Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The Royal Court is justly proud of being the home of British new writing, but it is also a venue which has a great tradition of staging work from abroad. From bringing Brecht and Beckett her…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMMonday, October 14, 2013
Is this the year’s most controversial play? When it opened at Edinburgh in August, David Greig’s The Events created a stir because its depiction of the aftermath of an atrocity is remini…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMTuesday, October 8, 2013
British theatre is obsessed with the new, with novelty. And one of the obvious casualties of this is old plays that are not by Ibsen or Chekhov. Plays that feature in every history of Britis…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMThursday, October 3, 2013
The life of Margaret Thatcher seems to draw sympathetic writers like wasps to a particularly sweet jam. In 2011, playwright and screenwriter Abi Morgan gave us a portrait of the first female…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:06PMThursday, September 26, 2013
Royal Court, Jerwood Upstairs, London: Following the outstanding success of her first play, The Westbridge, in 2011, Rachel De-lahay - who came to the Royal Court through their Unheard Voice…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:06AMWednesday, September 25, 2013
You could call it the iceberg syndrome. It’s a work of art that is a flash, a sliver or an imprint: think of a passport photograph, a cheap trinket or a half-finished graffiti. Yet beneath…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMThursday, September 19, 2013
Bush Theatre, London: The debut play by the Olivier award-winning actor Rory Kinnear (currently playing Iago in Othello at the National Theatre) is being staged at <a href="http://ww…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:08AMTuesday, September 17, 2013
Once a staple of British drama, the middle-class family play has recently, after about a decade of being unfashionable, made a remarkable comeback. This current example is the playwriting de…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMSunday, September 15, 2013
Berkoff is back. The legendary actor, director, playwright and author has just finished a stint on stage in Edinburgh and is about to open a new production in the West End. Steven Berkoff’…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:02AMThursday, September 12, 2013
In playwriting, there’s near-perfection, perfection and oh-my-God-how-I-wish-I’d-written-that. Terry Johnson’s Hysteria, which was first staged at the Royal Court 20 years ago, is defi…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:02PMRoyal Court, Jerwood Downstairs, London: At long last Dennis Kelly makes his Royal Court debut. The talented playwright, who has demonstrated his versatility by writing the book for Matilda …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:40AMWednesday, September 11, 2013
Since his arrival about a decade ago, Dennis Kelly has proved himself to be a master of versatility. He has written in-yer-face shockers such as Osama the Hero and Orphans, elaborate experim…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMWednesday, August 14, 2013
Trafalgar Studios, London: Jamie Lloyd's third production for the Trafalgar Transformed season is Alexi Kaye Campbell's multi-award-winning debut play, The Pride, which he first st…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:55AMTuesday, August 13, 2013
Is there such a thing as a gay play? As opposed to a play by a gay writer, or one which has some gay content or is about gay characters. The programme to this atmospheric and moving revival …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMWednesday, August 7, 2013
Donmar Warehouse, London: Josie Rourke, artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, continues her support of young award-winning playwright Nick Payne, whose debut - If There is I Haven'…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:42AMTuesday, August 6, 2013
Britain today: while the total of car crashes is falling the number of whiplash claims is rising by 25 per cent. Yes, the compensation culture is speeding ahead. In Nick Payne’s follow up …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMMonday, July 15, 2013
There’s a united nations of Great Britain feel about this site-specific Royal Court show: it is a National Theatre of Scotland piece played at the London Welsh Centre as a co-production wi…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMFriday, July 12, 2013
With site specific shows it’s a natural urge to start by reviewing the location. And I’m not strong enough to resist this temptation. So here goes. This new piece by American playwright …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMThursday, July 11, 2013
Some plays have such historic significance that it is surprising that they are not revived more often. I blame the obsession with novelty that characterises our culture. So it’s great to s…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMThursday, July 4, 2013
When any arts institution gets a new head, the media scrutiny of their first work is usually intense. The Royal Court theatre’s new artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, has defused this …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:00PMMonday, June 17, 2013
Tricycle Theatre, London: Director Polly Teale and Shared Experience return to the Tricycle with a beautifully crafted new play by award-winning playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell, who wrote his…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:25AMMonday, June 10, 2013
One of the promises of artistic director Nicholas Hytner when he took the helm of this flagship ten years ago was to stage new and innovative musicals. His problem, of course, is that these …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:05PMMonday, June 3, 2013
I love poetic play titles, but even I would admit that sometimes they are difficult to remember. In this case, the name of Brad Birch’s new play has taught me a lesson that I’m happy to …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMThursday, May 23, 2013
Bush Theatre, London: After a career as an actor and scriptwriter, New Yorker Ayad Akhtar turned to playwriting and his debut, which premiered in Chicago in 2012, was a huge success. It tran…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:21AMWednesday, May 22, 2013
There’s one big problem about being an Asian actor in America — you just don’t get the big parts. So the multitalented Ayad Akhtar put acting on hold, and turned to screen writing, pro…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMThursday, May 2, 2013
Rikki Beadle-Blair is a high-energy polymath. He’s a real phenomenon. Raised by his lesbian mum in sarf London, he wrote his first play at the age of seven and was, he claims, already dire…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:30PMTuesday, April 30, 2013
Most theatre directors produce work which is visually the same as everyone else’s. Katie Mitchell doesn’t. Her plays are always brilliantly acted, highly atmospheric and often use film m…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:00PMThursday, April 18, 2013
Scandi thrillers have a lot to answer for. Ever since the small-screen success of the Swedish Wallander series, based on the books by Henning Mankell, there has been a host of other must-see…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMWednesday, April 17, 2013
Some plays are game-changers. When Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing opened at the tiny Bush Theatre in 1993 the joy that radiated off the stage was ample affirmation that this tale of pup…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMMonday, April 15, 2013
The Shed, National Theatre, London: The National Theatre's new space, The Shed, a square construction painted bright red, is located just outside its main entrance in Theatre Square. A …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:43AMFriday, April 12, 2013
The family can be a knot of hatred as well as a cradle of love. Rather late in this new play by Tanya Ronder comes a scene in which a separated husband and wife try to untangle this knot, an…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM 
