West 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 03:00AMNew Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeTheresa Heskins expertly blends the political and the personal in her version of Elizabeth Robins’s 1907 dramaLights go up on the dispatch boxes and mace at th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:00AMHome, ManchesterAnnie Baker’s emotion-driven play is not so much Chekhov as RD Laing-litePulitzer prize winner Annie Baker’s 2009 play was staged in 2013 by London’s Royal Court theatr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00AMThe haves and have-nots meet to ramp up Spitfire production in Howard Brenton’s lively new playJust over 40 years ago, Howard Brenton wrote the first new commission to be performed in the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMUnity theatre, LiverpoolMoral conundrums abound in this ‘breath-holdingly taut’ tale of an dying millionaire who asks her nurse to end her lifeCarolyn is a 68-year-old multimillionaire l…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:59AMSherman, CardiffSelf-pity and misogyny meet melodrama in Conor McPherson’s 2000 chamber piece about an alcoholic’s Christmas Eve search for redemptionDecorations feebly festoon the back …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMCitizens, GlasgowRona Munro’s sharply observed portrait of three generations of women caught up in Belfast’s violenceA searchlight strafes the auditorium. A girl in a slip trembles out o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMRoyal Exchange, ManchesterFour ramblers discuss Britishness and belonging in Testament’s arresting play set in the Peak DistrictIt takes a certain sass to open such a Yorkshire-rooted play…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMRoyal & Derngate, Northampton A well-intentioned adaptation of EM Forster’s classic lacks complexityEM Forster’s 1924 novel explores complex relations among and between Britons and I…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00AMJacksons Lane, LondonPart of the London international mime festival, this technically accomplished, cross-genre work inspired by animal movements impresses, but lacks definitionSurprising, a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMStoryhouse, ChesterEnid Blyton’s gang of young sleuths drop the middle-class trappings in a show that is childlike but never childishOn the approach to the theatre, a young girl walking ah…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AMCrucible, SheffieldA superb staging of the L Frank Baum classic works its magic in plain view with picture-book clarityEvery good Christmas show has a transformation scene; The Wizard of Oz …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AMWest Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsMovement, puppetry, flight and design conjure a dazzling trip to Narnia that makes up for storytelling weaknessesThe auditorium of the West Yorkshire Playhouse…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AMRoyal Exchange, ManchesterRelocated to Harlem, this fine new production of Frank Loesser’s classic musical retains a threat of violence under a cartoon-bright exteriorLike the fantastical,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AMRoyal Lyceum Theatre, EdinburghA thrilling script and clever set give these ancient tales a dazzling new charmA rustle of sweet papers and expectation in the auditorium. House lights dim. �…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AMCurve, LeicesterPaul Kerryson’s final show combines picture-book wholesomeness with a message for the darkest of timesIt came as a shock. Maybe it shouldn’t have, but it did. After all, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12AMOctagon theatre, Bolton A new adaptation and a fresh young cast bring Dickens’s classic tale to vivid, chorusing lifeThe set is a simple, timeless cobbled street; costumes indicate the 19t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:18AMThe story of Jayaben Desai, heroine of the notorious Grunwick strike in the 70s makes you laugh, feel and thinkAcross the walls of the simple office set runs stencilled lettering: “Grunwic…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AMThe Guildhall, HullPeake’s rich new play, with music by the Unthanks, tells the story of the Hull women who fought the government on fishermen’s safety and wonIn 1968, extraordinary stor…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AMWatermill theatre, NewburySix actors play 37 roles in a beautifully balanced production of Dylan Thomas’s classic play for voicesBy 1953, the poet Dylan Thomas was ready to turn to writing…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:24AMSherman theatre, CardiffDenise Black stars as a hard-drinking matriarch in this slimmed-down reimagining of the Russian’s play, relocated to Pembrokeshire in 1982In his new play, Gary Owen…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:06AMSpode Works, Stoke-on-TrentA young woman comes to fear that her dying father is harbouring a grim secret in this powerful domestic thrillerThe title of Deborah McAndrew’s new play for Clay…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18AMWest Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds Needlessly fleshed out and lacking focus, this Ibsen adaptation feels sadly jerry-builtZinnie Harris has previously adapted classic texts to great acclaim. He…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54AMVictoria Dock, HullSlung Low’s four-part floating spectacle is not as immersive as it thinks it isBack in the early 20th century, when a theatre wanted spectacle, it would flood an audito…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AMDean Clough Mill, HalifaxA fast-paced adaptation of the 18th-century French satire sees Northern Broadsides director/performer Barrie Rutter bow out in style“He’s a guggling midden-daup�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:18AMBelgrade theatre, CoventryThis tale of a guard dog in Stalin’s Russia captures the essence of the gulags only too wellAll is grey, wind howls, light is dim: design, sound and music suggest…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AMHull Truck theatre, HullJohannesburg company Market Theatre delivers a universal message about prejudice from the story of a couple fleeing their village for the cityIt’s appropriate that …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18AMTheatre By the Lake, KeswickHigh-flying writer Laura Eason’s latest drama doesn’t quite hit the markBrooklyn-based Laura Eason is an acclaimed writer with notable hits to her credit, inc…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AMStephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughThe audience is in on the joke in the playwright’s own production of his comedyHow do you make a farce with no doors? This was the challenge Alan Ayckbou…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AMPark theatre, LondonA classy cast ground Joe Orton’s comedy, despite a distractingly fabulous setGabriella Slade’s design looks fabulous but it very nearly mutes Loot’s thunder. Half t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AMUstinov Studio, Theatre Royal BathHenry Goodman’s powerful performance fills out a sometimes superficial portrait of Lucian Freud as an older manWe are looking at the older Lucian Freud (1…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:04AM
