ROUGH, RURAL, A NEGLECTED ALBION An immense intrusive pipe bisects the stage, a rusty oil tank below it with part of a tractor one side and a cheerless Victorian brick farmhous…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:39PMOSCAR AT HIS MOST EARNEST Worth going to Jonathan Church’s latest Wilde “Classic Spring”revival if only for a feast of Foxes: patriarch Edward as old Lord Caversham and his …
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:58PMCREATIVES, C***TS AND CONTRACTS The theatrical repertoire has a new monster: Bernard, created by Joe Penhall and brought to scorchingly memorable, sociopathically irresi…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:09AMFAST, FINE STREETWISE SHAKESPEARE Running and scuffling, a crowd of kids in black scatter across the stark stage under an open-sided, distressedly concrete-looking bo…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:55AMGUEST CRITIC MICHAEL ADAIR FINDS KINSHIP IN A FAMILY SORROW Well, this is timely. In the shadow of Windrush, a play immerses us in the colourful traditions of Caribbe…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:12AMCOWARD GOES FARCEO-FORTISSIMO In the final outburst from our hero Gary Essendine – silk-dressing-gowned philanderer, arrogantly insecure darling of the …
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:08AMA WAR OVER, A WORLD ADRIFT It’s a great tapestry of a play: Rodney Ackland’s portrait of a Soho nightclub as WW2 ended. Socialites and slobs, black-marketeers and failing artists,…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:06AMREBEL WITHOUT AN ARGUMENT It is a curiosity of the age that young British women seem to be far angrier about The Patriarchy than their mothers , even though law, language, women’s a…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:04PMGOLDEN SANDS AND GRIEVANCES Nicola Werenowska has certainly found fertile ground for the setting of her play: the decline of English seaside towns (in this case Clacton) from t…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:50PMPart 1: SECRET HEARTS (and an explanation) This is a fabulously quixotic enterprise directed by Tom Littler: a revival of all nine of Noel Coward’s one-act plays, written in 1935 as…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:56AMMORE THAN A PICNIC I could tell you that it is worth going up West for the transfer of Hampstead’s fine play just to see Roger Allam (his fine quiff sadly suppressed under…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:37PMBAT’S BACK… In a remarkably quick return after its Coliseum outing , Jim Steinman’s barmy musical is storming onto the Tottenham Court Road, rocking on. Few cast chang…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:17AMA LATE NIGHT TO REMEMBER At twenty to midnight, 106 years to the day after the collision, an audience gathered in this big theatre to mark and remember the disaster.…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:15AMSCI-FI AND SORROW We begin with a tiny proscenium box, an almost Punch-and-Judy window, framing Harry and his wife Max: nice middle-aged people, evoked to sitcom perfection by a beard…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:35AMTHE JOINT IS JUMPING! AGAIN… Openings are running in themed sets – three Restoration comedies coming along like No.11 buses, and now two nights running…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:35AMSWOTS OR SWINDLERS, VILLAINS OR VICTIMS? Sometimes a West End transfer serves a play royally. At Chichester last year I enjoyed James Graham’s playful, thoughtfully mischievo…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:39PMCATHY, STILL NOT HOME AFTER FIFTY YEARS Homeless charities like to remind us of the mantra: we are all just two bad decisions away from the pavement. The trajectory of our heroine Cat…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:53AMSHORT, SHARP, STIMULATING The INK new writing festival (http://inkfestival.org) is a phenomenon: a space where writers of any experience or none can submit short plays (most unde…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:03AMThis is a full period-dress production, executed immaculately but probably needing another few cuts to be unalloyed joy. The plot is labyrinthine, with a wordy torrent of finely honed wit an…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 05:30AMFROTHING OVER WITH FEMALE HILARITY A pre-curtain ensemble of one harpsichord and a quartet of periwigged lady saxophonists, playing Mozart with a touch of oompah, is always a…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:48PMIT’S THAT SHOW AGAIN, AND VERY WELCOME TOO It’s WW2 themed. Gas masks, posters, programmes in an ARP fire-bucket and rude songs to cheer the troops on leave and show Hitler that B…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:02AMHARD HOMECOMINGS FOR THE DOGS OF WAR Boots, boots, boots, boots: stamping out the immemorial rhythm of army discipline, nineteen men and women move as one, expressionless, freed for a…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:21PMA SOLO REFLECTION ON PUBERTY AND AFTER. Naomi Sheldon’s solo, semi-autobiographical hour comes from Edinburgh crowned with plaudits, though cunningly in the programme she doe…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:32AMFOR ONCE IN A LIFETIME THE DEAR MENIER DOES NOT MAKE GUEST REVIEWER LUKE JONES HAPPY. NOT HAPPY AT ALL. EXCEPT AT THE PROJECTIONS. Two prisoners are locked in an Argentinia…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:35AMIT’S THAT MAN AGAIN… It is awkward that two major new productions of the Scottish Play, by two determinedly auteurish directors, open in the same month. Rufus Norris’ bleak …
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:16PMGUEST CRITIC JENNIFER-JANE BENJAMIN FINDS WHAT MATTERS Lights up. A confederate statue. A blackout. And it disappears. It’s November 1963 and we’re in Lake Charles, Louisiana. JFK…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:43PMSILENT, SIGNIFICANT CREATURES The candlelit Wanamaker has proved its worth as a music-room, notably with All The Angels and the divine Farinelli. This takes it further with the first …
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:13PMDANGEROUS DAYS AND COURAGEOUS SCIENCE This terrific meteorological thriller, set in the crucial days before D-Day, is written by – and stars – David Haig. In 2014…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:52AMFREE HANKY WITH EVERY PROGRAMME (honest..!) Ten years ago Emma Rice and her Kneehigh group brought this adaptation of Noel Coward’s heartrending film to the stage – to a c…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:15AMA DARK SEASIDE PARABLE If there is one stumbling block for lovers of Graham Greene’s darkly thrilling gangster novel, it is the elegance of Gloria Onitiri. She is Ida; and Gr…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:40AMDICKENS EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS Putting great literary masterpieces onstage is an erratic business. Within the same week we see the Artistic Director of the National Theatre b…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:41AM
