Thursday, October 23, 2025
This Verity Bargate Award-winning dramedy is both entertaining as well as thought provoking
Niall is unwell. Very unwell. Very, very. There's a lot going on in his head. He can't really hol…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 12:18PM[SHARE]Thursday, October 16, 2025
Katherine Moar returns with a Patty Hearst-inspired follow up to her debut hit Farm Hall
Oh yes, I actually do remember Patty Hearst. She was the American publishing magnate William Randolp…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:54AM[SHARE]Thursday, October 2, 2025
West End transfer of National Theatre hit extravaganza stars Stephen Fry and Olly Alexander
Star casting has, since the pandemic, done much to restore the fortunes of commercial theatre. An…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:54AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 25, 2025
Lively star-led revival of Joe Orton's 1964 debut is fun, but raises uncomfortable questions
Playwright Joe Orton was a merry prankster. His main work " such as Loot (1965) and What the B…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 01:02PM[SHARE]Thursday, September 18, 2025
Alice Birch's latest is a wildly epic family drama that is both mind-blowing and exasperating
OMG! I mean OMG doubled!! This is amazing! Or is it? Can Alice Birch's Romans: A Novel at th…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:48PM[SHARE]Thursday, September 11, 2025
Experimental work about nature led by Katie Mitchell is both extraordinary and banal
I love irony. Especially beautiful irony. So I'm very excited about the ironic gesture of staging a show…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 11:02AM[SHARE]Friday, September 5, 2025
Staging of Ukrainian-American Ilya Kaminsky's anti-war poems is too meta-theatrical
The Ukraine war is not the only place of horror in the world, but it does present a challenge to theatre …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:02PM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Thrilling revival of Philip Ridley's cult classic confirms its legendary status
Ever wondered if there was one moment when in-yer-face theatre started? Well, yes there was; there was one pl…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 12:06PM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Mike Bartlett's new state-of-the-agricultural-nation play is beautifully performed
Playwright Mike Bartlett is, like many writers, a chronicler of both contemporary manners and of the state …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 01:36PM[SHARE]Sunday, July 27, 2025
Suzie Miller's follow up to her massive hit Prima Facie stars Rosamund Pike
Rosamund Pike is back. For her first stage appearance since 2010, when she played Hedda Gabler in Adrian Noble's …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 12:06PM[SHARE]Sunday, July 20, 2025
Comedy debut stars Adeel Akhtar, but is an awkward mix of the personal and the political
The first rule for brown people, says the main character " played by BAFTA-winner Adeel Akhtar " in …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:54AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Chloë Moss's latest play about the different lives of two sisters is deeply felt
Near the start of Chloë Moss's latest play, Run Sister Run, one character tells his wife to "Calm your…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:18PM[SHARE]Friday, June 20, 2025
Sarah Kane's exceptionally groundbreaking play gets a nostalgic anniversary reboot
Sarah Kane is the most celebrated new writer of the 1990s. Her work is provocative and innovative. So it s…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:42AM[SHARE]Sunday, June 8, 2025
New play about loss, love, grief and gardening is humane, but flawed
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The Bush Theatre is becoming a garden centre. Earlier this year, the venue staged Coral Wylie's Lavender, Hyaci…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 11:42AM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 23, 2025
New play about two sisters, death and hoarding is well written, but feels incomplete
"They fuck you up your Mum and Dad; they may not mean to, but they do." These lines from Philip Larkin'…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 01:03PM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 15, 2025
New play about a sibling's death is well imagined and deeply felt, but a bit slender
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. Or words to that e…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 01:12PM[SHARE]Sunday, April 13, 2025
After his Olivier Award win for Oedipus, Robert Icke turns to a modern "monster"
Are we really in "a new era of male anger, societal discontent and rage"? This is what Royal Court artistic d…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:54AM[SHARE]Friday, April 4, 2025
Ionesco classic gets an entertainingly vivid and contemporary update
Is the theatre of the absurd dead? In today's world, when cruel and crazy events happen almost daily, the idea that you …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:06PM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 1, 2025
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: The Arts Desk at 01:36PM[SHARE]Thursday, March 27, 2025
April 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 in pre…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 01:06PM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 12, 2025
New 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 & …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 12:06PM[SHARE]Sunday, March 2, 2025
The 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 British…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 11:12AM[SHARE]Thursday, February 27, 2025
Gaza 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 stages. Of …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 12:12PM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 18, 2025
House 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: The Arts Desk at 12:06PM[SHARE]Sunday, February 16, 2025
New 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 his…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:18PM[SHARE]Friday, February 14, 2025
A 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: The Arts Desk at 03:18PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 13, 2025
Howard 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 career …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:36AM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 4, 2025
New 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: The Arts Desk at 12:54PM[SHARE]Sunday, January 19, 2025
South 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 b…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:06PM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Tom 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 forms of…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:02PM[SHARE]Friday, December 13, 2024
Gig 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: The Arts Desk at 12:36PM[SHARE] 
