Sunday, November 6, 2022
York Theatre RoyalDespite some witty twists, the stage version of David Reed’s tragi-comic radio play is, well, a bit of a damp squib
By the end of the performance, a tang of pyrotechnics …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:24AMSunday, October 30, 2022
Crucible, SheffieldSteve Waters’s newly revived and updated companion pieces about global heating have lost none of their urgency
Steve Waters’s double bill about global heating, The Con…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AMSunday, October 23, 2022
Birmingham RepAnil Gupta and Richard Pinto’s updating of Molière favours caricature over character, offset by some dynamic performances
Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto’s updated version (c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AMSunday, October 16, 2022
Theatre Royal, Glasgow; and touringA racist ode by the court poet William Dunbar is the problematic inspiration for the fourth of Munro’s James plays exploring Scotland past and present
Ro…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:55AMSunday, October 9, 2022
Theatr Clywd, MoldThis co-production with Chichester Festival theatre nails the atmosphere and the performances, if not Enid Blyton’s knack for a good plot
Here be: a dastardly villain dis…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:43AMSunday, October 2, 2022
Abbey theatre, DublinO’Brien’s new play, imagining James Joyce through the eyes of the women in his life, is the hot ticket at the Dublin theatre festival
Joyce’s Women, the opening pr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:19AMSunday, September 18, 2022
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughDirecting a masterly production, the playwright follows three generations of women in one home, from 1952 to 2022
Alan Ayckbourn’s 87th play makes master…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:43AMSunday, September 11, 2022
Royal & Derngate, NorthamptonFive actors play more than 100 roles as Tati’s 60s satire is transformed into a meet-cute comedy of quick-change physical comedy
The late, great Observer f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:43AMSunday, September 4, 2022
Dundee RepTony Roper’s 1987 play conjures a vanished world whose hardship and longing for community feel nonetheless familiar
The world of The Steamie is long gone. Public laundries, where…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AMSunday, August 28, 2022
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonJamie Wilkes’s Parolles steals the show in Blanche McIntyre’s unromantic, social media-inflected production
All’s Well That Ends Well is o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:37AMSunday, August 21, 2022
Pitlochry Festival theatreThis playful adaptation of Charlotte Higgins’s book is charming, if a little lacking in narrative drive
How to dramatise a text that is part travelogue, part expl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:49PMSunday, August 14, 2022
Nottingham PlayhouseThe casting of twins as the separated sisters adds a frisson to Trevor Nunn’s elegant production of the twice-filmed tale, with pitch-perfect music by George Stiles
Eri…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AMSunday, August 7, 2022
Curve, LeicesterFifty years on, these specially commissioned pieces movingly and unflinchingly reflect the experiences of Ugandan refugees in Britain
Eleanor Field’s set suggests impermane…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:07AMSunday, July 31, 2022
Watermill, NewburyTom Jackson Greaves thrillingly fuses movement with music in his revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Louisiana-set take on the classic 60s film
Many will remember Whistle Do…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AMSunday, July 17, 2022
Johnstone town hallThe Paisley-born playwright and artist pays tribute to hometown hero Gerry Rafferty in a coming-of-age musical amplified by 60s pop hits
In interviews, playwright and arti…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AMSunday, July 10, 2022
Theatre by the Lake, KeswickThe opening is great, but with characters as thin as the air at high altitude, Carmen Nasr’s new mountaineering drama is downhill from there
The location is per…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AMSunday, June 26, 2022
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeClowning and humour are brilliantly woven into the darkness and danger of this prisoner-of-war story, best known from the 1963 film
Tom, Dick and Harry are the t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:07AMSunday, June 19, 2022
Birmingham RepThis attempt to make Mustapha Matura’s adaptation of the classic drama into a calypso-laced entertainment has lost something in translation
Something’s not quite right. The…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:06AMSunday, June 5, 2022
Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath; and touringRebecca Lenkiewicz’s version of this 1900 play loses the high stakes of the influential original
August Strindberg is probably best known in …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMSunday, May 29, 2022
Everyman theatre, LiverpoolChloë Moss’s well-intentioned new play can’t quite navigate the choppy waters of sex and race among the crew of a cargo ship
This ambitious new play by Chloë…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AMSunday, May 22, 2022
Storyhouse, ChesterTim Firth’s touching show about a father and son converting a bank into a home is perfectly constructed and performed
This father-and-son love story is unabashedly senti…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:37PMSunday, May 15, 2022
Nottingham PlayhouseA young footballer is groomed by his coach in a new play lacking the intensity and drama of the beautiful game at its best
“If your first touch is good, life is easy. I…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AMSunday, May 8, 2022
Northern Stage, NewcastleA strong cast makes Claudia Rankine’s exploration of the ‘invisibility of whiteness’ compelling
Alex tells Charlotte he is angry that “your people” are bei…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:12AMSunday, May 1, 2022
Octagon, BoltonAn Egyptian-British father and daughter tussle over culture clashes in an underpowered Wigan-set drama saved by its smart design
Ashraf (Dana Haqjoo), born in Egypt, longtime …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:03PMSunday, April 24, 2022
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonThe consummate stagecraft of the RSC evokes the chaos of warfare, but the characterisation gets lost in the tumult
Opposing leaders, each assert…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMSunday, April 17, 2022
Nottingham PlayhouseCaroline Bird’s drama about the Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson gives us the bullet points of an extraordinary life but slips into melodrama
The Red Ellen of the title was El…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:33AMSunday, April 10, 2022
Comédie-Française, ParisIn an innovative and risk-taking 400th anniversary season, Ivo van Hove and others explore the comic master’s endless variety
In the foyer of the Comédie-França…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMSunday, April 3, 2022
Perth theatreA talented cast and inventive creatives adapt a classic story of transformation into youth theatre at its best
Earlier this year, a number of theatre professionals shared, via …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AMSunday, March 27, 2022
Sherman Theatre, CardiffThe action may be absurd but the trauma and confusion of growing up are totally realistic
Pwdin is 12 years old. He thinks he’s fat (“You’re not fat!” exclaim…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AMSunday, March 20, 2022
Bristol Old VicA schoolboy overcomes his stammer in an energising paean to the power of language marked by fine performances
Writer Ross Willis has a terrific feel for words, their sounds, t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:33AMSunday, March 13, 2022
Leeds PlayhouseEfforts to make Shakespeare accessible to all rub against confused staging and wayward delivery in Amy Leach’s ambitious production
Cacophonous crashes signal the opening. S…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:03PM 
