Sunday, March 20, 2016
Scottish Storytelling Centre, EdinburghIgnorance of Gaelic proves no barrier to enjoying this fine adaptation of Tormod Caimbeul’s seminal novelHave you ever seen a seagull by a cliff fly …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:14AMSunday, March 13, 2016
Derby theatre; Octagon theatre, BoltonJohn Osborne’s working-class antihero struggles to find his target on the modern stage, but a female spin gives the character some fresh perspective�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:20AMSunday, February 28, 2016
Liverpool PlayhouseThe fascinating story of Thomas Aikenhead – the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy – is marred by a mix of theatrical stylesYoung Thomas Aikenhead was…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:38AMWednesday, February 24, 2016
Citizens, GlasgowDirector/designer Stewart Laing's production of The Maids is vividly theatrical (the stage curtain gets a round of applause). But its visual surprises and non-textual interv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:52AMSunday, February 14, 2016
Theatre Royal, PlymouthThe extraordinary life of Screaming Lord Sutch told through music, comedy and drama sketches is highly entertaining – though ultimately a little too fragmentedScream…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:09AMSunday, February 7, 2016
Crucible, SheffieldLorraine Hansberry’s landmark play about the struggles of an African American family in a Chicago slum is as relevant today as it was half a century agoLorraine Hansberr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:19AMSunday, January 31, 2016
Royal Exchange, ManchesterMargaret Edson’s award-winning play about a professor with aggressive cancer is thought-provoking – and very funny“Whilst my physicians by their love are grow…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:39AMSunday, January 24, 2016
Home, Manchester; East Riding theatre, BeverleyA one-man exploration of crime caught the eye at Manchester’s celebration of low-budget new work, while dinner party guests went ape in Yorks…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AMSunday, January 10, 2016
Royal Exchange, ManchesterSome ponderous writing fails to thwart a compelling vision of Stephen Sondheim’s interlacing fairytalesLines that rhyme are fine – for a time. But, after a bit,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:28AMSunday, December 27, 2015
Everyman, LiverpoolThe long-running rock’n’roll panto delivers an inspiring heroine, magnificent mayhem and a soaking for the audienceSomeone is sitting in my place. He is smaller than m…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:49AMSunday, December 20, 2015
Crucible, Sheffield Daniel Evans’s production of the 20th-century musical classic is unmissableThe star of Show Boat is, surely, the Mississippi river, its rolling presence famously extoll…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:02AMSunday, December 13, 2015
Octagon, BoltonPuppets, shadows, human beans and of course giants combine in a fabulously inventive retelling of the Roald Dahl classic. But one thing is lacking…What makes a Christmas sho…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:37AMSunday, December 6, 2015
Curve, LeicesterA dynamic production full of contrast, strong performances and brisk musical direction polish the classic musical to a shinePaul Kerryson’s production cleverly plays with c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:37AMSunday, November 29, 2015
Ustinov Studio, BathThis elegant, high-energy production is always amusing, though should trust the laughs to come naturallyPicture a vase on the edge of a shelf. A gust of wind, a curtain b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:10AMSunday, November 22, 2015
Theatr Clwyd, MoldA cast of six work wonders in this clever adaptation of Caradoc Evans’s caustic tales of life in rural Wales“The most hated man in Wales”; “the Welsh James Joyce”…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12AMSunday, November 8, 2015
Nottingham Playhouse Fiona Buffini’s production does justice to John Webster’s play – even if at times the sense of his words is lostTwo kinds of musicality can make or mar a productio…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:06AMSunday, November 1, 2015
Home, ManchesterAncient and modern clash in a production that juxtaposes a potent mythic past with a contemporary-styled and costumed presentHere is a space for Greek tragedy. Darkness is co…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:24AMFriday, October 23, 2015
Royal & Derngate, NorthamptonPatrick Hamilton’s melodramatic play is superbly acted and grippingly directed Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington says stage programming seems to b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:28AMSunday, October 18, 2015
This semi-musical drama about an Asian girl growing up in the Midlands in the 1970s never quite hits its strideAnyone whose parents came from elsewhere will be familiar with the gaps between…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:41AMSunday, October 4, 2015
Northern Stage, Newcastle upon TyneShakespeare’s tale is relocated to a laundry room in this beautifully designed adaptation directed by Phelim McDermottDirector Phelim McDermott takes put…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:43AMSunday, September 27, 2015
The Ffwrnes, LlanelliScreens, tyres, a wandering audience and hundreds of plastic chairs besiege this staging of Homer’s epic, told in four separate playsSpace permitting, I intend to ment…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:09AMSunday, September 20, 2015
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsContext is eradicated and reality shunned in this radical reading of Tennessee Williams’s family drama, saved only by impressive actingTennessee Williams loc…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:06AMSunday, September 13, 2015
Royal & Derngate, Northampton Melodrama and anticlimax weaken an often dazzling adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s futuristic classicThis new adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 satirical …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:01AMSunday, August 30, 2015
Royal Lyceum theatre, EdinburghDavid Greig captures the spirit of Alasdair Gray’s novel in a visually stunning productionDavid Greig’s adaptation is big, sprawling and (at four hours) lo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:04AMSunday, August 23, 2015
Traverse theatre, Edinburgh There are great performances from these Convent girls let loose in Edinburgh in Lee Hall’s adaptation of the Alan Warner novelStoatin’ performances and a smok…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMEdinburgh International Conference CentreRobert Lepage invites us into his childhood home and life in Quebec via an on-stage memory palace of dazzling shifting perspectivesMemory and forgetf…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMEdinburgh International Conference CentreSimon McBurney impresses with a visceral world of sound that transports his audience from the Amazonian rainforest to his daughter’s bedroomSimon M…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMSunday, August 16, 2015
Kilkenny arts festival, IrelandA gender-blind reworking of Shakespeare’s history plays drives home their universality for kings and commoners alike,“This blessed plot, this earth, t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:39AMSunday, July 26, 2015
Shakespeare’s Globe, LondonThough full of good things, Simon Godwin’s production shies away from complexityShakespeare’s historical tragedy about the deposition of Richard II by his co…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:02AMChichester Festival theatreBig numbers and slapstick form the true beating heart of Chichester’s revival of the 1974 musicalMack & Mabel: the title says equals, the plot says not. This…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:02AMSunday, July 19, 2015
Grosvenor Park Open Air theatre, ChesterThese versatile actors move seamlessly from Toad Hall to tragedyIn theatre, what you see is seldom what you get. For instance, just now, what we see i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AM 
