Sunday, April 20, 2025
Watermill theatre, NewburyPam Gems’s play with music sacrifices depth as its small cast play multiple characters – and musical instruments – but its star brings it all together
Pam Gem…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AMSunday, April 13, 2025
Live theatre, NewcastleFrom dodging bombs to dancing in nightclubs, Syrian theatre-maker Hamzeh Al Hussien enacts the story of his life
“This is who I am.” Hamzeh Al Hussien stands befor…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AMSunday, April 6, 2025
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeGrounding fantasy in emotional reality, director Theresa Heskins and her joyous 14-strong ensemble make the David Niven-starring film fly on stage
The 1940s hit…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AMSunday, March 30, 2025
Theatre Royal Stratford East, London; York Theatre Royal Azuka Oforka’s bold, ambitious play confronts the horrors of slavery, while Emma Rice takes on Hitchcock’s classic, sidelining su…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMSunday, March 23, 2025
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghA Glasgow country-singing ex-con single mother dreams of the big time in Nicola Taylor’s new musical, directed by John Tiffany
Rose-Lynn is twentysomething and wild,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48AMSunday, March 9, 2025
Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonDaniel Raggett’s hit-and-miss Marlowe production has wonderful moments but errs on the side of excess in its staging of the king’s doomed love affair
Edw…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:36AMSunday, March 2, 2025
Sherman theatre, Cardiff The remarkable true story of how the resident of a Cardiff institution and a student revolutionised supported living is told with agit-prop energy and via superb per…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMSunday, February 23, 2025
Watermill theatre, NewburyA fine, multitasking cast of three deliver laughs aplenty in Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s adaptation of a 1930s satire, though the cad’s true malice is lacking
…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMSunday, February 16, 2025
Royal Exchange, ManchesterThese two short plays offer differing pleasures – one in the acting, the other in its subtle meditation on mourning
Escaped Alone (2016) is first in this double b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMSunday, February 2, 2025
Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Multi-art form company Magnetic North celebrate 25 years with a drifting musical journey that moves from isolation to belonging
Scottish theatre company Magnetic North…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AMSunday, January 26, 2025
Theatre Royal BathShaw conveys both the public and private Thomas More in a period-perfect if patchy production of Bolt’s 1960 play of power and corruption
A “monstrous baby whom none da…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24PMSunday, January 19, 2025
The Pit, Barbican, LondonFrench company La Pendue’s MimeLondon curtain-raiser reimagines a Brothers Grimm tale with puppets and a one-man band
The poet Pierre Quillard, defending the symbo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06AMSunday, January 12, 2025
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonShakespeare’s fleet-footed romance is somewhat constrained by Prasanna Puwanarajah’s direction, yet there are memorable moments
Life and dea…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06PMSunday, December 22, 2024
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughA stand-in Genie saves the day in a magical production of the age-old story that has audience members young and old suspending disbelief
Audience participa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AMSunday, December 15, 2024
Hull Truck TheatreThe audience sees above and below the floorboards – with a little help from puppets – as Mark Babych’s production cleverly plays with scale
A family forced to flee th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AMSunday, December 1, 2024
New Vic theatre, Newcastle-under-LymeTheresa Heskins’s Dumas adaptation provides fantastic action yet reduces the scheming servant Milady to a plot device
Flashing swords, swirling capes a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AMSunday, November 24, 2024
Pitlochry Festival theatreThis captivating production of the evergreen musical is a fitting swansong from Pitlochry’s outgoing artistic director, Elizabeth Newman
Light breaks through dark…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:36AMSunday, November 10, 2024
Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, SheffieldHolden and Ed Stambollouian’s one-man drama based on a real-life murder in 80s America uses film tropes to great effect – but it plays with the fac…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:12AMSunday, November 3, 2024
Theatre Royal, BathMen struggling to hide their feelings are uncloaked in James Dacre’s astute revival of the playwright’s Table Number Seven and The Browning Version
Director James Dacr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMSunday, October 27, 2024
The Other Place, Stratford-upon-AvonTwo American strategists compete to influence an eastern European election in a nuanced new play that suffers from tackling too many subjects
In the 21st …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:18AMSunday, October 20, 2024
Birmingham RepTerry Ronald’s true-life tale of a bullied gay teenager who prevails in the school production of Oliver! is performed with affecting verve
Today, Terry Ronald is a successful…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMSunday, October 13, 2024
Bristol Old VicFussy filmic visuals hobble fine performances in the European premiere of the Inheritance writer’s study of three characters struggling for connection
London-based American …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:06PMSunday, October 6, 2024
The Dipping House, Stoke-on-TrentClaybody Theatre’s show about a famed flying saucer sighting on a housing estate is whimsical fun
Back in 1967, the most extraordinary thing about Bentilee…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:18AMSunday, September 29, 2024
New Vic theatre, Newcastle-under-LymeChoreography accentuates the otherness of the creatures in a fluid take on the dark coming-of-age fable
Form thrillingly matches content in this new stag…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:12PMEveryman, LiverpoolMartin McDonagh’s black comedy about a violent republican terrorist can feel like a parody of 007 in its action but it is hard to be stirred by the dully repetitive scen…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:12PMSunday, September 22, 2024
Shakespeare North Playhouse, PrescotA cast of deaf, disabled and neurodivergent actors throw new light on the star-crossed lovers in Graeae’s uneven yet often thrilling show
Actors appear,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:32AMSunday, September 15, 2024
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughA ‘sprightly comedy’ isn’t all it seems in this beautifully performed drama, which the playwright directs
On one level, Alan Ayckbourn’s 90th play …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AMSunday, September 1, 2024
Barn theatre, CirencesterMarie Jones’s 1996 hit play is given a spectacular, Hollywood-style makeover by her son Matthew McElhinney, though the momentum of the drama suffers
Throw a stone …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:54AMSunday, August 25, 2024
The Mill at Sonning, ReadingA fine ensemble cast deliver plenty of laughs and more in Robin Herford’s terrific production of the playwright’s intertwined tale of three couples
Reviewing …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AMSunday, August 18, 2024
Ustinov Studio, BathDirector Richard Jones tries to capture the menace felt by the play’s first audiences, but the result is overmannered
Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party was almost un…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30AMSunday, August 4, 2024
Williamson Park, LancasterAndrew Pollard turns Lewis Carroll’s classic into a delightful quest, tirelessly acted and cleverly designed
We are sitting in a wooded dell, ranged on felled tre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30AM 
