Monday, December 26, 2016
Royal Court, LondonCaryl Churchill’s magnificent new play unleashes an intricate, elliptical, acutely female view of the apocalypseSo which is the best moment in Caryl Churchill’s sizzli…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:04AMSunday, December 18, 2016
Almeida, LondonLia Williams and Juliet Stevenson switch roles seamlessly at the toss of a coin to play warring queens in Robert Icke’s explosive productionLast year Robert Icke made Oreste…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:24AMLyttelton, London Its star and writer cannot be faulted, but Ivo van Hove’s production could do with a change of paceRuth Wilson has brought a new dimension to Hedda Gabler. I have seen co…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:24AMSunday, December 11, 2016
Young Vic, London… but the star turns are elsewhere in this thin adaptation of the 1930 satire on the Hollywood talkiesOnce in a Lifetime? That’s about right. Twice is pushing it. Moss H…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:18AMOlivier, LondonSally Cookson tumbles expectations in a fine production that’s true to JM Barrie’s sadly twisting storyIt was one of the most extraordinary revelations that has ever burst…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:18AMMenier Chocolate Factory, LondonMatthew White’s exquisite, light-on-its-feet revival of the 1963 musical delights one audience member in particular…The lyricist Sheldon Harnick, 92, was …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:18AMSunday, December 4, 2016
Harold Pinter theatre, LondonPhilosophical larks and anglers’ musings charm in a surreal, glacial dreamscapeOn the one hand, readings from Moby-Dick. On the other a miniature world of pupp…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12AMRoyal Court, LondonBaby-boomer guilt goes nuclear in Kirkwood’s ingenious new play, with fine performances from Francesca Annis, Ron Cook and Deborah FindlayBaby boomerism. Is it the last …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12AMHome, ManchesterThe melodrama is kept at bay in Polly Findlay’s fine production of David Watson’s new versionHere is a measure of what an actor Niamh Cusack is, how viscerally, totally s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12AMIt was a year of Lears, spellbinding women and memorable migrant tales• Observer critics’ reviews of the year in fullIt has been – at last – a good year for women on stage. It began …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12AMSaturday, 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 03:51AM 
