Saturday, December 3, 2016
Over 10 highly successful years, the Observer’s theatre critic helped transform the ailing British theatre and reinvent the role of the reviewer• Click here for more on the Observer at 2…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:31PMSunday, November 27, 2016
Donmar at King’s Cross, LondonHarriet Walter is the linchpin in the Donmar’s momentous, all-female staging of Julius Caesar, Henry IV and The TempestThe use of new skills or the unearthi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMSunday, November 20, 2016
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, LondonEV Crowe explores the disorienting effects of technology in her cryptic new playEV Crowe’s new play, The Sewing Group, is a sly thing. It begin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54AMNew London theatreLloyd Webber delivers a rabble-rousing musical with a big heart and the best drilled young actors this side of MatildaHere is the family Christmas outing solved. Andrew Llo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54AMBattersea Arts Centre, LondonPeople from elsewhere who have made London their home speak openly in an immersive experience that touches heartsThe young woman serving home-made coconut cake i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54AMSunday, November 13, 2016
King’s Cross theatre, LondonDavid Bowie’s creative end note feels like a stylish, trance-like pop videoDavid Bowie called it “a play with my songs”. When Lazarus opened off-Broadway …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:31AMOld Vic, LondonLess is more as Glenda Jackson exudes command in Deborah Warner’s fitfully brilliant productionSandpaper voice; gliding movement; complete, ferocious concentration. Glenda J…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:31AMSunday, November 6, 2016
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonChastity, family guilt and fairyland antics make a rich brewIn the uproar about the Globe, little has been said about its offshoot, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42AMYoung Vic, LondonFranz Xaver Kroetz’s tale of a struggling couple is given added force by Ian Rickson’s staging and PJ Harvey’s musicThe director Ian Rickson has an exceptional gift fo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42AMBirmingham Repertory theatreIan McDiarmid is uncanny as Enoch Powell in a timely examination of his controversial 1968 speech on immigrationI was brought up with such a visceral hatred of En…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42AMSunday, October 30, 2016
Bristol Old VicTom Morris combines macabre fairytale, musical and puppetry in this ingenious tale of twisted loveI first saw the delicate Audrey Brisson sparkle in The Flying Lovers of Viteb…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMHampstead theatre, London The personal and the political are inexorably entwined in Tony Kushner’s fierce examination of a family at war with itselfAfter a faltering first scene or two, To…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMOlivier, LondonAdam Gillen’s Mozart and Lucian Msamati’s Salieri share the honours as Peter Shaffer’s 1979 hit returns to the NationalPeter Shaffer, who died in June, wrote plays fuell…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMThe ousting of the artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe shows a fundamental failure to appreciate what makes the place uniqueIt has been a rotten week for the theatre. One of London’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMSunday, October 23, 2016
Lyttelton, LondonDavid Hare’s adaptation of a Georges Simenon novel is a tense affair featuring a mesmeric Elizabeth DebickiHow do you put on stage someone who is bored with being themselv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:56AMDorfman, LondonThough Bryony Kimmings’s extraordinary musical is overlong and a little messy, it delivers an essential message about the experiences of real peopleMusical theatre has been …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:56AMYoung Vic, LondonIsango Ensemble’s musical about a Somali boy fleeing from terror has marvellous songs and breathtaking actingA Man of Good Hope is not a story set to music. Music is the s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:56AMAlmeida, LondonElla Hickson’s new play about our relationship with ‘black gold’ is hardly subtle, but has a star turn at its heartYou could steer your way through Oil by Lucy Carter’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:56AMSunday, October 16, 2016
Donmar Warehouse, LondonFine performances carry Kemp Powers’s dramatisation of a momentous meeting between Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam CookeStanding ovations have recently b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:06AMDuke of York’s, LondonKen Stott and Reece Shearsmith go to town in a very funny revival of Ronald Harwood’s terrific backstage tragicomedyRonald Harwood thinks it is a mistake for a woma…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:06AMSunday, October 2, 2016
Royal Court, LondonSuzan Lori-Parks’s ambitious trilogy marries black history to a classical structure but suffers from static stagingThe London stage has always been a very white place. T…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:51AMShakespeare’s Globe, London EastEnders’s Maddy Hill stars in Matthew Dunster’s taut, intelligent reimagining of Cymbeline in an urban gangland settingAnyone who takes on the Globe gets…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:51AMTheatre Royal Haymarket, LondonTerry Johnson gives Stephen Jeffreys’s 1994 tale of Restoration depravity the full rumpy-pumpy, but Cooper’s Rochester is stuck in surly modeOn stage, ever…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:51AMSunday, September 25, 2016
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court theatreForm mirrors content in this fraught play full of tension, secrets and fractured dialogueEverything is shredded in Nathaniel Martello-White…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:28AMWyndham’s theatre, LondonOnly Ian McKellen flourishes in a lacklustre production of this beloved, strange and rich playThe legacy of No Man’s Land is overwhelming. In 1975, John Gielgud …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:28AMRose theatre, Kingston upon ThamesFreya Mavor excels in Zach Helm’s compelling tale of a woman trapped in addiction The Rose at Kingston has suddenly bloomed. John Malkovich’s production…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:28AMSunday, September 18, 2016
Hampstead theatre, LondonBeth Steel’s play aims to underline the cyclical nature of crash and austerity, but compares poorly to similarly themed worksWe have been here before it seems. Swa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMRoyal Exchange, ManchesterMaxine Peake’s creative partnership with the Royal Exchange hits another high in Tennessee Williams’s classicMaxine Peake and the Manchester Royal Exchange. The…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMYoung Vic Studio, LondonColin Teevan’s adaptation of an account of Haile Selassie’s reign by Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński maintains a devastatingly light touch The Young Vic i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMSunday, September 11, 2016
Wilton’s Music Hall, LondonSadie Frost as Gypsy Rose Lee fails to enliven Zoe Lewis’s play about a wartime gathering of Britten, Auden and McCullersThere is always an excitement at being…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:07AMSoho theatre, LondonDespite some magnetic moments – and a Pussy Rioter – Belarus Free Theatre fails to catch fireIn their home country, the founder members of Belarus Free Theatre face d…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:07AM 
