1,386 stories by "Aleks Sierz"
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…
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court, London: Last year, at this time, playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany teamed up to create Let the Right One In, a vampire romance which w…
The Bush is on a roll. Under artistic director Madani Younis, audiences are up, new plays are flowing in and there are plans to build a permanent studio space. Having just staged Radar, its …
Like good wine, some plays improve with age. The first taste is sharp, and tickles the palette; further sips stimulate and impress, but the rich full flavour is only apparent after a few yea…
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, London: The latest episode in this venue's current programme of work on the theme of revolution and resistance is a story about a rebellion of pri…
Much of the recent programming of the Royal Court has flaunted a preference for gimmicky gestures rather than the hard work involved in developing new playwrights. So after its staging of bo…
Young Vic Clare Studio, London: Up-and-coming director Kate Hewitt is the winner of this year's James Menzies-Kitchin Award and she has chosen to revive Caryl Churchill's 2000 dyst…
How can you convey the sheer incomprehensibility of ghastly acts? While most playwrights, when confronted by the horrors of genocide, settle for a journalistic approach that is realistic and…
Hampstead Theatre, London: Roy Williams is one of British theatre's most gifted and prolific playwrights. Although some of his plays have examined black issues, his output is wide-reach…
This venue's current programming is devoted to examining the state of Britain's public services, with a revival of Nina Raine's Tiger Country, about the NHS, coming next month and, playing n…
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court, London: In about a year's time, the governments of the world will meet in Paris to act against climate change. This new collaboration between Ch…
When science and the arts combine they form a new genre, which has the unlovely name of "artsci". But although there have now been several plays about climate change in recent years, can an …
Park Theatre, London: This revival, of a play first seen at Manchester's Royal Exchange in 2008, reunites playwright Robert Holman with director Tim Stark, who directed Rafts and Dreams…
Almeida Theatre, London: The award-winning American actor-director David Cromer brings his 2009 Off-Broadway hit revival of this classic play about small-town life to north London. In the pr…
Studio 1, Trafalgar Studios, London: Jamie Lloyd's second Trafalgar Transformed season, which began with Martin Freeman as Richard III, continues with the first major London revival of …
When it first opened in October 1996, Ayub Khan Din's East Is East was hyped as the best Asian play since, well, ever. And audiences flocked to see this 1970s migrant story both in Birmingha…
Are there any real taboos left? I mean, there have been scores of plays about incest, about abuse and about paedophilia. Have all proverbial stones been turned over? According to Deborah Bru…
