Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Finborough, LondonLast year this venturesome venue gave us a riveting portrait of Belfast's Protestant culture in St John Ervine's Mixed Marriage (1911). Now it crosses the border to sh…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:30PMLong gone are the happy days when the musical was a source of innocent pleasure. They have become cultural juggernauts, devoid of risk-taking and, like the banks, too big to failMusicals are…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:30AMThursday, March 1, 2012
Trafalgar Studios, LondonAn air of glamour surrounds this French-Canadian import by François Archambault. The cast, including ex-supermodel Agyness Deyn, is glamorous. The audience is glamo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:57PMRoyal Court, LondonOne thing intrigues me about this fine play, presented as part of the Young Writers festival: how come its 26-year-old author, Luke Norris, knows so much about senior citi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMBush, LondonThis is a first full-length play by a former Middlesbrough cab-driver, Ishy Din. Even if its plot is formulaic, it has plenty fresh to say about the aspirations of young Pakistan…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMRichard Bean's West End hit is transferring to New York. Let's hope American audiences get served the full English version in all its improvisatory gloryRichard Bean's One Man, Two Guvnors t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AMTuesday, February 28, 2012
Rose theatre, Kingston-upon-ThamesJoely Richardson is very brave. In playing Ellida, the mysterious heroine of Ibsen's 1889 drama, she takes on a role already made famous by her mother and l…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:55PMDuke of York's, LondonThanks to the TV series Scrubs and the film Garden State, Zach Braff clearly enjoys cult status in Britain. His first appearance in his own play, All New People, is gre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMThe age of the genuine theatrical stinker is over. But there are still plenty of terrible things to watch out for ...In all the recent controversy about whether British theatre has become mo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:58PMSunday, February 26, 2012
Noel Coward, LondonHoward Davies has a gift for revitalising Coward's comedies. Having put the sexuality back into Private Lives, he now visually redefines Hay Fever and pulls off the daring…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMFriday, February 24, 2012
Young Vic, LondonWhen Angus Jackson's fine production of Edward Bond's bony masterpiece was first seen in Chichester two years ago, a respected colleague attacked the author for his assumpti…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMThursday, February 23, 2012
Royal Court, LondonBasildon has always been a key political barometer. But, although David Eldridge's riveting new play has its roots in this allegiance-shifting Essex town, he also uses it …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:15PMWednesday, February 22, 2012
Barbican, London"Try everything once except incest and folk-dancing," runs an old Scottish adage. In fact there is plenty of both in Declan Donnellan's revival of John Ford's 1633 tragedy, a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:54PMTuesday, February 21, 2012
The largely forgotten Polish professor, who drew a connection between Shakespeare and 20th-century European theatre, had a huge impact on modern-day theatrical cultureDoes anyone still read …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00PMTricycle theatre, LondonNicolas Kent bids farewell to the Tricycle with a characteristically grand project: a two-part history of the nuclear bomb consisting of 10 separate plays. Obviously …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:52AMMonday, February 20, 2012
Union theatre, LondonThis is the third all-male version of Gilbert and Sullivan that Sasha Regan has directed at this tiny Southwark theatre. But, while the result is as "blithe and gay" as …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:56PMFriday, February 17, 2012
Lyric Hammersmith, LondonThe sound of wild laughter suddenly fills our theatre. Following on the success of their Twelfth Night, Filter now bring us a joyous, two-hour Dream that owes a visi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:59PMThursday, February 16, 2012
Tobacco Factory, BristolThere is a sentimental myth abroad that if we could only minimise the role of these pesky directors with their quirky concepts, we could see Shakespear…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:29PMTuesday, February 14, 2012
Just as Jewish folk culture influenced Hollywood cinema, modern theatre has also been shaped by Yiddish traditionAt the moment there is a rather under-valued play by Nicholas Wright, Travell…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:11AMMonday, February 13, 2012
Orange Tree, RichmondWe've all been there: the dinner party from hell. Although it's a stock dramatic device, Torben Betts gives it a fresh and funny spin in this new play that, at its best,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:45PMFriday, February 10, 2012
At Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud theatre, playwright David Seidler has much more room to explore the story's historical background than the cinema version allowedWatching David Seidler's play in…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMThursday, February 9, 2012
Harold Pinter Theatre, LondonIt is fascinating to see a new generation of directors and actors discover Alan Ayckbourn. And, even if the National came badly unstuck with Season's Greetings, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:30PMThe Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonReligion is big by the Avon this winter. Following Written on the Heart, about the King James Bible, the RSC brings us Helen Edmundson's new play about the life …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:05PMWednesday, February 8, 2012
Sheffield CrucibleAfter a decade of neglect, Restoration comedy is back on the agenda. And Lyndsey Turner's modern-dress revival of William Congreve's 1700 classic proves highly pleasurable,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18PMSuspension of belief can be a powerful theatrical tool, but should we be more emotionally detached from what's happening in front of us?The last 100 years have seen a constant battle against…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:36AMTuesday, February 7, 2012
Vaudeville, LondonBeware of Americans bearing gift-wrapped versions of Greek legends. After the horrors of Martin Sherman's Onassis, we now have the return of Terrence McNally's version of a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMTrafalgar Studios, LondonPlays about casual sex among today's twentysomethings are not that uncommon. But two things give this cryptic, 80-minute three-hander by Stefan Golaszewski (wri…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00PMIt took Judi Dench's astonishing 1989 production of Look Back in Anger to give us the play that John Osborne actually wrote – a play, like Beckett's, about waitingBritish theatre is full o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:00AMIt took Judi Dench's astonishing 1989 production of Look Back in Anger to give us the play that John Osborne actually wrote – a play, like Beckett's, about waiting Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:00AMTuesday, January 31, 2012
The playwright has put up with my running commentary for 40 years. But no one else so tenaciously exposes society's frailtyI'm currently reading Benjamin Disraeli's Sybil, which offers a sta…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:38AMSunday, January 29, 2012
Why Shakespeare plays havoc with your memoryHow much should critics invoke the past when judging the present? It's a thorny topic. I sometimes get letters along the lines of "You may not hav…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:45PM 
