Wednesday, June 11, 2014
In the 19th century, the Ancoats slum Angel Meadow was called 'hell on earth'. Now Anu Productions have re-imagined it for a startling site-specific productionThe shabby Irish pub in Ancoats…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMThursday, June 5, 2014
Lyceum, SheffieldThere's tragedy at the core of French's roly-poly persona yet the place she finds herself in appears to be a good oneIt's extraordinary to consider that Dawn French has liv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:21PMMonday, June 2, 2014
Royal Exchange, ManchesterDan Parr delivers a lung-busting performance as a working-class soldier adrift in AfghanistanAt least one theatre company advised Gareth Farr to put his debut play …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:31AMTuesday, May 27, 2014
Crucible, SheffieldRevel in this revival as a smug playboy's life unravels when he tries to juggle one too many brightly coloured airline hostessesWho is France's most frequently performed p…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:31AMMonday, May 26, 2014
Manchester Opera HouseDespite a superlative onstage orchestra and a sharp-shooting Emma Williams as Annie, this revisionist rendition lacks swaggerHow do you solve a problem like Annie Oakle…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:05AMTuesday, May 20, 2014
Theatre Royal, YorkNichola McAuliffe is glorious as Noël Coward's batty psychic in a production that's short of paranormal shocksThe acclaim with which Angela Lansbury's Madame Arcati has b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:51AMMonday, May 19, 2014
Birmingham RepRachel De-lahay's public-transport odyssey is filled with astute observations of troubled livesRachel De-lahay caused a minor storm with her first two plays, The Westbridge and…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:30AMFriday, May 9, 2014
B is for Betty's and S if for splother while O is for outside bucket our guide to the Yorkshire-born playwright on his 80th birthdayOncologist's description of the size of the tumour discov…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:45AMSunday, May 4, 2014
Laugharne, CarmarthenshireReal-life locals are obligingly stranger-than-fiction in this live-art installation-cum-walking tour around the place that inspired Dylan Thomas's Under Milk WoodLa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:56PMTuesday, April 29, 2014
York Theatre RoyalA bold play for young children about the effects of Alzheimer's on one girl's grandmother makes its points skilfullyA young girl and her grandmother are spending the aftern…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:59AMMonday, April 28, 2014
Theatr Clywd, MoldA group of Swansea natives yearn for escape but can see no see further than SomersetSouth Wales writer Sam Burns studied in Swansea and now lives partly in Rajasthan, wher…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:34AMThursday, April 24, 2014
With their two-minute 'topicals', Mitchell and Kenyon gave us an unparalleled picture of Edwardian life then split in mysterious circumstances. A new play sets out to tell their story The L…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:23PMFriday, April 11, 2014
Its characters may carry a whiff of panto, but this fierce comedy about a failing Liverpool primary school offers a serious insight into the constraints placed on teachersFormer teacher Mark…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:13AMWednesday, April 9, 2014
Mark Babych's first production as Hull Truck's artistic director embraces the enormous heart of Shelagh Delaney's debut play without flinching from its vulgarity Shameless's Rebecca Ryan tak…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:09AMAs she stars in her second revival of A Taste of Honey, Rebecca Ryan talks about the enduring appeal of Delaney's contradictory Jo and how growing up on Manchester's Chatsworth estate as De…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:30AMTuesday, April 8, 2014
Royal Exchange, ManchesterSpirits are high in this make-do-and-mend era revamp of Shakespeare's comedy, with a tartly played antipathy between Beatrice and BenedickThe Swedish director Maria…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:27AMTuesday, March 25, 2014
Theatre Royal, YorkAlastair Whatley introduces awkward notes of absurdity and farce into this version of the Faulks novel – though there are some fine performancesThe first world war was a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:11AMSunday, March 9, 2014
Adelaide festival's programme features a clutch of epic theatrical, musical and filmic experiences: from Tectonics to Roman Tragedies, John Zorn to River of Fundament. So what's the best adv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMSaturday, March 1, 2014
Despite the tweeting, screening of Sochi and the fact that the audience can get up onstage, the real innovation of this six-hour Shakespeare marathon was dramaturgical, writes Alfred Hicklin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:39PMWednesday, February 26, 2014
Lowry, SalfordChris Honer's production – his last as artistic director of the Library theatre – is entirely faithful to the spirit of ChekhovAnya Reiss's adaptation of The Seagull, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:57PMTuesday, February 25, 2014
Playwright Mike Kenny's take on Homer's Odyssey at Derby theatre is taught and functional, while Caroline Horton's companion piece covers similar ground with more originality3/5 and 4/5If ev…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AMCan a provocative adaptation of Brecht and Weill's satire, produced by four regional theatres, continue the change promised by the Paralympics?An empty television studio in Nottingham, curre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:30AMSunday, February 23, 2014
Crucible, SheffieldAn exemplary revival of what may be Brian Friel's greatest play makes a fine centrepiece to this season of his workBrian Friel's 1980 drama was born from twin impulses: th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:45PMThursday, February 20, 2014
Crucible, SheffieldBrian Friel's audacious, Chekhovian epilogue is short, masterful and hilariousA middle-aged man and woman have a chance encounter in a slightly down-at-heel Moscow tea-roo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:10AMWednesday, February 19, 2014
Theatre Royal, YorkPaul Allen's adaptation of the film about a colliery brass band has been revived for the 30th anniversary of the miners' strikeWhere there's muck there's brass: and there'…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:45AMSunday, February 16, 2014
Grand, LeedsA mixed menu of opera and cabaret is a strangely imbalanced way to pay homage to the bohemianism of the French capitalAs Bogart said to Bergman: "We'll always have Paris." The qu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:47AMWednesday, February 12, 2014
Clwyd Theatr Cymru, MoldDylan Thomas's play for voices is given a pitch-perfect revival by director Terry Hands' ensemble of actorsThis is a marquee year for Dylan Thomas as it is both the c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24AMCan you do a ronnie? Ever tried a rant? Alfred Hickling gets a lesson in clog-dancing from a troupe using it to bring the horrors of the first world war back to lifeConrad Nelson is in the m…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMMonday, February 10, 2014
Nottingham PlayhouseA nuanced performance brings the best from Amanda Whittington's monologue about a nurse's slide into pornIt all began as a bit of a laugh: Julie's boyfriend had a camera …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:49AMFriday, February 7, 2014
Her plays about women are widely performed yet she's often missing from critics' lists. Could her ambitious latest, My Judy Garland Life, change all that?Who would you nominate as the most-p…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:01AMThursday, February 6, 2014
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsThis jukebox monologue has Denise van Outen as an Essex-girl-lingerie-designer randomly bursting into the hits of the 80sCharlie Parsons's programme profile st…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:30AM 
