Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Director John Young energises this medieval community-theatre tradition with a dynamic and dreamlike journey from the crucifixion to the last judgment
It is an inspired idea to present the M…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:04AMTuesday, July 4, 2023
What can the ancient sport of backhold wrestling tell us about today’s struggles over unity and tradition? Our writer heads to the Highlands to see
On the far side of the field, a girls’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:25AMSunday, July 2, 2023
Manchester international festivalThe audience tour the city listening to a series of voice notes sent by a world-weary survivor. But this promenade performance falters with its form and sens…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:55PMRoyal Exchange, ManchesterKimber Lee’s punky polemic circles through pastiches of Madama Butterfly, South Pacific and M*A*S*H, dissecting years of racist, imperialist and misogynistic trop…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AMFriday, June 9, 2023
Hope Mill theatre, ManchesterCoronation Street’s Christine Mackie gives a passionate performance as the raging patriarch in a production that has moments of invention but too little clarit…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:25AMThursday, June 8, 2023
Pitlochry Festival theatreKirsty Stuart’s Blanche is convincingly respectable in this revival of the Tennessee Williams classic, before she spectacularly unravels
It must be tempting for a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:19AMWednesday, June 7, 2023
Vanya, adapted by Simon Stephens, will see Scott tackle all of the characters in Chekhov’s play
Andrew Scott is to return to London’s West End to play every character in Uncle Vanya. The…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:19PMThursday, June 1, 2023
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 07:36AMTuesday, May 30, 2023
Various 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 08:06AMMonday, May 29, 2023
In 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 03:48AMFriday, May 26, 2023
The 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 06:06AMThursday, May 25, 2023
Alphabetti 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 07:32AMFriday, May 19, 2023
Traverse, 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 09:32AMThursday, May 18, 2023
Royal 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 06:42AMWednesday, May 3, 2023
Northern 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 03:06PMFriday, April 28, 2023
Belgrade 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 06:18AMThursday, April 27, 2023
Royal 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 07:12AMWednesday, April 26, 2023
New 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 06:18AMSunday, April 9, 2023
Traverse, 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 10:12AMThursday, April 6, 2023
Theatre 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 07:32AMMonday, April 3, 2023
Beacon 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 06:42AMFriday, March 31, 2023
Home, 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 09:18AMThursday, March 30, 2023
Royal 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 07:36AMThursday, March 16, 2023
Nottingham 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 08:08AMWednesday, March 15, 2023
Belgrade 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 01:56PMMonday, March 13, 2023
Royal 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 02:00AMThursday, March 9, 2023
Everyman 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 07:03AMWednesday, March 8, 2023
Live 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 08:00AMThursday, March 2, 2023
Alphabetti 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 03:00PM 
