West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsNotions of identity and belonging make for a spellbinding adaptation of the Kipling classic, while Father Christmas keeps things endearingly simpleMowgli brand…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMCurve, LeicesterPaul Kerryson's production of Chicago can be summed up in one word: brilliantFormer Chicago Tribune reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins wrote the play Chicago is based on in 1926…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMTheatre Royal, YorkA bold staging, and an impressive lead, but sound and fury are no substitute for emotional intensityThe curtain call is interrupted by Ian Bartholomew, who has just played…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMParagon Interchange, Hull; and touringA railway station near you is the setting for this moving tribute to the children of the Kindertransport and those who helped themOperating on levels pe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMBirmingham RepThe transformation of Molière's play into a knockabout farce blunts the original's menaceChristmas has come early to Birmingham this year with the transformation of this great…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMTraverse, EdinburghA teenage boy slays his dragons following the death of his mother in this unforgettable theatrical tour de forceThe opening 20 minutes of this touring show offer one of th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:06PMOctagon, BoltonA sensitive ensemble and a sharp production do justice to Eugene O'Neill's astonishing family dramaEugene O'Neill (1888-1953) gave instructions that this 1941 work should not …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMCrucible, SheffieldPaul Miller's effective, uncluttered production runs out of steam in the final actThe opening scenes of Paul Miller's production of this late Shakespeare play are as stark…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMYork city centreA drama about the outbreak of the first world war staged in the streets of York offers an entrancing, immersive experienceIt's 1914. War is declared. The first volunteers mar…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMRoyal Exchange, ManchesterA small businessman is forced to engage with society in a passionate version of Arthur Miller's playIt hadn't occurred to me that there might be any issues attached…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMBirmingham RepA troubled woman finds redemption in a lively play about female prisonersRapper, poet, writer Kate Tempest's new play for Paines Plough and Birmingham Rep follows a familiar pl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMFlag Fen, PeterboroughLocals and landowners are at war in Forbes Bramble's impressive play set in the Fens 300 years agoThe performance takes place in a marquee, but the surrounding site add…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMHarrogate theatreA banned Russian play from the 1920s is given a northern spin in this powerful adaptationA hungry man goes into the kitchen to snaffle a midnight sausage. His family and nei…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMThe second Samuel Beckett festival was a memorable five-day celebration of the great man's visionIt's eight o'clock in the morning. We stand on the island of Devenish, in what remains of a 1…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMLyceum, EdinburghMeredith Monk's skilful work encourages us to reflect on our relationship with natureThe Edinburgh international festival sets off thought-provoking resonances. The Russian …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:10PMPlayhouse, EdinburghThe Beijing People's Art Theatre get heavy with Shakespeare's tragedyThe Beijing People's Art Theatre, established in 1952, specialises mainly in new writing. Its hallmar…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMBush, London; Theatre in the Park, Chichester; The Shed, LondonActor Cush Jumbo's first play, Josephine and I, juxtaposes the lives of two performers. One is the phenomenal entertainer Josep…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMBush, London; Theatre in the Park, Chichester; The Shed, LondonActor Cush Jumbo's first play, Josephine and I, juxtaposes the lives of two performers. One is the phenomenal entertainer Josep…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMYoung Vic, London; Royal Exchange, ManchesterPatrice Lumumba was democratically elected prime minister of Congo on 23 June 1960. Seven days later, the country gained independence from Belgia…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMTheatre Royal, BathGeorge Bernard Shaw's Candida, written and set in 1894, explores a love triangle in a north-east London parsonage. Incendiary emotions are played out beside the domestic h…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMChester 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 07:02PMCrucible theatre, SheffieldFunny, touching and magical, this brand new musical comedy, with book, lyrics and music all by Tim Firth, presents a view of one family's life at intersecting mome…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:01PMTramway, GlasgowThe Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner is, as many may know, a reality- and identity-bending, satirical novel written in 1824 by James Hogg, the Scottish s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMTheatre Royal, BathNoël Coward's 1951 comedy gets off to a heart-sinkingly creaky start: in a splendid library (splendidly designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis) a butler (Rory Bremner) and a l…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:02PMSecret venue, ManchesterIt's hard not to warm to a show that quotes Percy Bysshe Shelley ("Shake your chains to earth like dew… Ye are many – they are few") and Thomas Paine ("We have it…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMNorthern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne; then touringThis portmanteau piece by a new company called Northern Spirit aims to challenge the cliche that it's grim up north. In four stories by four …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMHull Truck, Hull; and touringI almost never go to a performance only because I believe readers may find it interesting, yet that is what took me to this. The thought of participating in an e…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMWest Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsThe celebrated illusionist David Devant (1868-1941) recommended stringing magical feats like beads along a thread of dramatic interest. Writer Mark Catley does…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMRoyal Exchange, ManchesterNew writing has a special kind of energy. It generates a particular charge, especially when it's performed, as here, by cracking actors in a solid production (joint…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMRoyal Exchange, Manchester"I've discovered this Christmas that the law is not what I thought… and I can't accept that the law is right. If a woman cannot spare her old dying father… or s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMNottingham PlayhouseThis ponderous adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's 2003 novel is lightened by master musician Hanif Khan's on-stage tabla playing and by involving performances from its 10-st…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PM
