Tuesday, 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 12:15PMFriday, October 18, 2013
This week, Rufus Norris was appointed the new director of the National theatre. After 50 dramatic years, where does he take it from here? Guardian critic Michael Billington assesses how…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:25AMThursday, October 17, 2013
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonDavid Tennant is mesmerising in the first show of Gregory Doran's six-year plan to present all of Shakespeare's worksThis show marks the start o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMTuesday, October 15, 2013
Ustinov Studio, BathLope de Vega's romantic comedy has something in common with the Taming of the Shrew, and gets a lively performance here, but it leaves a somewhat acrid aftertasteLaurence…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMThe National Theatre's new artistic director has an air of unpredictability and will bring plenty of excitement to the job. Comment thread: Let us know what you thinkHow on earth do you foll…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AMMonday, October 7, 2013
The Threepenny Opera gets a high-finance update, a mighty solo effort illuminates Finnegans Wake, but Beckett fails to spark at the Dublin theatre festivalThe Threepenny Opera by Bertol…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:32PMFriday, October 4, 2013
Almeida, LondonRichard Eyre's first-rate revival of Ibsen's play grabs you by the throat and never releases its gripThe most radical feature of Richard Eyre's first-rate revival of Ghosts is…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:30AMThursday, October 3, 2013
Finborough, LondonAn intriguing look ahead to retribution in Zimbabwe following the reign of Robert Mugabe opens up new dramatic territoryAnders Lustgarten is a rare animal: a political play…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMTuesday, October 1, 2013
Tricycle theatre, LondonA very funny portrait of a relationship between monarch and prime minister that clearly wasn't made in heavenThe Queen and Margaret Thatcher are becoming a familiar t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:55PMCurve, LeicesterRudkin's darkly riveting play brilliantly demonstrates the way Hitchcock's art is the key to his lifePlays and films about the private life of Alfred Hitchcock are a growth i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:01PMSunday, September 29, 2013
(King's Head, London)This premiere of a Dickens adaptation co-written by Terence Rattigan and John Gielgud is brisk yet brilliantly stagedThis, somewhat surprisingly, is the professional pre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:51PMFriday, September 27, 2013
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonNicky Silver's play about a Jewish family preparing for the worst doesn't follow through with enough forceNicky Silver is a prolific New York dramatist who is…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:46AMThursday, September 26, 2013
Royal Court, LondonRachel De-lahay weaves together tales of immigration limbo and national identity, but neglects to thread in some angerRachel De-lahay made a sharp impression with her mosa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:52PMMinerva, ChichesterJulian Mitchell's 1981 play on ways public schools in the 1930s bred betrayal is highly perceptive in this astute productionSchool plays seem to have a magnetic attraction…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:34AMMonday, September 23, 2013
Theatre 503, LondonYou would expect a play about six Welsh miners trapped underground to offer a display of quiet heroism. But the good thing about this remarkable first full-length work by …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:34PMThursday, September 19, 2013
Old Vic, LondonI am the last person to complain about senior citizens being given free rein. I also hold Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in high regard and thought their performances i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:44PMBush, LondonActor Rory Kinnear's first play may not be startlingly original but it has meaty roles and a clear understanding of family tensionRory Kinnear seems unfairly talented. Not only i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:56AM 
