Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonChastity, family guilt and fairyland antics make a rich brewIn the uproar about the Globe, little has been said about its offshoot, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42AMYoung Vic, LondonFranz Xaver Kroetz’s tale of a struggling couple is given added force by Ian Rickson’s staging and PJ Harvey’s musicThe director Ian Rickson has an exceptional gift fo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42AMBirmingham Repertory theatreIan McDiarmid is uncanny as Enoch Powell in a timely examination of his controversial 1968 speech on immigrationI was brought up with such a visceral hatred of En…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42AMBristol Old VicTom Morris combines macabre fairytale, musical and puppetry in this ingenious tale of twisted loveI first saw the delicate Audrey Brisson sparkle in The Flying Lovers of Viteb…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMHampstead theatre, London The personal and the political are inexorably entwined in Tony Kushner’s fierce examination of a family at war with itselfAfter a faltering first scene or two, To…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMOlivier, LondonAdam Gillen’s Mozart and Lucian Msamati’s Salieri share the honours as Peter Shaffer’s 1979 hit returns to the NationalPeter Shaffer, who died in June, wrote plays fuell…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMThe ousting of the artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe shows a fundamental failure to appreciate what makes the place uniqueIt has been a rotten week for the theatre. One of London’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMLyttelton, LondonDavid Hare’s adaptation of a Georges Simenon novel is a tense affair featuring a mesmeric Elizabeth DebickiHow do you put on stage someone who is bored with being themselv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:56AMDorfman, LondonThough Bryony Kimmings’s extraordinary musical is overlong and a little messy, it delivers an essential message about the experiences of real peopleMusical theatre has been …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:56AMYoung Vic, LondonIsango Ensemble’s musical about a Somali boy fleeing from terror has marvellous songs and breathtaking actingA Man of Good Hope is not a story set to music. Music is the s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:56AMAlmeida, LondonElla Hickson’s new play about our relationship with ‘black gold’ is hardly subtle, but has a star turn at its heartYou could steer your way through Oil by Lucy Carter’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:56AMDonmar Warehouse, LondonFine performances carry Kemp Powers’s dramatisation of a momentous meeting between Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam CookeStanding ovations have recently b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:06AMDuke of York’s, LondonKen Stott and Reece Shearsmith go to town in a very funny revival of Ronald Harwood’s terrific backstage tragicomedyRonald Harwood thinks it is a mistake for a woma…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:06AMRoyal Court, LondonSuzan Lori-Parks’s ambitious trilogy marries black history to a classical structure but suffers from static stagingThe London stage has always been a very white place. T…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:51AMShakespeare’s Globe, London EastEnders’s Maddy Hill stars in Matthew Dunster’s taut, intelligent reimagining of Cymbeline in an urban gangland settingAnyone who takes on the Globe gets…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:51AMTheatre Royal Haymarket, LondonTerry Johnson gives Stephen Jeffreys’s 1994 tale of Restoration depravity the full rumpy-pumpy, but Cooper’s Rochester is stuck in surly modeOn stage, ever…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:51AMJerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court theatreForm mirrors content in this fraught play full of tension, secrets and fractured dialogueEverything is shredded in Nathaniel Martello-White…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:28AMWyndham’s theatre, LondonOnly Ian McKellen flourishes in a lacklustre production of this beloved, strange and rich playThe legacy of No Man’s Land is overwhelming. In 1975, John Gielgud …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:28AMRose theatre, Kingston upon ThamesFreya Mavor excels in Zach Helm’s compelling tale of a woman trapped in addiction The Rose at Kingston has suddenly bloomed. John Malkovich’s production…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:28AMHampstead theatre, LondonBeth Steel’s play aims to underline the cyclical nature of crash and austerity, but compares poorly to similarly themed worksWe have been here before it seems. Swa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMRoyal Exchange, ManchesterMaxine Peake’s creative partnership with the Royal Exchange hits another high in Tennessee Williams’s classicMaxine Peake and the Manchester Royal Exchange. The…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMYoung Vic Studio, LondonColin Teevan’s adaptation of an account of Haile Selassie’s reign by Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński maintains a devastatingly light touch The Young Vic i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36AMWilton’s Music Hall, LondonSadie Frost as Gypsy Rose Lee fails to enliven Zoe Lewis’s play about a wartime gathering of Britten, Auden and McCullersThere is always an excitement at being…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:07AMSoho theatre, LondonDespite some magnetic moments – and a Pussy Rioter – Belarus Free Theatre fails to catch fireIn their home country, the founder members of Belarus Free Theatre face d…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:07AMRoyal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonAntony Sher is a shade too controlled as the maddened king in Gregory Doran’s fluent productionThe play that Dr Johnson thought too painful to…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:16AMFound 111, LondonOwen McCafferty’s sharp drama of sexual entanglement features a crackling performance from Niamh Cusack“We are still ourselves when we lie.” Unfaithful is made up of …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:30AMGarrick, LondonJohn Osborne’s venomous 1957 play lends itself well to the Brexit era, but Kenneth Branagh’s farewell Garrick production fails to igniteIt seemed, John Osborne said, “as…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:30AMOld Vic, LondonMatilda maestro Tim Minchin and team have ingenious fun with his new musical adaptation of the movie classic – but would you want to see it more than once?Groundhog Day has …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:07AMShakespeare’s Globe, LondonThere’s method in the puppet mayhem of Emma Rice’s Kneehigh musical adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s D-day taleAt the Globe, artistic director Emma Rice an…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:07AMYoung Vic, LondonPiper makes a shattering Yerma in Simon Stone’s inspired present-day reworking of Lorca’s tragic study of childlessnessIn one fell – but felicitous – swoop, Simon St…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:20AMLyttelton, LondonHis powerful female characters redeem this handsome but hackneyed revival of Seán O’Casey’s great 1926 playThe Plough and the Stars is now most famous for causing a rio…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:13AM