Monday, January 29, 2018
A tyrannical family reunion and a dramatic volte-face in Will Eno's ingenious new dramaThe American family has seldom look more desperate. Will Eno’s The Open House depicts a gatherin…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:45AMWednesday, January 24, 2018
David Eldridge's two-hander about sex and solitude sets up home in the West EndAwkwardness is a challenging effect in drama, and one so rewarding when it works. When the movement isn’…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:26AMWednesday, December 13, 2017
Coquetry and tragic command not quite balanced, but this steady RSC production reaches gloryIs there a key to “infinite variety”? The challenge of Cleopatra is to convey the sheer fullne…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:06AMMonday, December 4, 2017
Edwardian rediscovery verges towards the sentimental, but satisfyingly soEven by the standards of theatrical archaeology that the Finborough has made its own, The Passing of the Third Floor …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:04AMFriday, September 22, 2017
Alice Childress’s groundbreaking 1955 drama played with panache Truth is pursued in different ways in Alice Childress’s groundbreaking 1955 Trouble in Mind, and its play-within-a-play s…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 12:42PMThursday, September 14, 2017
A British queen brought back to life: Tristan Bernays’s new play fits its venue perfectlyHistory comes to the stage of the Globe only rarely – at least if you compare the frequency of pr…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:54AMTuesday, August 29, 2017
Family trauma stripped back to the barest bonesCanadian playwright Jordan Tannahill wrote Late Company when he was only 23. It would be an impressive achievement at any age, but it seems all…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:36AMSaturday, May 27, 2017
A major work of new American drama receives its European premiere at Richmond’s Orange Tree TheatreMake no mistake about it, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a playwright to watch. London receive…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:36AMFriday, April 28, 2017
There's vigour and violence, comedy too, but Daniel Kramer's production disappoints“Everything in extremity”. That announcement that the Capulet party is about to begin could j…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:24AMMonday, April 10, 2017
A clear, considered production, but the updated comedy's uncertain This is a well-travelled Winter’s Tale. Declan Donnellan has long been a director who's as much at home abroad as h…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:02AMTuesday, April 4, 2017
Marivaux, via John Fowles, through the prism of Jane Austen The permutations of love are bewitchingly explored in the 90-minute stage traffic of Marivaux’s The Lottery of Love, with Paul M…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 11:36AMTuesday, March 21, 2017
Eve Best shines in wartime Rattigan rarity which riffs on 'Hamlet'What's in a name? Terence Rattigan’s Love in Idleness is a reworking of his 1944 play Less Than Kind (never stag…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 11:18AMMonday, March 13, 2017
Molière at full throttle: Griff Rhys Jones and Lee Mack excelTrimmings, trimmings, trimmings. They prove the final straw for Molière’s Harpagon in this new production of the classic Fren…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:18AMThursday, March 9, 2017
Conflicts in a theatre family: sharp writing in a new American two-hander In I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard, Halley Feiffer has written a right curmudgeon of a central role. David is a suc…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:42AMWednesday, December 14, 2016
Family desperation simmers, then erupts in Alexander Zeldin's devastating social dramaFor a play that ends with 15 minutes of breath-stopping, jaw-dropping theatre that is surely as pow…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:42AMFriday, December 2, 2016
Hans Christian Andersen made contemporary, infused with Emma Rice's trademark brioFor anyone disposed to treat the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse as hallowed ground – and such issues have ha…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:42AMThursday, November 17, 2016
Antony Sher runs the full delivery gamut in Gregory Doran's distinguished production At the conclusion of a year in which Britishness has come so resoundingly to the fore of the nationa…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:48PMMonday, November 14, 2016
Tight, nervous tragicomedy with an original take on immigration issuesIf you thought that a contemporary drama about forcible repatriation, set in an Immigration Removal Centre, would be abo…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:02PMTuesday, November 8, 2016
New Brexit tones gave new direction to Shakespeake's late romance “Britain is a world by itself.” It could be the slogan of the year – or longer – but the phrase comes from Shak…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:12AM 
