1,386 stories by "Aleks Sierz"
Titles can be warnings as well as come-ons. In Gary Owen's new play about a teenager growing up in the Welsh Valleys, it's not difficult to guess what the main theme of the play is. Stumblin…
Few cities have been so central to the European imagination as Berlin in the 20th century. At the centre of imperial power, then of Weimar, next the hub of Nazi Germany, then for some 50 yea…
St Paul's Cathedral is an icon of national identity. The building that rose up from the fire and smoke of the Blitz has also witnessed the funeral of Winston Churchill in 1965 and the royal …
Today, terrorism means killing as many innocent people as possible. Fear is created by completely random attacks. So that no one feels safe. But there was a time, in the past, when political…
Thank fuck, it's over. I mean the General Election. No more campaigning, no more leader debates, no more anti-Miliband hysteria. But there's still no end to theatre gimmicks that exploit pub…
Recent plays with the verb "to care" in their titles " another is Michael Wynne's Who Cares " suggests that the inequalities of life in Britain today can no longer be treated with our habitu…
Tamasha is a new writing theatre company, which specialises in plays " often adaptations or reimaginings of classics " written from an Asian perspective. As the company celebrates its 25th a…
The trouble with the general election is that while everybody talks about money, nobody talks about ideas. We know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. This might seem to be a …
The NHS is us. Early in this new verbatim play about the National Health Service, one of the characters says that when a sample of Britons was recently asked what the most important institut…
Playwright Simons Stephens has made a long journey. Starting off as a young in-yer-face writer, then pausing to mellow over slices of life, then winning awards with state-of-the-nation famil…
The Royal Court has had a makeover. Recently, the walls have had a fresh coat of paint and huge messages have appeared on them: the front doors now say, "Come In". (Oh, thanks for telling me…
Some dramas begin with a brilliant idea. April De Angelis's new black comedy, After Electra, is one of these. It starts with an audacious premise: the octogenarian artist Virgie is celebrati…
Despite the age of austerity, London theatre is booming. Not just the West End, but Off-West End and the fringe as well. One sign of its health is its openness to Continental imports, especi…
The seasonal family reunion play is a hardy perennial. Like the Christmas tree that must take its place on the stage, it is usually spiky, dry and decorated with glittering ornaments " as in…
Hey, it's the 1990s " yet again. After high-profile revivals of contemporary classics " such as Patrick Marber's Closer and Kevin Elyot's My Night with Reg " from that edgy decade, here come…
Nowadays, playwrights do their apprenticeships at university, studying drama. But, once upon a time, they had proper jobs before they started making theatre. Such is the case of the late Mic…
When I ask polymath playwright Philip Ridley whether, after a career of 25 years in the theatre, he feels he is at
As their career progresses, playwrights face a real problem: should they please their fans by writing the same play, over and over again, or should they risk trying out new things? Polymath …
This venue is one of the coolest in London " and its regular audience is both trendy and well-heeled. In the foyer, you get jostled by a better class of person. For this immersive show, writ…
Plays about Muslims in British theatre tend to open a door on a segregated community, a place cut off from the mainstream. But stories that show cultural conflict " between whites, Asians, M…
Political sleaze, arguments over Europe and fears for the NHS " sometimes it feels as if it's the 1990s all over again. And, right on cue, theatre has been staging a whole shelfload of reviv…
Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, London: The Royal Court has an excellent record of producing plays from different countries. Richard Twyman, the director of The Djinns of Eidgah at thi…
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court, London: National treasure Maxine Peake comes to the Royal Court in this new play which reunites playwright Zinnie Harris with director Vicky Feathers…
Is there such a thing as New Writing Pure? By this I mean plays that not only have a really contemporary sense of character, plot and dialogue, but are also written in a distinctly individua…
Kay Adshead's new play about the Arab Spring has a beguiling premise: to tell the human stories behind the headlines. We all remember the news footage of the Arab Spring in 2011, from Tunisi…
