Sunday, December 20, 2020
Noël Coward; Lyric, London A brisk new backstage farce was overtaken by events, while Henry VIII's splendid singing wives were silenced once more as London entered tier 3
All gone. And at…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:24AM[SHARE]Saturday, December 19, 2020
It can be a role as career-defining as Hamlet. Dan Leno, who starred at Drury Lane every Christmas from 1888 to 1904, was the first great pantomime dame: a tiny ex-clog dancer with a top-kno…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:54PM[SHARE]Sunday, December 13, 2020
Almeida; Bridge; Big House; Hampstead, LondonAs theatres ease into the new normal, the Almeida and Big House celebrate connection and isolation, while Nicholas Hytner's A Christmas Carol del…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AM[SHARE]Sunday, November 15, 2020
Jermyn Street theatre onlineThe aggrieved women of the poet's Heroides speak loud and clear in 15 bristling new monologues by top playwrights, scorchingly delivered by 15 leading actors
Here…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AM[SHARE]Sunday, November 8, 2020
Olivier, London; Chichester Festival theatre; live streamThe sequel to Clint Dyer and Roy Williams's Death of England, plus works by Sarah Kane and Steven Carl McCasland, evoke rage and prej…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AM[SHARE]Sunday, November 1, 2020
Nottingham Playhouse; Apollo; Bridge, LondonOpposites attract in James Graham's typically astute new two-hander; Adam Kay's surgical wit lights up the West End; and an asylum story with styl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:12AM[SHARE]Monday, October 19, 2020
The pandemic supercharges the atmosphere in this film version of Ian Rickson's recent stage production
Here is an extraordinary, transfiguring leap from stage to screen. Ian Rickson's produc…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:03PM[SHARE]Sunday, October 11, 2020
Bridge theatre, LondonTamsin Greig flutters while Maxine Peake is uproarious in a fiendish double bill from Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series
What a cunning double bill this is. The latest…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AM[SHARE]Monday, September 21, 2020
The newly formed Musical Theatre Factory creates bespoke musicals for any occasion; for our critic, a potentially barnstorming show about her predecessor...
Like all good ideas, it looks obv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24AM[SHARE]Sunday, September 13, 2020
Bridge theatre, LondonThe wide-open space of the Bridge is commanded with riveting intimacy in one of four Talking Heads double bills
The sheer success of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads makes…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:32AM[SHARE]Sunday, September 6, 2020
Bridge, London; Troubadour, Wembley ParkDavid Hare's explosive, first-hand coronavirus monologue, delivered by Ralph Fiennes, hits every target. And Kimberley Walsh and Jay McGuinness carry …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AM[SHARE]Sunday, August 23, 2020
Alan Cumming puts his trademark drollery to diabolic effect in this exhilarating twist on Little Red Riding Hood
Each week through these Covid months the National Theatre of Scotland has bee…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:32AM[SHARE]Sunday, August 16, 2020
Donmar Warehouse, LondonThere is no escape for a socially distanced audience all wearing headphones from Simon Stephens's powerfully menacing adaptation of José Saramago
Every now and then …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, August 9, 2020
Garden theatre, London SE11; onlineTwo singing, dancing Victorian cross-dressers give the kiss of life to London's fringe theatre. And by Zoom to 2070 and Wonderland
Here are some chinks in …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, July 26, 2020
Black writers shared feelings they had kept to themselves for years in a quietly explosive week of tension and tears
The words of My White Best Friend (and Other Letters Left Unsaid) hit act…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AM[SHARE]Sunday, June 28, 2020
Urgent new perspectives on George Floyd's death and the slave trade's place in art; pastoral meditations from David Rudkin and an unforgettable wartime soundscape
Every week, a new catastrop…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:03AM[SHARE]Eyebrows were raised over the casting for the young Prince of Denmark, but it could give the play new life
At first it seems preposterous. Aged 81, Ian McKellen has announced he is to play H…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, June 21, 2020
With real life now the biggest show in town, our theatre critic reflects on the catastrophic effects of lockdown, and talks to industry insiders about navigating a way back
Kitty Empire: 'No…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AM[SHARE]Sunday, June 7, 2020
Outstanding Zoom drama from New York, a deluge of monologues from Dublin and an astonishing solo performance by Andrew Scott
The theatres have been dark " in that terrible, expressive phrase…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AM[SHARE]Monday, March 30, 2020
The best new writers, the indispensable books, the go-to websites… our arts writers reveal their sources of insight Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 22, 2020
Lyttelton, LondonRobert Lepage's extraordinary, seven-hour fusion of horror, romance and French farce made for a fitting final show before London's theatres went into lockdown
This was the p…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 15, 2020
Trafalgar Studios; Royal Court, London; Theatre Royal BrightonSebastian Barry's tale of two cellmates succeeds despite plausibility issues, while Katherine Parkinson is magnetic in a flimsy …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 8, 2020
Leeds Playhouse; Stratford East; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonOliver is both deaf and poor in a sign-language version of Dickens's tale that speaks to 21st-century London. And Frantic Asse…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, February 23, 2020
Bridge; Olivier, London; Royal & Derngate, NorthamptonCloned siblings cast fleeting shadows in a vivid Caryl Churchill revival, while Lesley Manville dazzles in an unwieldy revenge drama…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, February 16, 2020
Wyndham's; Dorfman; Donmar Warehouse, LondonTom Stoppard explores his Jewish heritage in what may be his final play; Rafe Spall delivers a career-changing study in rage; and Caryl Churchill'…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, February 2, 2020
Harold Pinter, London; Leeds Playhouse; Lyric Hammersmith, LondonToby Jones and Rosalind Eleazar make light work of Ian Rickson's overfreighted new Chekhov. Plus, wall-to-wall zombie horror …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 29, 2019
There was fearless new work, revelatory sound design and a seismic shift in the tussle between Chekhov and Ibsen. The Observer's theatre critic introduces her 10 best shows of the year
My to…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 22, 2019
Dorfman; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse; Donmar Warehouse, LondonA Neil Gaiman adaptation delivers spooky childhood spectacle; and the teenage years of Elizabeth I and Richard III
Sometimes it is n…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 15, 2019
Playhouse; Almeida; Lyttelton, LondonGone is the big nose, while the fighting's a poetry slam in Martin Crimp's ingenious new rapping Cyrano. Plus, The Duchess of Malfi reimagined, and Three…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 1, 2019
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Bush; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonA new musical adaptation of David Walliams's book scores on all counts; director Bijan Sheibani makes an …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AM[SHARE]Sunday, November 24, 2019
Noël Coward; Duke of York's; Arcola, LondonA dazzling West End debut lights up a newly arrived Broadway hit, while Joe Simpson's Andes ordeal is all too real on stage, and a jailed report…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AM[SHARE] 
