Hampstead; Theatre Royal Haymarket; Vaudeville, all LondonEcstasy: by which Mike Leigh means desperation under a candlewick bedspread. His restaging of this 1979 play, originally devised at …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:04PMApollo, London W1; Playhouse, OxfordIt should be the ultimate revival. Noël Coward's 1941 play about the return of the dead is resurrected by the director who has become the diva of the red…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMOlivier; Donmar; Barbican, all LondonIn the centre of the Olivier stage is a pale disc like an enormous seed pod. Within it you can just make out a shadowy figure. It pulses, and the theatre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMTobacco Factory, Bristol; Hampstead; Print Room, both LondonIt rings out clearly as an early stab at Hamlet. It also declares war on a rotten England, a land nibbled away by – it's an ever…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMComedy, London; Studio, Sheffield Theatres; Royal Court, LondonThere have been reports of one ticket changing hands for £900. Ian (Jerusalem) Rickson's production of The Children's Hour wil…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMLyceum, Sheffield; Lyttelton, LondonWith a jaunty chorus of "Down Among the Dead Men", spivs in bowlers close in for the kill. The executioner's blade slices to the sound of plainsong. Figur…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMLyric Hammersmith; Almeida; Bush, all LondonFirst, he had a success with Ghost Stories, still playing in the West End. Now he has adapted Roald Dahl's adult fictions. Jeremy Dyson, of the Le…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMCottesloe; Hampstead; Arcola, all LondonTo celebrate his 80th birthday, Peter Hall has returned to the building he once ran and directed a sweetly autumnal Twelfth Night. His breeches-and-fa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMBridewell; Theatre Delicatessen; Roundhouse, all LondonFor once a production has earned the description "site-specific". To stage Steve Waters's new play about Olympic swimmers, the Bridewel…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMBristol Old Vic; Royal Court, London SW1; Battersea Arts Centre, London SW11; Old Vic, London SE1The Christmas show grew up this year. Not into innuendo and violence – panto can take care …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMThe Observer's theatre critic reflects on a year dominated by youth and Tennessee Williams2010 was a tremendous year for the Royal Court. With Tribes, Nina Raine established herself as a thr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMDonmar, London; RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon; Lyttelton, LondonIt's hard to remember a better week in the theatre. Three top-notch productions; three totally different dramas; three surprises: t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMYoung Vic; Cottesloe; Tragfalgar Studios; Little Angel, all LondonHe laughs like a hiccuping chicken, and when he eats toast regurgitates as if he were an owl. He perches on a kitchen chair …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMOlivier; Young Vic; Almeida; all LondonIt has got audiences on their feet applauding at the National. It has the stalls attempting, if not a full pelvic thrust, at least a flaccid twinge. An…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMPrint Room; Hampstead; Vaudeville, all LondonLike a good deed in a naughty, cuts-devastated world, a new theatre opened this week. Lucy Bailey and Anda Winters's Print Room, a privately fund…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:08PMRobert Lindsay excels in John Osborne's state-of-the-nation attack on Fifties Britain Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:14AM