Sunday, August 1, 2021
A 4,000-year-old poem reopens this venue, but is more educational than dramatic
The Young Vic, led by the inspiring figure of Kwame Kwei-Armah, is back. After a prolonged closure, during whi…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:06PMWednesday, July 28, 2021
David Mamet’s most controversial play retains its explosive charge
Before seeing this play, I decided to eat a steak. It seemed the right culinary equivalent to David Mamet, one of Americ…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:03PMSunday, June 27, 2021
Ambitious triptych examines the themes of Empire, race and parenthood
It is an index of the ambition of some venues that they are not only reopening their doors, but also staging plays that…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:12PMMonday, May 31, 2021
Debut play about siblings, climate change and space travel is full of ideas
There’s something definitely inspiring about producer Sonia Friedman’s decision to reopen one of her prime We…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:03AMSunday, May 23, 2021
New monologue is a complex and ambiguous account of a digital obsession
After months of watching theatre on screens large, medium and tiny, I definitely feel great about going to see a live…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:24PMSunday, May 2, 2021
Philip Ridley’s new monologue is a dazzling masterclass in storytelling
I think I can safely say that polymath playwright Philip Ridley has had a good lockdown. In March last year, when T…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:06PMThursday, March 25, 2021
Mark Ravenhill’s new play is a fragmentary audio autobiography
Does a subjective theatre piece encourage a subjective critical response? I think it might, especially when it’s a memory …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:18PMMonday, March 22, 2021
Film version of the Oscar Wilde classic is a brilliant critique of the digital age
Let’s face it, most adaptations of classic novels are disappointingly pedestrian. They are so middle-of-t…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:42PMWednesday, March 17, 2021
Latest show from Chris Bush is a celebration of local stoicism and wry humour
All theatre is local — if you can’t get to where a show is playing you can’t see it. That is, until a pand…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:18PMThursday, February 25, 2021
Film version of 2019 monologue about institutional racism is brilliant
As the events of last year made clear, the police have a problem with race on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, B…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:42PMThursday, February 4, 2021
Film version of award-winning show about young offenders has more power than plot
Film is the new theatre — this we know, but does the distance imposed by the change of medium increase or …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:18PMFriday, December 11, 2020
New monologue is a shout out for trans and non-gender-conforming rights
Travis Alabanza is black, trans, queer and proud. And they’ve got a lot to be proud about. In 2016, they were the yo…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:36PMTuesday, December 8, 2020
The Dickens classic, as adapted by this venue’s artistic director, shakes its holly
A Christmas Carol is a seasonal standard. In a normal year, there are a couple of versions to be enjoyed…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:54PMSunday, November 29, 2020
Film adaptation of Jonathan Coe’s 1994 bestseller is a postmodern masterpiece
Classical murder mysteries end with a neat solution — and with the arrest of the perpetrator. Postmodern mur…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:03PMMonday, November 2, 2020
Lillian Hellman meets a handful of other female greats in an imaginary dinner party
Feuds make good theatre. I mean, look at the furious 1970s spat between playwright Lillian Hellman and cri…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:18PMSunday, October 11, 2020
Return of one-woman show about growing up is disappointingly thin
Success smells sweet. The Bridge Theatre’s pioneering season of one-person plays continues with sell-out performances of D…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:48PMFriday, September 25, 2020
Masterly revival of Inua Ellams’s 2016 autobiographical one-man show
When the history of British theatre’s response to COVID-19 comes to be written, the names of two men will feature pro…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:06AMSunday, August 9, 2020
Simon Stephens and Juliet Stevenson create the perfect installation for our times
Wowee! Twenty weeks after the last time I set foot in a theatre, I was able to visit a venue once more. Hell…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:18PMMonday, August 3, 2020
Athena Stevens’s punchy account of how an airline trashed her wheelchair
During the current pandemic, stories about isolation have a particular resonance. Feelings of claustrophobia, lonel…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:42PMWednesday, July 22, 2020
A festival of responses to the Black Lives Matter campaign is personal, political and powerful
The strength of the response to the re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter campaign has provoke…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:32AMThursday, July 2, 2020
NT archive recording of Lorraine Hansberry’s last play is absolutely compelling
Lorraine Hansberry’s debut, A Raisin in the Sun, was the first drama written by a black woman to be produc…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:32PMTuesday, June 9, 2020
Film version of a loud and proud 2017 tribute to Ian Dury and the Blockheads
If any musical can live up to this title in these troubled times, it must be this show from Graeae, a theatre co…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:42PMThursday, May 21, 2020
NT Live recording of this classic Young Vic production is genuinely unmissable
The National Theatre’s triumphant march through its archive of NT Live recordings continues this week with a …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:03PMWednesday, May 13, 2020
Revival of 2011 HighTide hit reconceived for streaming stars Diana Quick
During lockdown, some of the best online theatre has been shows that are specially created for this digital format. M…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:36PMFriday, May 1, 2020
NT Live version of this iconic tale of creative hubris features a dynamic acting duo
So far, it could be said that the National Theatre is having a good lockdown. Every week, this flagship s…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:18PMMonday, April 27, 2020
Howard Brenton’s docu-drama about the harassment of the Chinese artist is defiantly brilliant
London’s Hampstead Theatre has recently been very successful in bringing some of its best sh…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:54PMMonday, April 13, 2020
Emma Rice’s version of Angela Carter’s last novel is a celebration of alternative families
Reviewing theatre now means reviewing film. Knowing that Emma Rice’s Old Vic 2018 production …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:24PMWednesday, April 8, 2020
Gloriously surreal monologue about everyday anxieties in extraordinary circumstances
She’s an ordinary young woman, and she really doesn’t know what to think. After all, things are way o…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:12PMMonday, April 6, 2020
BBC film version of a Renaissance rape trial is powerfully resonant and completely relevant
Artemisia Gentileschi has definitely had a hard time. Although she was an outstanding Renaissance …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:03PMSaturday, April 4, 2020
NT Live version of this masterpiece of farce is now available for free
Armchair theatre-lovers rejoice. During the lockdown, the National Theatre is streaming a selection of its past hits fo…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:24AMMonday, March 30, 2020
Original Theatre’s tartan gothic thriller is complex but also a bit overwrought
With everyone in lockdown, observing physical if not social distancing, a story about isolation can have a …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:36PM 
