an endurance test for us as wellAvid fans of Gypsy will recall that Dainty J…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:29AMFriday, November 29, 2013
Finborough, London There are strong performances in this entertaining revival of RC Sherriff's ghost story, but much of the play feels like paddingIt is the fate of RC Sherriff to be remembe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:20AMThursday, November 28, 2013
Tricycle, LondonGuilty of the very intolerance it condemns, Mary O'Malley's 1977 convent school drama – here directed by Kathy Burke – is a jolly but nonetheless flawed affairTime has n…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:23PMTuesday, November 26, 2013
St James's, LondonSarah Ruhl's superb drama of female frustration and solitude is well served by director Laurence BoswellSarah Ruhl's brilliant play is, to put it mildly, an eye-opener. Set…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:11AMThursday, November 21, 2013
Young Vic, LondonSix politically engaged playlets demonstrate that drama has extra bite and zest when it deals with big issuesDo we all get more rightwing in times of austerity? That's the p…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:52AMTuesday, November 19, 2013
Gielgud Theatre, LondonWhile the mechanics of the dual murders are moderately exciting, in the second half the tension deceleratesTheatre is theatre, film film. Right? Actually not any more …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18PMGate, LondonThis wryly resilient musical monologue about the corporate world is as New York as a triple-decker pastrami sandwichAn authentic piece of Manhattan has landed in west London. It …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:58AMSunday, November 17, 2013
London PalladiumDame Edna's creator pushes the bad taste boundaries in this raucous show that confirms just what a rare bird he isIn a theatre shorn of outsize personalities, the idea of a B…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:58AMFriday, November 15, 2013
Barbican, LondonThe audience become eavesdroppers in Ivo van Hove's gripping and inventive restaging of the Ingmar Bergman classicWho's afraid of Ingmar Bergman? Obviously not Ivo van Hove a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:27AMWednesday, November 13, 2013
This revival of Jez Butterworth's play – a tale of rock'n'roll rivalry in gangland Soho – packs plenty of punchJez Butterworth's first play burst on the scene like a fireball in 199…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMDuke of York's, LondonMatthew Macfadyen is a fine Jeeves in this farce-fuelled dramatisation of PG Wodehouse's The Code of the WoostersHow do you dramatise a sublime novel like PG Wodehouse'…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:44AMTuesday, November 12, 2013
Garrick, London This 1950s courtroom drama is an efficient piece of entertainment but is beginning to show its ageReginald Rose's script has had an incredibly long life. It first surfaced on…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:20AMSunday, November 10, 2013
Minerva, ChichesterThis return to star-driven Shakespeare has in Frank Langella a commanding Lear still driven by a craving for loveWe are used to director's Shakespeare. This production, wh…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00AMFriday, November 8, 2013
Southwark Playhouse, LondonTimberlake Wertenbaker's modern interpretation produces anachronisms, but brings home the psychological ravages of warTimberlake Wertenbaker has been inspired by S…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30PMThursday, November 7, 2013
Birmingham RepThis modern update of Molière's play tries too hard to keep the laughter coming, with comedy destroying any sense of dangerThe panto season has come early to Birmingham t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:33AMWednesday, November 6, 2013
The Shed, LondonDebbie Tucker Green achieves a compelling synthesis of poetry and drama in this charged cry of anguish recalling Sarah KaneI've always admired the distinctive voice of "debbi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:42AMMonday, November 4, 2013
We got a brilliant, kaleidoscopic entertainment that evoked the National's past and opened up possibilities for the futureI count myself fortunate to have been part of the audience at Saturd…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:28AMFriday, November 1, 2013
Finborough, LondonThis impressive play takes an unsensational approach to the stresses of having to work professionally with abusive imagesHow do human beings cope with being exposed, profes…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:10AMThursday, October 31, 2013
The Bussey Building, LondonWritten in Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship, this play offers a moving image of the desolation created by oppressive regimesThis play, by the Chilean writer J…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:35AMArcola, LondonDavid Storey's haunting, elegiac play reveals itself slowly but this production too often leaves the audience staring at actor's backsDavid Storey's beautiful 1970 play about o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:43AMTuesday, October 29, 2013
Young Vic, LondonThis musical about racist bigotry in 1930s America is a strong show with a social conscience One of theatre's most potent weapons is an ironic contrast between form and cont…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:31PMFriday, October 25, 2013
Hampstead theatre, LondonThree couples on a weekend in Wales. What could go wrong? With Robert Webb, Sarah Hadland and Tamzin Outhwaite, there's plenty of comic potentialActors who write pla…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:07AMWednesday, October 23, 2013
Shaftesbury theatre, London"Highly professional". Those are the words that come to mind watching this new musical, based on James Jones's 800-page novel about life on a Hawaiian army base in…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:31PMEveryman theatre, CheltenhamAn ingenious spy thriller shows Dawn King's skill as a dramatist and echoes of John le CarréDawn King made a big impression in 2011 with the prize-winning Foxfin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:31AMTuesday, October 22, 2013
Royal Court, LondonAbhishek Majumdar's play about the human cost of the conflict in Kashmir is politically enlightening and theatrically hypnoticA play can be a means of heightening one's po…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMMonday, October 21, 2013
Theatre Royal, BathThis unqualified masterpiece from 1631 by Lope de Vega is shot through with irony and ambiguityThis is the real deal: an unqualified masterpiece by Lope de Vega that, in M…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:15PM 
