All stories by Claire Armitstead on BroadwayStars

Friday, June 16, 2023

The Crucible review – a witch hunt for truth-denying times by Claire Armitstead

Gielgud theatre, LondonHarnessing horror film conventions, Lyndsey Turner’s intelligent revival conjures places where truth is a political inconvenience Seventy years after its premiere, A…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:37AM
Thursday, June 15, 2023

Glenda Jackson, fearless actor and politician, dies aged 87 by Claire Armitstead

Her singular passion lit up performances from Women in Love to King Lear and drove her 23-year middle career as an MP Michael Billington: Glenda Jackson was piercingly intelligent and unafra…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:19AM
Wednesday, June 7, 2023

‘I do like a shock’: Martin McDonagh on why casting Lily Allen in The Pillowman makes it even more electrifying by Claire Armitstead

His 2003 play about child torture and freedom of speech became a global phenomenon. But will it offend today’s audiences? The writer-director explains why he won’t be changing a thing Ir…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:55PM
Friday, May 5, 2023

We Need New Names review – playful staging of NoViolet Bulawayo’s novel by Claire Armitstead

Brixton House, LondonDirector Monique Touko keeps the tone lively with this tough story of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe in which the actors switch race, age and gender with ease In a place called Par…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:48AM
Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Josie Lawrence: ‘As soon as I could speak, I was putting on shows’ by Claire Armitstead

The actor looks back over a four-decade career balancing ‘serious’ drama and improv comedy, describes the making of her wholly improvised new film, and explains why we don’t see her on…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:24PM
Sunday, April 2, 2023

Hamnet on stage: Maggie O’Farrell and Lolita Chakrabarti on adapting the hit novel for the RSC by Claire Armitstead

O’Farrell’s novel about Shakespeare losing his young son to the plague struck a powerful chord in lockdown. She and Chakrabarti discuss exploring class, place and creativity for a play t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:48AM
Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Akedah review – sisters at sea in taut but frustrating Troubles drama by Claire Armitstead

Hampstead theatre, LondonTwo women disinter a trauma from their past in Michael John O’Neill’s allegorical play set in an evangelical church Two sisters circle each other in the antecham…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:57AM
Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Linck & Mülhahn review – queer costume drama echoes through the ages by Claire Armitstead

Hampstead theatre, LondonRuby Thomas’s play, based on a true story about a married couple in 18th-century Prussia who were tried for sodomy, is tender, musical and funny From Gentleman Jac…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AM
Thursday, February 2, 2023

Titus Andronicus review – a patriarchy hellbent on self-destruction by Claire Armitstead

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonHeirs and spares fight under a sleazeball Roman emperor and candles take a hammering in a brilliantly provocative show with an all-female ensemble What do you …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:49AM
Saturday, January 21, 2023

Director Simon Stone: ‘My heroes are women’ by Claire Armitstead

The innovative Australian director who gained acclaim for his version of Yerma starring Billie Piper is now reframing Phaedra as a postmenopausal love story with Janet McTeer Simon Stone doe…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:00PM
Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Fay Weldon obituary by Claire Armitstead

Novelist and screenwriter whose tales of women taking control of their own destinies included The Life and Loves of a She-Devil • Writer Fay Weldon dies aged 91 The novelist Fay Weldon, wh…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:06AM
Sunday, December 18, 2022

Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights review – Scheherazade’s storytellers step out of the shadows by Claire Armitstead

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonThis co-production between the Globe and Tamasha gives voice to five fluent, witty and graceful women, allowing them to reshape the ancient tales as their own …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:42AM
Sunday, November 27, 2022

Liz Kingsman: ‘Who is this woman who feels she can go on stage and make people laugh?’ by Claire Armitstead

The comedian-writer’s One Woman Show takes hilarious issue with the Fleabag-style ‘messy woman’ trope. As it transfers to London’s West End, she says she feels ‘at odds’ with its…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24PM
Tuesday, November 15, 2022

‘It’s relatable’ … The Crown’s Emma Corrin on playing gender-swapping, time-travelling Orlando by Claire Armitstead

The actor and the director Michael Grandage talk about how relevant their staging of Virginia Woolf’s classic work of gender fluidity feels – and remember their own queer battles Emma Co…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:32PM
Monday, October 24, 2022

Mud, murder and homemade schnapps: eco-thriller Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead roars back by Claire Armitstead

As Complicité’s Simon McBurney brings Olga Tokarczuk’s feminist detective story to the stage, the pair discuss its eccentric sleuth, isolated landscape and climate alarm Time feels out …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:49AM
Friday, October 21, 2022

David Farr: ‘The 60s generation created the most selfish age there has ever been’ by Claire Armitstead

In his new play, the screenwriter and author investigates ideas of individualism, sexual freedom and mortality through a woman who recreates herself as a cyborg David Farr is perplexed by tw…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:19AM
Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Blues for an Alabama Sky review – Harlem renaissance drama is a tale for our times by Claire Armitstead

Lyttelton theatre, LondonA group of friends in 1930s New York pursue diverging dreams in a transfixing production of Pearl Cleage’s play directed by Lynette Linton ‘You’re a genius wit…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:33AM
Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Edinburgh fringe 2022: 20 theatre, comedy and dance shows you shouldn’t miss by Brian Logan, Catherine Love, Mark Fisher, Anya Ryan, Rachael Healy, Kate Wyver, Claire Armitstead, Arifa Akbar and Lyndsey Winship

In the first of our festival previews, we round up some of the best offerings we’ve already reviewed – including Tim Key, Liz Kingsman, La Clique and Hungry This searing, sweaty disco is…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AM
Friday, May 20, 2022

The Father and the Assassin review – gripping tale of the man who killed Gandhi by Claire Armitstead

Olivier theatre, LondonAnupama Chandrasekhar artfully unpicks the forces of history with a tale of violence and colonialism that echoes into today When it comes to taboo-busting, Anupama Cha…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AM
Monday, April 18, 2022

‘Don’t tell actors how to act, Mum!’: Kate Mosse on how her debut play was a family affair by Claire Armitstead

How did the novelist adapt her bestseller The Taxidermist’s Daughter for the stage? By stripping out the gore, ratcheting up the revenge – and asking her actor son for tips ‘I’ve ver…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:12AM
Thursday, March 10, 2022

The Key Workers Cycle review – a tender collaboration to keep the darkness at bay by Claire Armitstead

Almeida theatre, LondonA cycle of nine community pieces that use black comedy and cautionary tales to celebrate the people who keep things going For its latest show, the Almeida, in Islingto…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:42AM
Friday, February 25, 2022

The Animal Kingdom review – thrilling portrait of a family in collapse by Claire Armitstead

Hampstead theatre, LondonRuby Thomas peels back the emotional layers in a group-therapy drama that fizzes towards a devastating finale A family of four and a therapist tiptoe around one anot…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18PM
Tuesday, February 8, 2022

‘My nails are longer than my future’: Our Generation, the 254-scene play about teens, cuts and Covid by Claire Armitstead

Sieges, riots, serial killings, sex work … Alecky Blythe has put them all on stage. She reveals all about her latest project – an epic look at the comic ups and touching downs of teenage…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18AM
Friday, November 5, 2021

The Ocean at the End of the Lane review – Neil Gaiman’s monsters will leave you cowering by Claire Armitstead

Duke of York’s theatre, LondonShapeshifting creatures take centre stage in Katy Rudd’s production that terrifyingly evokes childhood nightmares and family trauma Neil Gaiman’s short, l…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AM
Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Mark Gatiss: ‘I’m currently very, very ashamed of being English’ by Claire Armitstead

The former League of Gentlemen star on his love of low-budget British spinechillers, his loathing of Brexit and a slew of projects opening this winter Mark Gatiss scans the breakfast menu at…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AM
Monday, October 11, 2021

Send us to Coventry! How the Turner Prize and a touring bin put the city on the map by Claire Armitstead

It started with lockdown and a broken angel, but Coventry’s year as city of culture is highlighting its reputation for resilience Shortly before midnight on 23 January 2020, security came…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:54AM
Wednesday, October 6, 2021

The Mirror and the Light review – Cromwell’s spell is finally broken by Claire Armitstead

Gielgud theatre, LondonThe climactic play based on Hilary Mantel’s magisterial trilogy has wit and grace but no great dramatic release It’s a truism all too well known to Thomas Cromwell…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:06PM
Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Actor Renu Arora: ‘I saw my leg go under the bus and thought I was dead and gone’ by Claire Armitstead

Four years ago, she was involved in a horrific accident. Little did she know it would leave her uniquely prepared to play a noblewoman hit by a falling elephant in the RSC’s new Christmas …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06PM
Friday, September 10, 2021

Pink Lemonade review – a lewd, jubilant induction to the queer black body by Claire Armitstead

Bush, LondonHumiliation meets humour as Mika Onyx Johnson tells of his hard-won transformation through rap, storytelling and dance From the moment Mika Onyx Johnson bounces on to the stage, …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AM
Monday, August 23, 2021

I’m finally seeing live shows again – and I feel like a kid in a sweetshop by Claire Armitstead

Kitchen discos and archive performances kept us going – but being stuck at home made me pine for a full house In the early months of the pandemic, as the survival instinct of the live arts…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AM
Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Piaf review – the rise and fall of the Little Sparrow by Claire Armitstead

Nottingham PlayhouseJenna Russell captures the tragedy in this rags-to-rags story but the power of the songs can’t hide the play’s weaknesses From the moment Jane Lapotaire stepped out a…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AM

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