Sunday, 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 05:45PMOld Vic Tunnels, LondonIn theory, this underground venue should be an ideal place to stage Eugene O'Neill's early sea plays, two of which are set in a ship's forecastle. But, with its shaky …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:45PMTuesday, January 17, 2012
For over a century, theatre has been inspired by the movies, and vice versa. If only musicals would keep their relationship with Hollywood to a Brief EncounterWhat, you may wonder, is a sect…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:30AMThursday, January 12, 2012
The BBC4 series is better on anecdotes than ideas, so it's at its best when it stops drum-beating and deals with specificsCatch up with The Story of Musicals on iPlayerI'm enjoying BBC4's se…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:23AMTuesday, January 10, 2012
For too long, the Shakespeare powerhouse founded by Peter Hall has been seen only randomly in London. This wasteful state of affairs has become a threat to the company's standingWhen Peter H…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:31AMDespite its radical history, experimental theatre has become institutionalised. Time for a shot in the armExperimental theatre is a hard concept to get one's head around, since everyone defi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:16AMFriday, January 6, 2012
Finborough, LondonThis 80-minute play is the product of an unusual partnership between an emerging young actor, Toby Wharton, and a veteran of feminist theatre, Tash Fairbanks. The result is…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMTuesday, January 3, 2012
Actors and aspiring auteurs should call a truce – theatre works best when they work togetherDirector's theatre? "The very phrase in English," critic Kenneth Tynan once wrote, "has a pejora…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AMThursday, December 29, 2011
Michael Billington picks his highlights of the year aheadShe Stoops to ConquerKatherine Kelly, best known as Becky McDonald in Coronation Street, is one of a team of impressive young actors …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:45PMTuesday, December 27, 2011
Formal theatre censorship may have long since ended in Britain, but we should be wary of assuming the battle for freedom of speech has been wonFor any British person under the age of 50, the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:47AMTuesday, December 13, 2011
Old Vic, LondonMichael Frayn must have the subtlest mind ever applied to the writing of farce. And with Noises Off, first seen in 1982 and now gloriously revived, he has created not just a f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33PMSunday, December 11, 2011
If you're a theatre-lover, there's every chance you've seen this man in the aisles. As Guardian critic Michael Billington celebrates 40 years of reviewing, stars of the stage – from Lucy P…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:29PMThursday, December 8, 2011
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonTowards the end of this revival of a long-forgotten 1972 musical, it suddenly hit me what I was watching: Broadway's answer to Peer Gynt. Both feature a hero …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:45PMTuesday, December 6, 2011
Donmar Warehouse, LondonMichael Grandage ends his dazzling tenure at the Donmar with a Richard II that has many virtues: clarity, speed, superb set and sound design.But the big question is w…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:59PMDonmar Warehouse, London Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:59PMMonday, December 5, 2011
The Royal Shakespeare Company has struggled to restore new writing to its repertoire in recent years. But Mark Ravenhill's residency could be a magnet for emerging talentI'm delighted that M…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:20AMWednesday, November 23, 2011
While I understand the great composer's aversion to reviewers, what creative spirit wants their work to be met with silence?I can sympathise with Stephen Sondheim in his attacks on critics. …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:53AMMonday, November 21, 2011
Adelphi, LondonTransfers can be tricky. But Richard Bean's updated version of Goldoni's comic classic seems, if anything, even funnier than it did at the National. The text has been shortene…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:30PMThursday, November 17, 2011
Almeida, LondonNeil LaBute is haunted by the American obsession with physical beauty. The Shape of Things showed a shambolic geek getting a ruinous makeover. Fat Pig attacked the idea that w…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32PMTuesday, November 15, 2011
Theatre Royal Haymarket, LondonTrevor Nunn's tenure at the Haymarket has given us fine revivals of Rattigan, Stoppard and Shakespeare. What puzzles me is why Nunn, with all the riches of wor…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:46PMTrafalgar Studios, LondonTim Price is a young Welsh writer who got glowing reviews for his first play, For Once. This new piece, which opens the Donmar's three-play Whitehall season, is a qu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:30PMMonday, November 14, 2011
Orange Tree, RichmondI'm not quite sure why, but British theatre is currently preoccupied by the early 1960s. While Edward Bond, John Osborne and Arnold Wesker have all been recently honoure…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:55PMThursday, November 10, 2011
Theatre Local, LondonA couple of years ago, I sat in on a workshop for young Muslim writers offered as part of the Royal Court's Unheard Voices programme. Out of that came this first play by…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMWednesday, November 9, 2011
Young Vic, LondonWe approach this Hamlet obliquely. We enter the Young Vic through the back door and are led through a maze of grey corridors. We are clearly in a psychiatric institution com…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:14PMWhite Bear, LondonThe Swiss playwright Max Frisch is most famous for The Fire Raisers, in which a respectable bourgeois naively welcomes three agents of destruction into his home. But what i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMTuesday, November 8, 2011
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonNo one could accuse the British theatre of ignoring the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. And David Edgar has come up with a learned, information-p…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:40PMSunday, November 6, 2011
Arts Educational, LondonThis musical version of a famously dark 1957 movie died a slow death on Broadway in 2002. Now it gets its British premiere in a production featuring third-y…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:45PMThursday, November 3, 2011
Trafalgar Studios, LondonBen Brown is British theatre's history man. Last year, he wrote a riveting play, The Promise, about the Balfour Declaration of 1917, supporting "a home for the Jewis…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:51PMTuesday, November 1, 2011
Cottesloe, LondonJohn Hodge is an honest man. He admits his new play about the relationship between Josef Stalin and the writer Mikhail Bulgakov derives from a film which was never made. But…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:53PMRiverside Studios, LondonDouble bills require a tricky balancing act: you want plays that echo, rather than simply repeat each other. This pairing of little-known pieces by Horton Foote and …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:35PMSunday, October 30, 2011
Not everyone liked 13 and The Faith Machine – but if drama isn't for airing big ideas, then what is it for?What does a critic do when he finds himself out of step with majority opinion? I&…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:45PM 
