An interrogation of power, womanhood and the mythologies with which we surround ourselves History has corseted Elizabeth I with the title of “Virgin Queen” for centuries, but in Ella Hic…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:42AMA stunning tribute to the wild and wonderful life of the mind This scary, electrically beautiful adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book about living on the faultline between imagination and real…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:36PMAn electric interpretation in which the White Witch – like the devil – has all the best tunes We all remember that moment when we walked through the back of the wardrobe: the heaviness o…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:33AMThe script misses all that was distinctive about Berlin and Akhmatova's meeting How do you begin to dramatise one of the most extraordinary conversations of the 20th century between two of i…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:54AMWendell Pierce confirms a performance as exciting as any this theatrical year It is 70 years since Willy Loman first paced a Broadway stage; 70 years since audiences were sucked into the vor…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:48AMRSC transfers works best when it engages with the complex emotions of the play Even the most ardent Bardophile has to admit that most of the time the Fool doesn’t shine in a Shakespeare…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:18AMA potent anatomy of how words and power intertwine At a point in history where – yet again – a few misplaced words from English politicians could wreak havoc with Irish lives, this is a …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:18PMFirst-time playwright Ruby Thomas is a daring and exciting new voice This ingenious short work deftly investigates themes of love and identity with a breezy assurance that marks first time …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:48AMIncisive, intelligent and deeply moving The Permanent Way first roared its way into the national consciousness in 2003 when, after a triumphant opening in York, it toured the UK before tran…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:12AMThe evening is as devastatingly moving as it is bitingly funny If Russia is, as Winston Churchill once so memorably said, “a riddle, wrapped inside a mystery, wrapped inside an enigma”, …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:03AMA resonant tragedy of mutual incomprehension, fresh from the Edinburgh Festival Neil Armfield’s resonant, turbulent production of Kate Grenville’s classic Australian novel The Secret Riv…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:54AMEnergetic two-hander offers a sparky portrait of a transforming city This witty street-smart play about a white-skinned boy born to a mixed-race mother deploys its narrative with the dexteri…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:48AMNavigating the script is a bit like going in a car with a driver who's just passed their test This lovingly lo-tech visit to galaxies far far away is a curious proposition, which, while neit…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:48AMNicholas Hytner's vivacious 21st-century take shines like a disco glitterball Nicholas Hytner’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre is a feat of exuberant brilliance, a gende…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:36AMA moving antidote to fast-paced narratives and rampant individualism Our Town was written shortly before World War Two about a small town in America in the years leading up to World War One,…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:36PMA simultaneously sweeping and intimately human production Mammon and Yahweh are the presiding deities over an epic enterprise that tells the story not just of three brothers who founded a ba…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:24AMRoy Williams revival looks beyond the headlines to see the codes, complexity and camaraderie of crime We are living in a time when gang culture rips and roars its way down London streets, an…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:54AMThe production's levity eviscerates the underpinning emotional realities Often the greatest works of dramatic absurdism spring from the worst extremes of human experience, whether it’s Ion…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:06AMA soaringly irreverent postmodern caper through shifting attitudes to homosexuality A loo with fuschia-pink carpet to catch splashback; an Archbishop of Canterbury who’s in it for the skir…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:00PMA spikily poignant reminder of humanity in politically dark times In an age where political, social, and gender norms seem to be in perpetual meltdown, it should be pretty much impossible fo…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:19AMAdjoa Andoh is a magnetic Richard with her hawk-like glare and vigorous swagger Richard II has become the drama of our times, as it walks us through the impotent convulsions of a weak and va…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:30AMAnna Washburn's play for the Almeida achieves lift-off in the West End As China and the US arm-wrestle for world-domination in everything from trade to military power, we find ourselves in t…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:15AMThis dark comedy raises disturbing questions about sound and intimacyTwo men called "Massimo" face the audience, one very tall, one very, well, minimo. The tall Massimo (Tom Espiner, picture…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:12AMSex and technology run like faultlines through this workThere is no doubt that this Cherry Orchard, whirled into town by Roman Abramovich from Moscow, is going to be divisive. If you, like …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:48AMRevolution is about youth, music, anger, and - frankly - sexIs there a connection between revolution and theatre? The answer has to be yes – a visceral one. The supremacy of symbols, the c…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:32AMRevelations that should feel toxic seem tepidTheatrical alchemy is eternally slippery.
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:24AMShakespeare's study of flawed leadership becomes a paralable for our ageJoe Hill-Gibbins’ uncompromising production of The Tragedy of Richard II for the Almeida hurtles through Shakes…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:48AMJustin Audibert's production excels at portraying the book's alchemical qualitiesIf you’re looking for a Christmas with more pagan edge than saccharine cheer, where the wolves ar…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:36AMA deceptive lightness of tone brings new resonance to the textWhat do you gain by casting Dr Faustus and Mephistopheles as women? In the programme for this often illuminating production, dir…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:18AMOur heroine is torn between the charms of a washing-machine inventor and a CountThe convention-challenging sexually adventurous life of Glaswegian writer Aimée Stuart is worth a play all on…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:54AMWest End transfer from the Almeida retains pressure-cooker intensityThis production of Tennessee Williams’ neglected classic, Summer and Smoke, arrives from the Almeida into the West End w…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:24AM
