Thursday, May 31, 2018
Parlez-vous Moliere? His greatest comedy falls flat in a bilingual versionThe idea of producing a classic play in a mix of two languages is pretty odd. What kind of audience is a bilingual v…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:18AMFriday, May 11, 2018
A not-very-brief history of Russia's relationship with lies and lyingFive years ago, when New York playwright Rajiv Joseph started on his fantasy disquisition on truth, lies and the rec…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:04AMThursday, March 22, 2018
O'Casey's injunction to love thy neighbour above thy country hits home in this timely updateSean Holmes is artistic director of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, yet his revival of t…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:00AMThursday, March 8, 2018
Adaptation of Palestinian novella needs less tell, more showThis year the state of Israel marks its 70th birthday. Which means it will also be the year Palestinians remember the Nakba, the c…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:00PMWednesday, March 7, 2018
Adaptation of Palestinian novella needs less tell, more showThis year the state of Israel marks its 70th birthday. Which means it’s also the year Palestinians remember the Nakba, the catas…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PMFriday, January 26, 2018
The spin of a coin decrees which queen will wear the crownCasting decisions do not usually make gripping theatre. But in Robert Icke’s version of Friedrich Schiller’s 1800 political thri…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:30AM★★★★ MARY STUART, DUKE OF YORK'S Superb teamwork in Schiller thrillerRobert Icke's production reaches the West End with Juliet Stevenson and Lia Williams tossing a coin to see w…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:30AMWednesday, December 13, 2017
Bernard Shaw curio gets its first major London revival in 30 yearsIf this play really were “A Debate in One Sitting” as its author called it in 1909, it would have sunk without trace. �…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:12PMMonday, November 13, 2017
Finely judged two-hander about death and how to survive itShould Brexit ministers need help understanding the cultural mindset of their continental counterparts, they might consider a subscr…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:42PMFriday, October 13, 2017
Religious faith, family tragedy and gay love make an unholy trinity in this European premiereGod makes few appearances at the modern playhouse – so few that the Finborough Theatre saw fit …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:54AMThursday, September 28, 2017
Athletic adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's novel doesn't quite flySometimes you go to the theatre and in the first 10 minutes are convinced that the production is going to smash it…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:18PMWednesday, June 28, 2017
Goodbye Mr Chips, hello theatrical buried treasureLabels have their uses but they can also be a blight. The works of the Scottish playwright James Bridie – with their regional accents and …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:36PMFriday, June 16, 2017
Emma Rice bows out in riotous style – Shakespeare would have cheered herThis show feels like an end-of-the-exams party, and in a way that’s exactly what it is. If the fruits of Emma Rice…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:18AMThursday, June 8, 2017
As eavesdropping opportunities go, the barber shop has everything a playwright could desire a constant stream of close encounters and a broad range of people willing to sit still and talk. T…
SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:18PMMonday, May 29, 2017
Debut play about teaching and the unteachable hits a nerveWhen TV drama tackles Britain’s class divide, the go-to working-class type is the northerner: gritty, blunt of vowel and partial t…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:48AMThursday, May 25, 2017
The very survival into the 21st century of an unfinished play written by a 23-year-old in 1836 is an extraordinary thing, made more extraordinary by the grimness of its subject. Even to call…
SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:12AMFriday, May 19, 2017
Greg Hicks' arch machinator lifts an otherwise under-nuanced productionThere may never have been a time when Shakespeare’s Richard III did not have contemporary relevance, but surely …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:36PMTuesday, May 16, 2017
From The Sound of Music to Gareth Malone's The Choir, the redemptive power of choral singing has provided a wealth of feel-good stories. The discipline, the communal spirit, the beauty of th…
SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:41PMWednesday, April 26, 2017
Ivo van Hove's cultish staging of the Visconti film disappointsThere is a distinctive look, feel, even sound to a stage production directed by Ivo van Hove, which is becoming rather fam…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:24AMThursday, April 20, 2017
Scary? Not this ghost-story rock musical, sadlyIt used to be said that the devil had all the best music. But the devil seems to have lost his touch in this ghost-story rock musical from Dunc…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:54AMWednesday, April 5, 2017
If Matthew Bourne had set out to produce a dance show to express the sentiments of Brexit, he couldn't have done it more effectively than this. The fact that Early Adventures is a mixed bag …
SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:47AMTuesday, March 21, 2017
Christopher Wheeldon's staging of the movie is the most glamorous escape in townWhat’s in a yellow dress? Hope over experience? Reckless confidence? This is a legitimate question when…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:06PMFriday, February 24, 2017
What could be more cheering in a dank dark London February than a blast of Spanish flamenco Answer a Sadler's Wells flamenco gala, a fistful of stellar talents for the price of one.
SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:28AMFriday, February 10, 2017
For anyone who had been wondering, seven and a half years on from the demise of Pina Bausch, what was the point of her company's continued trawl through her back-catalogue, this visit is rea…
SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:01AMThursday, February 2, 2017
Tennessee Williams' first masterpiece gets the John Tiffany touchThe writing of Tennessee Williams, said his contemporary Arthur Miller, planted “the flag of beauty on the shores of c…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:48PMWednesday, January 11, 2017
Adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's bestseller is not built to soarKhaled Hosseini's 2003 bestseller ticks all the boxes as an A-level text. A personal story with epic sweep, it interweaves…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:06AMMonday, January 9, 2017
Revival of Tony Harrison's satyr play remains virile, but shows its ageWhen a leading fringe theatre starts the year with a production whose gender ratio is 8:1 in favour of men, it had…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:04AMTuesday, December 13, 2016
Ibsen's Hedda has been called the female Hamlet and not just because it's a role that every serious actress wants to play. The blank at the heart of her presents a daunting challenge. Why is…
SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:02PMSaturday, December 3, 2016
Ed Harris gives a masterclass in Sam Shepard's gothic family dramaWhat stroke of prescience brought two Sam Shepard plays to London in the very month America voted for Trump? The kind o…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:06AMThursday, November 17, 2016
Stephen Daldry's makeover of the JB Priestley classic is back, and misses its markSo, the Inspector has come calling yet again. Twenty-four years have passed since Stephen Daldry’s gr…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:24AMTuesday, November 8, 2016
Gender-blind casting has arrived and we'd better get used to it. Correction it seems we are getting used to it, viz the imminent revival of the Donmar's all-female Shakespeare trilogy. So th…
SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:55AM 
