Northern Stage, Newcastle upon TynePoliticians’ glib statements frame the struggles of one man confounded by a bewildering welfare system, in an adaptation of the Ken Loach film that both …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMVarious venues, EdinburghFor children wondering what their parents do all day, many of the delightful shows programmed here will show them that they’re not really so grown up How curious t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:06AMIn the run-up to the festival, our writers will choose new productions that have caught their eye – but here’s a selection of those we’ve already reviewed Richard Marsh has clearly see…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24AMPitlochry festival theatreMama Rose drags her two daughters from one vaudeville fleapit to the next in a bulldozer of a role There’s something of the Mother Courage about Mama Rose. Like B…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AMThe writer of the acclaimed Patricia Gets Ready… returns with a lockdown-inspired comedy drama about a drug dealer having a power cut The trigger for a play can be many things: a moral dil…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AMAlphabetti theatre, NewcastleDegna Stone’s ambitious play moves from the imperial to the domestic in its exploration of the legacy of untruths You can’t fault playwright Degna Stone for …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AMTraverse, EdinburghGary McNair delivers verbatim interviews and misremembered Connolly routines from ordinary people in this love letter There is an air of Nick Park’s Creature Comforts ab…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:32AMRoyal Lyceum, EdinburghLesley Hart’s adaptation of the classic novel is driven with tremendous energy following its tragic heroine as she discards bourgeois convention It must be Saturday …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMNorthern Stage, NewcastleThis show for young audiences builds to a stirring drama of waking up to injustice and trying to right it Hannah Lavery constructs her play from simple sentences. He…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:06PMBelgrade theatre, CoventryCorey Campbell’s impressionistic production can lose focus but it benefits from engaging performances We never get to see Vivienne Mavis Taylor in this devised pr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMRoyal Court, LiverpoolAn inspired parody of coming-out dramas meets a deliciously daft plot involving Sonia in Jonathan Harvey’s comedy Who would have thought Jonathan Harvey would write a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:12AMNew Vic theatre, Newcastle-under-LymeShould we sympathise with Hayley Carmichael’s irascible radio soap star as she risks being axed, or condemn her as she bullies her young vulnerable you…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMTraverse, Edinburgh Calum L Macleòid’s western-style drama pits a gunslinging Elspeth Turner against a notorious fugitive in a peculiarly Scottish corner of Canada On the back wall of Bec…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:12AMTheatre by the Lake, KeswickAn eight-strong cast and a revolving stage take us on an extraordinary adventure for adults and kids, with time-keeping as a theme Jules Verne’s 1872 novel trad…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AMBeacon Arts Centre, GreenockThere’s an optimal mix of irreverence and affection in this bracing adaptation of the swashbuckling classic With the long-running Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMHome, ManchesterWriter-director Yusra Warsama relocates The House of Bernarda Alba from Andalucía to Manchester What imprisons the characters of Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bern…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AMRoyal Exchange, ManchesterModern-day version casts Tennessee Williams’s steamy melodrama in a new light, with a focus on the corruptibility of wealth Roy Alexander Weise does not overtly c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMNottingham PlayhouseSamson Hawkins’s debut is part Jerusalem part This Country, bringing big laughs while asking serious questions about identity nostalgia and modernity Is it too soon to …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:08AMBelgrade theatre, CoventryMojisola Adebayo’s play connects Henrietta Lacks, whose cells were used in decades of vital scientific research, with the Black Lives Matter movement ‘I am a fa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:56PMRoyal Lyceum, EdinburghKatie Posner directs a high-voltage cast in playwright Ahlam’s politically charged portrayal of a group of teens coming of age in post-Arab spring Cairo We view mome…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00AMEveryman theatre, LiverpoolThe drama of women trying to get ahead in Thatcher’s Britain is played with kitsch period detail that can distract from its still-relevant story Some plays go th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:51AMShakespeare North Playhouse, PrescotThis cartoonish update of Shakespeare’s reunion tale, gleefully mixing in Madonna and modern language, has a great sense of fun The Wars of the Roses ar…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AMLive theatre, NewcastleIn 1996, campaigners in the north-east are watching their values being written out of Labour politics. But at least Kevin Keegan seems to be winning Tony Blair is on t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:00AMAlphabetti theatre, NewcastleIn Alfie Heffer’s frightening play, theatregoers become recruitment reps as a candidate is put through her paces In the late 1800s, Frederick Winslow Taylor se…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00PMHome, ManchesterThe star performs with a musician’s sense of rhythm in this alternately arch and elegiac piece by Simon Stephens and Mark Eitzel about a bereaved brother attempting to reco…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:16AMNorthern Stage, NewcastleThe family front room becomes a battleground in Anders Lustgarten’s play of ideas about class, politics and compassion At some point between the decline of British…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:32AMRoyal Lyceum, EdinburghZinnie Harris’s reworking has Macbeth’s wife driving the plot, rationalising a grisly campaign, while he becomes unbalanced by their murderous path To summon up w…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00PMTron theatre, GlasgowFour girls gather around a pentangle in Maryam Hamidi’s punchy and poetic new play, which captures the vulnerability of adolescence When you see the gang of teenagers …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:03AMDundee RepCinders is a hard-working and independent-minded farmer while her prince is an environmental engineering student in Lynda Radley’s cheerful reworking You can see why Lynda Radley…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:48PMKing’s theatre, GlasgowKathryn Rooney’s slick production has flawless comic banter and lavish dance routines, providing impressive festive entertainment It is tempting to grumble about t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03PMHull Truck theatre, HullScrooge not only exploits Bob Cratchit but cruelly cuts him out of the conversation in this innovative, satisfying production Jack Lord is the meanest of Scrooges. To…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:24AM