Sunday, March 29, 2020
Available online A controlling fool in love comes across more like a sexual predator in this engagingly perceptive Stéphane Braunschweig production for France's Théâtre de l'Odéon
Fron…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:12AM[SHARE]Thursday, March 19, 2020
As venues close due to Covid-19, there's a world of published drama to savour, from text that falls off the page to Alan Ayckbourn's 'undirectable' collage
Coronavirus and culture " a list …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42PM[SHARE]Monday, March 16, 2020
Pitlochry Festival theatreJessica Hardwick and Olivier Huband are compelling as a young couple facing harsh realities once their honeymoon ends
It's the second half of Neil Simon's comedy wh…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 15, 2020
Tron, GlasgowKafka's story is given a chilling update that chimes with our times, referencing the migrant crisis, the gig economy and fear of the unknown
Of all the shows to have been affect…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:32PM[SHARE]Friday, March 6, 2020
Leeds PlayhouseAfter being told one too many times to 'cheer up, love', Andrea Heaton's Lisa lashes out and is sent to a finishing school to suppress ideas of resistance
We're basically poli…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AM[SHARE]Cast, DoncasterCompassion triumphs over prejudice in Richard Cameron's play about pit workers who form a close-harmony combo
One of the stipulations of the Bechdel test, designed to measure …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:48AM[SHARE]Thursday, March 5, 2020
Leeds Playhouse The Victorian orphan is given an even greater sense of exclusion in Amy Leach's excellent production for Ramps on the Moon
Brooklyn Melvin's Oliver has a ferocious roar but n…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42PM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghThis update with Elaine C Smith focuses on Scotland's landowning class but struggles to make the satire funny
There are sad drunks and there are happy drunks. Elaine C…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AM[SHARE]Friday, February 21, 2020
Dundee RepTitle-winning coach Jim McLean is played with raging mastery by Barrie Hunter in a two-hander that pulls some punches
He was the manager described by one player as a "football perv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:18PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 20, 2020
Viaduct theatre, HalifaxShakespeare meets Richard Curtis in the play that gave its name to the chocolates, carried by boisterous performances and sweet-wrapper chic
As the new artistic direc…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:24AM[SHARE]Sunday, February 16, 2020
Byre theatre, St AndrewsThis imaginative adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's gothic fable amps up the physical storytelling with comic results
When my daughter was very young she develop…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:54PM[SHARE]Friday, February 14, 2020
Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonModern-day echoes resound in Alistair Beaton's adaptation of the novel about tiny acts of rebellion in 1940s Germany
'The plan…" says Anna Quangel (Charlotte…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Belgrade theatre, Coventry Friends venture into danger on a rival estate armed with sassy spirit and beatbox energy " if not a clear plan " in this lively adaptation of Alex Wheatle's YA nov…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:12PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 6, 2020
Live theatre, NewcastleA trio of actors try to provide answers for teenagers' anxieties in Paper Birds' razor-sharp show
One teenager wants to know when you're ready to have a baby. Another…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 5, 2020
New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme Actors swap multiple characters to share stories and trade blows as pints are pulled and relationships dissected in Jim Cartwright's bittersweet comic drama
The…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AM[SHARE]Monday, February 3, 2020
Summerhall, Edinburgh Annual festival of visual theatre delivers a busy mix of puppetry, silent comedy, modern dance and the hard to define
When you're used to performing to four people, an …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:48AM[SHARE]The city's theatre is emotional, indignant and polemical finds our critic on a whirlwind trip through a dozen shows
The sparky young performers on stage thank us for coming out tonight. Ther…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AM[SHARE]Friday, January 31, 2020
Uig Community Centre, Isle of LewisJulia Taudevin's show about the Gaelic tradition of singing for the dead takes us on a dizzying spin through space and time
It's based on keening rituals, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, January 5, 2020
NTGent, Ghent, BelgiumAn acting family play the members of a family about to take their own lives in this unnerving and heartbreaking celebration of the ordinary
It is a dark winter's night …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:18PM[SHARE]Friday, January 3, 2020
Various venues, EdinburghCharlotte Runcie and Irvine Welsh are among the writers exploring Scotland's maritime history in these evocative installations
A litany of names is projected on the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AM[SHARE]Saturday, December 14, 2019
Traverse, EdinburghDouglas Maxwell's two-hander teases and cajoles us with questions about how we see ourselves
Jimmy says he doesn't want to be a story. An asylum seeker in Glasgow, he refu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:24AM[SHARE]Thursday, December 12, 2019
Playhouse, LiverpoolThe hard-working cast bring enough enthusiasm and gusto to this musical adaptation to disguise its weak score
The word "believe" has been projected in big letters up St J…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18PM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Tramway, GlasgowTreating Carlo Collodi's allegory with the seriousness it deserves, this sincere and playful production draws a vulnerable boy into the tale's darkest corners
Don't be taken …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AM[SHARE]Friday, December 6, 2019
Northern Stage, NewcastleSpectacle trumps subtlety as Hans Christian Andersen's tale of lost innocence is stifled by a topical plot and noisy percussion
You can see the temptation. You've g…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36PM[SHARE]Thursday, December 5, 2019
Hull TruckMaking Wendy younger gives a different dynamic to Deborah McAndrew's engaging adaptation, with Baker Mukasa's spontaneous Peter
She's a theatrical sort, is Vanessa Schofield's Wen…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:03AM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Traverse, EdinburghFrom a man sneezing out frog-like creatures to a husband restored to life with the phlegm of a beggar, these supernatural fables are uncanny
Being human is a risk. You nev…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24PM[SHARE]Sunday, December 1, 2019
Leeds PlayhouseDorothy turns eco-warrior, seeking justice in an unjust world, in this visually exciting production of the children's classic
Check out the internet theory that Greta Thunberg…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48PM[SHARE]Friday, November 29, 2019
Curve, LeicesterThe classic musical gets a bold makeover in this stylish and intimate production directed by Nikolai Foster
It's not every show that comes with an endorsement from the local …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AM[SHARE]Thursday, November 28, 2019
Dundee RepThe Scottish comic-strip transfers to the stage in a witty show addressing cultural anxieties about belonging, driven by a rock, gospel and bhangra score
It would be a stretch to c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AM[SHARE]Monday, November 25, 2019
New Vic theatre, Newcastle-under-LymeSisters Danielle and Nichole Bird create a dreamlike mirror image in a superbly staged production, alive with music, wit and spectacle
It was written as …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:12AM[SHARE]Sunday, November 24, 2019
Coliseum, OldhamWhat used to be one boy's coming-of-age struggle with a tyrannous ogre is now a free-for-all
Boisterous, full-throttled and cheery it may be, but it's hard to locate the hear…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33PM[SHARE] 
