From returning comedy award winner Sam Nicoresti to Flo & Joan’s cheeky One Man Musical, these are surefire standouts at the fringeEdinburgh festival 2026 reviewsIt may contain a brief…
Aviva Studios, Manchester The late singer gets a thrilling tribute from a cast of 10 dancers in Sonya Taleh’s heartfelt show‘I’m just a troubled soul who needs to scream into a mic now…
Young Vic theatre, London Sophie Swithinbank’s urgent drama shimmers with spark and danger as an archive researcher finds herself trapped in modern-day misogyny…
Best known as Nurse Phyllis in the TV hit, the actor is a peerless interpreter of Caryl Churchill and is starring in Alexander Zeldin’s ‘Shakespearean’ play about dementia. She looks b…
Soho theatre, LondonDirected with swagger and finesse by Matthew Xia, Dave Harris’s play explores sex, pleasure, parenthood and what makes a manThere are two kinds of people in the world �…
The Other Place, Stratford-upon-AvonA 1950s Port of Spain setting simmers with political change and family tension in Martina Laird’s debut playThe air hangs heavy in Alma, a drinking club…
Old Vic theatre, LondonDirector Clint Dyer brings a fresh political focus to Ken Kesey's story of disempowerment but the relentless misogyny of the text feels retrograde When Randle P McMurp…
Watermill theatre, NewburyScreenwriter Daisy Goodwin imagines the old queen revisiting her diaries and reveals a tale of control and coercion behind Albert's dutiful devotion When screenwrit…
Finborough theatre, LondonIrritable passions ferment beneath the frowsty knits and beads in atmospheric 1935 psychological thriller Lonely lives, falling between the gaps, are at the heart o…
Orange Tree theatre, LondonVan Gogh is a restless soul who finds kinship " and possibly more " with his London landlady in this tender and full-hearted drama The young Vincent van Gogh spen…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonTracy-Ann Oberman stars in this absorbing and timely revival of Ryan Craig's 2011 comic tragedy, set over one fraught evening A death in the family is always …
Park theatre, London Patrick Marber updates Strindberg's story to a country house in 1945, where upstairs-downstairs disaffection drives the drama Strindberg claimed that he wrote Miss Jul…
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonJerome Kilty's fusty two-hander charts the cantankerous and flirtatious relationship between the playwright and actor Mrs Patrick Campbell When Jerome Kilty was …
Park theatre, LondonBill Rosenfield reimagines the playwright's early work about the souring relationship between newlywed artists Hell is other people " especially if you're married to them…
King's Head theatre, LondonLevi Kreis embarks on a journey of rediscovery in song, from self-hating adolescence to self-destructive adulthood The title of this semi-autobiographical musical …
The writer's former partner and her co-star Ruby Ashbourne Serkis describe the bittersweet nature of remounting his 90s play so soon after his death ' 'We were swimming in the mind pool of T…
Old Fire Station, OxfordThings get tense when a newcomer seems to know too much in Karim Khan's absorbing play Karim Khan's absorbing Christmas play offers warmth, doubt, uncanny strangers a…
The questing Czech-born playwright gave us plays that explored arcadias, utopias and affecting notions of home Tom Stoppard's breakthrough play opened on a bare stage, with two characters in…
Curve theatre, LeicesterA full-throttle Maria, a memorably forlorn Captain von Trapp and the carousel of classic hits make Nikolai Foster's production something to savour You know what to ex…
Arcola theatre, London Hanging around backstage while their chances to play Brutus and Cassius fade, two unnamed actors start to act out their own drama This is no glam…
Watermill theatre, Newbury Rob Madge's colourful reworking of the 1892 comedy makes clever adjustments while retaining the original's spirit The frump turns fabulous in this new version of a…
Noël Coward theatre, LondonMax Webster's frisky Oscar Wilde revival, first seen at the National Theatre, arrives in the West End with a new cast Oscar Wilde's comedy was, he said, "writte…
Young Vic, LondonTamzin Outhwaite and Jordan Stephens shine in Nadia Fall's sharp revival of Orton's 60s play " where lust and manipulation jostle under the chintz Does it count as chosen fa…
Almeida theatre, LondonWe follow three brothers through a Victorian childhood to the 21st-century in this time-bending tale exploring the essence of what it is to be male What did the Romans…
Nottingham PlayhouseDeft and witty drama follows the religious conservative campaigner as she rails against blasphemy, porn and homosexuality A culture warrior before her time, Mary Whitehou…
Cow | Deer gets 'between the ears' of animals, creating mouse noises with polystyrene balls and comparing wild creatures with industrialised ones. So if there's no dialogue, what did its wri…
Royal Court theatre, LondonUkrainian-born Ilya Kaminsky's book-length poem is a potent theatrical force of many moving parts " signing, speech, surtitles, even a drone hovering over the audi…
Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonJames Ijames swaps swords for shots in a riff on Shakespeare's revenge tragedy that's as playful as it is poignant If you've ever felt Hamlet needs less gore…
After surviving the whirlwind of Doctor Who, the actor returns to the stage in 'horny Elizabethan drama' Born With Teeth. He and co-star Edward Bluemel discuss bust lips, hot pants and queer…
Soho theatre, LondonThere is crackling chemistry in Harrison David Rivers' two-hander starring Omari Douglas and Alexander Lincoln There are never just two people in a room, or two voices in…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonSamira Wiley is superb as a corset-maker who embroiders dreams for herself and others in Lynette Linton's tremendous production Lynn Nottage's 2003 play explores what…
Theatr Clwyd, Mold Performed and designed with gusto, Jonathan Larson's zippy musical about creative passion is a fitting show to relaunch this cherished Welsh stage How do you relaunch a ch…
Southwark Playhouse, London A droll Dionysos, an ab-obsessed himbo and a waddling ballet for goggle-clad frogs can't outshine Sondheim's songs in this rarely seen version of the ancient Gree…
He created the iconic Phantom of the Opera mask, made Daniel Radcliffe go topless and even had his Führer design banned on the tube. Theatreland's go-to graphic artist Bob King talks us thr…
She had just finished working with Steve McQueen and was starting on the Stranger Things stage show when she had a stroke. But the movement director is determined to come back stronger The m…
OVO Arena, Wembley, LondonThis highlight reel of totemic routines interspersed with some dazzling cast numbers showcases the couple's former greatness and timeless elegance A painfully mirth…
Ustinov, BathIn an emphatic production that prowls around the mess of human motive, Peake's Sister Aloysius doggedly pursues a suspicion of abuse John Patrick Shanley's play first appeared i…
Barbican, London Katsiaryna Snytsina gives a merrily messy account, complete with deft displays of her ball skills, of being driven from sport into politics In this new piece by Belarus Free…
The Old Vic, LondonRami Malek's outsider vibes enliven seamy, superb new staging of Sophocles' family tragedy Dance in Greek tragedy " why not? The ancient Athenians did it, their choruses a…
Hampstead theatre, LondonThe quicksilver actor is a vocal glory as the poet and classicist AE Housman looking back at his younger, tormented self in Tom Stoppard's play A man arrives at the …
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonJohn Douglas Thomas and Juliet Rylance reprise their New York roles as Othello and Desdemona, while Will Keen is all gripe and snipe as shaven-h…
Marylebone theatre, LondonTwo couples have a sour reunion in Patrick Marber's production of Nathan Englander's play, updated from his 2011 short story to include events after 7 October Natha…
New Diorama theatre, LondonSisters navigating a harsh immigration process conjure up an unnerving helper in Sonali Bhattacharyya's drama Sonali Bhattacharyya's shivery new play begins with a…
@sohoplace, LondonNassim Soleimanpour's experiment in live theatre has a different performer discover the script for the first time each night " but Sheen is especially well suited to its mi…
American ballerina who defied the odds of her early childhood in wartorn Sierra Leone to perform with top dance companies This was the making of a ballerina. "When I was four years old, a ma…
Kiln theatre, London A familiar romcom isn't an option for these two young British Muslims, who can't shut out Islamophobia and public paranoia from their love story The title? It's a sandwi…
Where does the National send up-and-coming playwrights to have their ideas honed, pulled apart, rebuilt " and turned into dramatic dynamite? Our writer is granted rare access to the hallowed…
Holloway Garden theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonGender games, rebirth and affection remain in this 80-minute slash of the Shakespeare romcom, which is stylish but short on invention You expect g…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonClive Rowe and Lucie Jones star in Schwartz and Joseph Stein's tale of a French bakery, given a chamber setting Life should be sweet as our asparagus and apri…
Finborough theatre, LondonThe last surviving member of a military band shelters from Russian bombardment in Inna Goncharova's valiant attempt to capture the terrible essence of war As the pl…
