NST City, SouthamptonJon Brittain’s musical adaptation of David Walliams’s tale of Joe Spud, the richest boy in the country, has plenty to sing aboutDavid Walliams’s book titles give m…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:06AMHome, ManchesterThough prison metaphors threaten to oversimplify this nuanced tale of sinister role-play, great performances win outWhen Mistress is out, her two maids, sisters Claire and So…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AMYork Theatre RoyalPantomime gags drive home the betrayal of the working class in this deft update of Fo’s comic caperHunger is the starting point for Italian Nobel prize winner Dario Fo’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42AMNottingham PlayhouseThrough Gatiss, the audience feels the agonies of Alan Bennett’s tormented monarchKing George III is not mad, but he is ill. However, the porphyria from which he suffer…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AMCrucible, SheffieldA crack ensemble delivers Kate Bowen’s timely new play exploring identity and gender through female officers on their first tour of dutyLast month, the defence secretary…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AMLive theatre, NewcastleA fantastical reworking of The Fall of the House of Usher set in a Tyneside psychiatric ward hits all the right notesA large, bright clock face looms over double doors…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:48AMLeeds PlayhouseCharacters stranded in a transitional land exchange stories, fears and hopes in this timely productionPremiered during the Yugoslav wars, the action of David Greig’s first f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:24AMAlbion Electric Warehouse, LeedsThe audience becomes part of the action in this tremendous promenade production of Brecht’s antiwar, anti-capitalist playRed Ladder is 50 this year. For a c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:12AMBirmingham Rep, and touringThe now-retired inspector returns in a new story by Ian Rankin and playwright Rona MunroIn one of Ian Rankin’s Rebus stories, the curmudgeonly Edinburgh detectiv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:18AMCrucible Studio, SheffieldThin characterisation and half-formed scenes mar this play about women, race and Labour politics set in a northern cityChris Bush’s new play, directed by Rebecca …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54AMStephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughAlan Ayckbourn blurs the lines as an ageing crime writer’s life invades his fictionFor three of its four acts, the tone of Alan Ayckbourn’s new play, h…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:18AMYork Theatre RoyalA stunning cast and unshowy direction do full justice to Bennett’s far-reaching play imagining a meeting between Auden and BrittenIt’s 1972. To the Oxford college rooms…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:06AMCanadaHub at King’s Hall, EdinburghCliff Cardinal’s visceral tale of addiction, violence and abuse is a shape-shifting tour de force“It’s a tough watch,” said the man handing …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54AMAssembly Rainy Hall, Edinburgh Mark O’Rowe’s compelling new work draws breathtaking performances from Aisling O’Sullivan, Cathy Belton and Derbhle Crotty“People are sitting at a tabl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:24AMGrosvenor Park Open Air theatre, ChesterThe fun moments cannot lift Bryony Lavery’s workaday productionSharks surge between the banked tiers of the temporary auditorium, dorsal fins glide …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:12AMStephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughThe playwright directs a terrific revival of his 1978 play centred around a happy couple who want for nothing…Written a decade after Iris Murdoch’s nov…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:06AMMilton Keynes international festivalA thrilling collaboration between a circus and dance company full of daring leaps and bounds, and a giant Jenga setBlock is one of five circus-inspired ev…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42AMWilliamson Park, LancasterThemes of kindness and inclusivity are threaded cleverly through a lavish, thrilling adaptation“All for one and one for all!” rings out the cry of the three mus…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:04AMNew Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeAn action-packed production tells the story of the local man who invented big-top entertainment 250 years agoCircus is hopefulness in action. Objects fly, people…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48AMChester CathedralIn a break from tradition this year, Chester's Mystery Plays are performed inside the city's cathedral. The setting suits them – and they it. Stage lanterns blaze on to a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:18AMChildren’s Wood and North Kelvin Meadow, GlasgowNational Theatre of Scotland’s pioneering play transports the audience into the individual worlds of autistic performers“Embrace nature,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:32AMVarious venues, BoltonAn inventive adaptation of the Cliff Richard movie takes its audience all aboard for an unashamedly feelgood outingMany transport promises have been broken round these …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42PMPaisley Arts CentreThe staple figure of Slavic folklore is wittily recreated as a noisy neighbour with magical powersAny Russians in the audience expecting to find the Baba Yaga of childhood…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:18AMWest Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsUnconvincing plotting and a tension-free narrative hamper this adaptation of Paula Hawkins’s novelA woman is missing. In a room, a detective quizzes two peop…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AMYork Theatre RoyalJonathan Lewis stars in his own perceptive play about exam pressures within a familyThis timely four-hander explosively explores the pressures of our exam-obsessed educatio…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:24AMEveryman, LiverpoolCasting a woman as Othello was a brilliant move, but setting the play in the present day undermines itSince a play is a world of make-believe, gender-blind and colour-blin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AMOctagon, BoltonLawrence Till’s adaptation of Bill Naughton’s short stories makes a fitting final production before the building’s refurbishmentWhat is a theatre but a little world wher…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:06AMSherman theatre, CardiffAn estranged couple’s struggle to come to terms with past trauma is hampered by a poor choice of set designBrad Birch’s new play charts a series of aftershocks ex…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AMOctagon, BoltonBuilding on the success of last year's Oliver Twist, Deborah McAndrew again teams up with composer Conrad Nelson to adapt one of Charles Dickens's sprawling novels. Their care…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:33AMNew Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeDeborah McAndrew puts an intelligent new slant on a classic novel as Northern Broadsides add extra oom-pahCharles Dickens’s 1854 novel of life in a northern En…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMWest Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsClough’s ill-fated tenure at Leeds United is turned into a finely performed, if loosely structured, three-handerIt’s a book, a film and a play. Their subje…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AM
