1,377 stories by "Aleks Sierz"
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…
The history play has roots that go deep into our culture. We love to see stories that are kitted out in fancy dress, and long to savour a past that resonates with our present. In the case of…
The future is a bad place. Most of our predictions about climate change and the world's resources seem to come from a mindset of mute despair. In New Atlantis " part of the Enlightenment Caf…
Sometimes the deadliest violence is silent. The publicity for Caroline Horton's new absurdist satire, Islands, points out that Oxfam estimates that some $18.5 trillion is siphoned out of the…
Maria Studio, Young Vic, London: Mike Bartlett's short, sharp splinter of a play was first staged at the Sheffield Crucible Studio in 2013, and then visited New York. Now remounted, wit…
Mike Bartlett is the most prolific and talented British playwright to emerge in the past decade. Not only has he created large-scale epics in a variety of styles " from the science-fiction f…
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, London: Diana Nneka Atuona's award-winning debut play was first given a staged reading at last year's Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in…
Finborough Theatre, London: Although this powerful and award-winning play opened in a controversial production at Theatre Network in Edmonton, Canada, in November 2013, it was originally per…
Can a country like Russia escape its history? In Moses Raine's new play " transferring from the tiny Old Red Lion pub theatre where it was first seen in May 2014 " the answer seems to be no.…
Lyttelton, National Theatre, London: Croatian-born, London-resident playwright Tena Stivicic makes her National Theatre debut with a complex and moving epic that spans four generations and 7…
