New play about motherhood and vampirism is disappointingly incoherent Motherhood is a high stress job. Ask any woman and they will tell you the same: sleepless nights, feeding problems and …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:36PMApril De Angelis’s 1993 play is a delightful if sketchy account of Restoration female actors Creatives — or creatures? In the 1660s, women — having been banned from working as actors …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:06PMNew play about the game of Dungeons & Dragons explores fact and fantasy “The exercise of fantasy is to imagine other ways of life,” says one of the role-players during a Dungeons &a…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:06PMThe Guyanese migrant experience of 1970s London gets the big-stage treatment Plays about the Windrush Generation are no longer a rarity, but it’s still unusual for revivals of black Briti…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:12AMGaza play is both surreally humorous and finally devastating The war in Gaza has been going since 7 October 2023 — that’s about 15 months. But it’s strangely absent from British stage…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:12PMHouse of Cards writer tackles AI and religion, but without the necessary clarity Our humanity is defined not only by our use of language, but also by our sense of the spiritual. Whether you…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:06PMNew West End drama about spicing up marriage is oddly lacking in passion Since when has new writing become so passionless? Mike Bartlett is one of the country’s premiere playwrights and h…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:18PMA new sci-fi gothic horror about life after death is intriguing, but flawed I always advocate in favour of more sci-fi plays, and over the past decade there have been a gratifying number of …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:18PMHoward Brenton’s new play about Winston and Stalin is both intelligent and fun Playwrights who work for decades often acquire a moniker. In the case of Howard Brenton, who began his caree…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:36AMNew play about mental breakdown is a mix of acute distress and poetic writing In a world tainted with racism and homophobia, the Bush theatre is something of a refuge from prejudice. As one …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:54PMSouth African satire about racism, sexism, home ownership and community politics Most Brits don’t know much about South Africa today, but we do know about house values, so this new comedy…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:06PMTom Stoppard’s classic evocation of Victorian golden age Oxford stars Simon Russell Beale Can men really love each other — without sex? Or, to put it another way, how many different form…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:02PMGig theatre piece about the pain and redemption of a pioneer reggae artist I live in Brixton, south London. To get to the tube, I have to cross Windrush Square. Since 2021, I go past the Ch…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:36PMNew play about a paedophile ring foregrounds the voices of British-Pakistani women British theatre excels in presenting social issues: at its best, it shines a bright light on the controver…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:31PMThis venue’s annual festive classic is seasonally joyous, but its writing is frankly patronizing This Dickens classic is an annual treat, or a Christmas trial — depending on your point …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:42PMNew play about young black men and cryptocurrency is sadly predictable Cryptocurrency is like the myth of El Dorado — a promised land made of fool’s gold. Despite its liberatory potenti…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:12PMThe latest in Forced Entertainment’s 40 years of experiment is a thought-tickling farce Can experimental theatre survive the decades? This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Forced Ent…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:12PMHanif Kureishi classic gets a compulsively comic makeover from Emma Rice Hanif Kureishi’s 1990 novel The Buddha of Suburbia begins like this: “My name is Karim Amir, and I am an English…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:24PMRichard Bean’s new work play revisits the Hull fishing industry of the 1970s “Don’t take a piss in the house of a woman you have made a widow.” The mixture of earthy comedy and tragi…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:36PMLorraine Hansberry classic is both a historical gem and a play for today Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is not only the first play by a black woman to premiere on Broadway, back…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:02PMNew play about the consequences of a plane hijack is energetic but unconvincing Air travel is bad for us. Yes, yes, I know we need planes to take us long distances, but look at the downside…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:32PMTwo all-time 1950s classics, 'Look Back in Anger' and 'Roots', get super revivals by young directors Why should we not look back in anger? With the Oasis reunion tour in the news recently, …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:06PMTanika Gupta’s new play is a beautifully heartfelt mix of comedy and tragedy Queenie is in trouble. Bad trouble. For about a year now, this 68-year-old Indian woman has been forgetful. Lo…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:06PMBrilliant revival of this key absurdist play stars Lucian Msamati and Ben Whishaw Modernism is us. Today. For the past two decades plays by Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter – which once u…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:32AMSlender new play about political and gender prejudice in 1950s American science British theatre has a proud heritage of science plays. From 1990s classics such as Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (1…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:48PMWaleed Akhtar’s new play is about platonic love in a contemporary context Platonic love should be simple — basically you’re best mates. And without the complications of sex, what coul…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:32PMAward-winning new writing is full of mystery and metaphor, but a bit too literary I live in Brixton, south London; in my street, for many years, a pair of trainers were up in the sky, hangin…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:54PMDebut two-hander explores a gentle love story of two practicing Muslims At one point, in John Fowles’s 1977 novel The Magus, the guru character in the story compares sexuality before and …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:18AMNew play about the death of the most famous American woman of the Camelot era The death of Marilyn Monroe is a wet dream for conspiracy theorists. Like the assassination of JFK in the follo…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:54PMNew play about secrets from the past is both funny and profound Following the huge success of Benedict Lombe’s Shifters, which transfers soon to the West End, the Bush Theatre is riding h…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:18PMNew history play about football has a flawed second half Every day this week I’m watching a football match, and now — after April’s production of Lydia Higman, Julia Grogan and Rachel …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:36PM