Told by an Idiot return with a celebration of silent-movie antics and daft gags Imagine what would have happened if the young Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel were cabin-mates on a transatlan…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:00AMA cast with an infectious gift for fun give this French confection a touch of stage magic First came Yasmin Reza’s 1994 long-runner Art; now another French hit, The Art of Illusion, has ar…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:22AMClint Dyer's new take makes Othello a victim of mob mentality Clint Dyer is the first black director of Othello at the National Theatre, a venue that once staged the piece with its actor fo…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:06AMJonathan Slinger commands the stage in this dark, funny monologue The American author of The Sarah Book, on which the monologue Sarah is based, is called Scott McClanahan, as is his main cha…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:48AMTania Nwachukwu creates a warm hour of music and memories with hidden bite The Bush studio space is proving a fruitful launch pad, not just for new writing but for new performers. It previo…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:36AMAbsurdly romantic notions about love and war have never been funnier For his final bow as artistic director of the Orange Tree, Paul Miller has decided to go out with a bang, amid much gigg…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:48AMFrank McGuinness's new play about T S Eliot and Groucho Marx is a poetic puzzle The set at the Arcola for Frank McGuinness’s Dinner with Groucho naturally features a table with two place s…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:18AM★★★★ ELEPHANT, BUSH STUDIO Stirring solo show from rising star Anoushka Lucas A beguiling debut play with both charm and an angry message It lasts only an interval-free 60 minutes, w…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:12AMPearl Cleage's play about thwarted dreams in Prohibition era Harlem gets a stellar production The cynical might think Pearl Cleage’s play had been expressly written to address the over-rid…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:07AMJack Thorne's wickedly funny play offers plum roles to two riveting disabled actors This is not a play for the squeamish: here be blood and cum and unsavoury descriptions of genitalia, male …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:03AMTanya Barfield reconstructs a simple plot as an absorbing puzzle A tender love story has arrived at the Kings Head theatre from the US, where its author, Tanya Barfield, is an award-winning…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:33AMMrs Thatcher and Elizabeth II slug it out again in this 2013 classic It’s only nine years since Moira Buffini’s Handbagged had its premiere at Kilburn’s Tricycle theatre (renamed the …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:19AMDipo Baruwa-Etti pits a fiery outsider activist against the British-Nigerian middle-class As Dipa Baruwa-Etti’s latest play, The Clinic, reminds us, the Tory party has a strong showing of…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:25AMAfter a hard-hitting 'Oklahoma!', the latest Rodgers & Hammerstein revival stays on the sunnier side How old is Emile de Becque? Perhaps because my first Emile was the 1958 film version�…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:42AMSimon Godwin delivers an unexpectedly conventional production, larky and fluffy After gender-flipping the National’s Malvolio, the director Simon Godwin might have been expected to be equa…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:12AMA brilliant balance of raucous comedy and immense pathos Where should Leila live — Ilford or Kent? It doesn’t sound like an earth-shattering decision for a 15-year-old to make, but the s…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:03AMAn entertaining but not quite convincing makeover for a tricky play There probably isn’t a more able translator of vintage drama than Martin Crimp, the playwright whose 2004 version of Pie…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:12AMPlaywright Beru Tessema makes a striking stage debut We are in a room in a simply decorated house in northwest London, where an Ethiopian-British family is gathering for a funeral “tea”…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:33AMRodgers and Hammerstein revival goes to the dark heart of the story No surreys, fringes or corny chap-slapping: the Rodgers and Hammerstein revival that has arrived at the Young Vic from New…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:18PMChé Walker directs his savage play, with a stellar turn from Clare Latham Ché Walker claims he wrote Wolf Cub, now in the Hampstead Downstairs studio space, in a two-day blitz prompted by…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:06AMThe 2010 satire about race and the realities of real estate remains blistering Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park arrived at London’s Royal Court like a blazing comet in 2010, a bold kind of …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:36AMAn epic undertaking about British teenage life, beautifully performed Do you happily binge four hours of mind-candy TV in one sitting? Alecky Blythe’s latest verbatim play, Our Generation …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:33PMCarey Crim's play leaves the issues it raises sadly undramatic Carey Crim’s 2017 play arrives from the US at north London's Park Theatre trailing a feminist playwriting award for its disse…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:33AMThe author of 'The Father' plays unsatisfying games with the audience If Florian Zeller isn’t a Wordle fan, I’d be very surprised. As with the hit online game, the French playwright lik…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:18AMNell Leyshon's play-with-music asks questions of a legacy Cecil Sharp, heritage hero or imperialist appropriator? If you attended school in the first half of the 19th century, you would have…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:18AMA triumphant musical about teenage angst When Berliners sat down to watch Franz Wedekind’s debut play Fruhlings Erwachen – Spring Awakening – in 1906, they had little inkling of the k…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:06PMHas director Patrick Marber boobed this time? In his 1973 play Habeas Corpus, now revived at the Menier Chocolate Factory under the direction of Patrick Marber, Alan Bennett had his way with…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:03AMHilarious and probing satire from Young Jean Lee The Korean-American writer Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men, currently enjoying its UK debut at Southwark Playhouse, is presented with…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:54AMKatie Mitchell hits a new career high Katie Mitchell’s desire to bust the boundaries of theatre has taken a brilliant turn. Over her long and distinguished career as a director she has be…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:03PMThe Menier opens its new second stage with this podcast-turned-play What counts as offensive in these days of cancel culture? Ham-fisted pronoun usage? Culturally appropriated hairstyles? To…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:24AMMartin McDonagh's breakthrough play dazzles anew “You can’t kick a cow in Leenane without some bastard holding a grudge for 20 years,” sighs Pato Dooley (Adam Best) prophetically; he h…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:12AM
