Cold War surveillance drama is interesting, but can't quite conceal its ageWe do love our spy stories, don't we? The idea of betrayal, both political and personal, seems to be a strong …
Semi-autobiographical coming of age story jumps to the sounds of grimeThere was once a time when grime music was very angry, and very threatening, but that seems a long time ago now. Today, …
Deeply felt show about love, marriage and migration doesn't quite work Director Madani Younis, who since 2011 has transformed the Bush Theatre in West London into one of London's most outsta…
Overwhelmingly powerful new play about motherhood and psychological collapse Blackout. Dark, the colour of childhood fear. Black, the colour of despair. Black. No light visible; no colours t…
The old Tricycle Theatre is transformed with a name change and a great opening playHoly shit! After being closed for two long years, the old and battered Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn has been…
Anti-naturalistic revival of Brian Friel's elegiac tribute to the Catholic nobility is oddly unemotionalChekhovian is a rather over-used word when it comes to describing some of the lat…
New monologue about drug dealing on the Dark Web is well written if a bit slightThe Dark Web has an intriguing sound about it. Like something out of JRR Tolkein or JK Rowling, it suggests a …
Alan Bennett's black comedy is a howl against the privatization of deathThe NHS is us. For decades our national identity has been bandaged together with the idea, and reality, of a heal…
Female friendship comedy drama is occasionally bright, but lacks plot and depth Britain is rightly proud of its record on multiculturalism, but whenever cross-cultural couples are shown on f…
The RSC's adaptation of Robert Harris's Cicero books reaches the West EndHistory repeats itself. This much we know. In the 1980s, under a Tory government obsessed with cuts, the big new thin…
Huge new play about the fertility industry is rather crudely conceived We are now pretty familiar with the idea that human reproduction (making babies) has been turned into big business, and…
Smart and powerful new play about fear, terror and prejudice runs out of steamIt's the stuff of nightmares. There's a massive explosion, the sound of smashing glass, falling debris and polic…
New comedy about a celebrity chef sometimes sizzles, but leaves a bad taste Forget about dark alleys, deserted parks and slippery slopes: the most dangerous place in the world is likely to b…
Sympathetic new play about a migrant's death is well staged, but imperfectly writtenRegular air travel is a hassle. All that queuing, all that security, all those hot halls, and then th…
Frantic Assembly's take on the crisis of masculinity is theatrically exciting but banalMasculinity, whether toxic or in crisis (but never ever problem-free), is a hardy perennial subject for…
Sad and intimate play about rural life gets a bit lost in this large theatrePlaywright Barney Norris is as prolific as he is talented. Barely out of his twenties, he has written a series of …
Joe 'Sunny Afternoon' Penhall's triumphant new play about the music industry really rocksPlaywright Joe Penhall and the music biz? Well, they have history. When he was writing the book for S…
New comedy about a West-Indian wake is lively, but a bit undercookedThe good news about so-called black drama on British stages is that it has broken out of its gangland violence ghetto and …
Energetic revival of Rodney Ackland's best play exposes many of its faults Rodney Ackland must be the most well-known forgotten man in postwar British theatre. His legend goes like this: Abs…
New two-hander about sex is wise and funny, but fails to achieve a climax Playwright Anthony Neilson has always been fascinated by sex. I mean, who isn't? But he has made it a central part o…
New sci-fi drama about suburban perfection lacks the necessary human touch There's a whole universe which British theatre has yet to explore properly " it's called the sci-fi imagination. Al…
Documentary drama about the weather on the eve of D-Day is a successThere are few things more British than talking about the weather. What makes this play about a meteorologist interesting, …
Yorkshire hikers reclaim the English countryside - and their identitiesIn the same week that Arinzé Kene's Misty, a play that passionately questions the clichés of plays about black Briton…
Brilliant, and epic, new thriller about Japanese citizens abducted by North KoreaYou could call it an absence of yellow. Until very recently British theatre has been pretty poor at represent…
★★★★ HUMBLE BOY, ORANGE TREE Spirited revival of Charlotte Jones's 2001 hit buzzes with funSpirited revival of Charlotte Jones's 2001 hit buzzes with funGood pro…