George Bernard Shaw is the supreme example of old writing. Maddeningly verbose, eye-poppingly articulate and self-consciously progressive, his work is so Edwardian that any revival runs the …
Let us always remember the pioneers. Although there is a fair amount of relatively mainstream queer theatre today (fueled in the popular imagination by RuPaul's Drag Race on BBC television),…
Only the truth, we are told, can set us free " but there are times in love when the New Testament Gospel of John is an inadequate guide. A good example is the situation that Terence Rattigan…
Theatre needs mystery. In the darkened auditorium, with a crowd of strangers sharing your experience, it is possible to believe in anything you see on the stage: ghosts, miracles and magic. …
Coming of age stories are more or less all the same. But what distinguishes Julia Grogan's Playfight, which was first staged at the Edinburgh Festival last year, and is now at London's Soho …
Are we really in "a new era of male anger, societal discontent and rage"? This is what Royal Court artistic director David Byrne claims in the programme of Manhunt, Robert Icke's new documen…
Anxiety. Apprehension. Angst even. Yes, that's the feeling that rises in me as I come into the auditorium of Omnibus Theatre, in Clapham, south London, to watch Chris Fung perform in his own…
One of the joys of contemporary playwriting is its openness to flexible casting. In Ruby Thomas's 2019 play Either, for example, there are two lovers " denoted as A and B " whose story is pe…
How long would you wait for your soulmate? In "The Demon Lover", a short story by Elizabeth Bowen, published in 1945, a young couple make a passionate vow during the first world war. When he…
Diaries are dynamite " they hold secrets, and secrets can tear families apart. In Coral Wylie's debut, Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew, currently at the Bush Theatre, written records are lin…
British people are socially awkward: this explains why we talk about the weather, queue compulsively and pretend to be polite. It is also at the heart of our television culture, anything fro…
Marketing is the new real. For many years, in theatre as elsewhere in society, the most important thing is not creativity, or originality, or integrity, but hype. A good example is The Years…
Even the best streamed theatre can't compete with the live version. It's simple " with this art form you really have to be there. In person. Take the case of Tarantula, master storyteller Ph…
Is resilience the most powerful character trait? When you think about the suffering of the Windrush Generation, migrants to the UK in the 1950s, it is their sheer staying power that is immed…
Fringe venues perform a vital role on the ecology of London theatre. While many shows at these small venues are underfunded, and some are frankly rough as well as ready, you can occasionally…
The myth of Oedipus is so central to our psychic world that I was really surprised how many people in the audience for this revival were shocked by the revelation of the protagonist's incest…
Roald Dahl evokes mixed feelings. He's one of the greatest children's storytellers, whose macabre books have sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide; he was also anti-Semitic, and used…
Although the idea of deporting people to Rwanda as a punishment is now, following the defeat of the Tories in this year's General Election, off the political agenda, the way we as a society …
Adultery is the great staple of modern British playwriting. The anguish of marriage, and the temptations of infidelity run like a red thread from John Osborrne's Look Back in Anger, via Haro…
Sanaz Toossi's English at the Kiln Theatre: Pulitzer Prize-winning play shows the impacts of a second language on identity The full version of the article Sanaz Toossi's English at the Kiln…
For me, this is the most emotional show on the London stage. Why's that? Because it's about Nye Bevan, who as Minister of Health in the postwar socialist Labour government set up the Nationa…
It's election year so the gaze of British theatre turns towards the National Health Service. But, no, this month's plays do not examine the parlous state of doctors and hospitals today, but …
We've all heard of the metaphorical madwoman in the attic, but what about the symbolic unexploded bomb under the roof, tucked away among the junk, accumulating dust and lying quietly undisco…
It's a sign of the times that German director Thomas Ostermeier's West End debut is his production of An Enemy of the People, which has been rep at his Schaubühne theatre for over a decade.…
Nowadays it seems that it's the fringe and Off-West End venues that are keeping the spirit of international theatre alive in London. Whereas much mainstream big-name theatre feels increasing…