With ‘1536,’ Ava Pickett Is ‘the Charli XCX of Young Playwrights’ by Andrew Dickson

Ava Pickett just opened her play “1536” in London. Next up: a TV adaptation, then a project with the filmmaker Baz Luhrmann.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:20am on May 20, 2026[SHARE]

A Fast-Rising American Director Is Wowing the West End by Andrew Dickson

After a prizewinning "Fiddler on the Roof" and a lauded take on Sondheim, Jordan Fein is tackling Arthur Miller's enigmatic "Broken Glass."

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:42am on March 6, 2026[SHARE]

In 'Hamnet,' Shakespeare's Wife Takes the Stage, at Last by Andrew Dickson

A Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's hit novel gives voice and agency to a historical character we know little about.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:32am on April 7, 2023[SHARE]

Tom Stoppard Faces His Family's Past by Andrew Dickson

A conversation with the playwright about the long journey to "Leopoldstadt," which has just come to Broadway.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 6:00am on October 2, 2022[SHARE]

Es Devlin's Next Stage by Andrew Dickson

The British designer, whose new installation will be unveiled at Tate Modern this week, made her name in theater. These days, you're as likely to find her work in art galleries, stadium gigs…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 8:03am on September 20, 2022[SHARE]

Twelve angry children: young jurors call adults to account for climate crisis in The Trials by Andrew Dickson

Dawn King's new play at the Donmar imagines a reckoning for environmental chaos, presided over by the kids who inherit the mess. We join the writer and cast, including stars of Heartstopper,…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 5:48am on August 4, 2022[SHARE]

Peter Brook's legacy is everywhere in today's theatre by Andrew Dickson

Restlessly creative, the great director " who has died aged 97 " had an unparalleled ability to conjure a gleaming theatrical image Peter Brook: the great seeker of British theatre Never mee…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 7:24am on July 3, 2022[SHARE]

He Break Dances. He Pole Dances. He Sings Like an Angel. by Andrew Dickson

The Polish countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski has the credits you'd expect for a fast-rising classical music star, and some others you might not.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:00am on March 4, 2022[SHARE]

Augmented Reality Theater Takes a Bow. In Your Kitchen. by Andrew Dickson

The Interactive Storytelling Studio at the National Theater in London is using technology to bring a miniature musical to viewers' homes. It's one of several high-tech British projects pushi…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 9:18am on January 21, 2022[SHARE]

Irina Brook's stage obsession: 'It's been 50 years " theatre, theatre, theatre!' by Andrew Dickson

She grew up in an artistic dynasty and was once rejected for a part by her dad. Now the director is turning her life into an epic new project. She reflects on Chekhov, Shakespeare and Iggy P…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:12am on September 28, 2021[SHARE]

'Life is never what you expect!' Deborah Warner on theatre, nature and new parenthood by Andrew Dickson

The groundbreaking director's new project, Arcadia, fills tents with poetry and music in Manchester. She talks about Covid and Brexit, becoming a mother and taking over Bath's Ustinov A flic…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 2:24am on July 7, 2021[SHARE]

Third time lucky? Inside the RSC's much-delayed Winter's Tale by Andrew Dickson

Bedevilled by lockdowns and brain-bending Covid protocols, the Shakespeare play about isolation, grief and fresh starts is finally being staged and emotions are running high. We join the dre…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:48am on April 18, 2021[SHARE]

'Holding their nerve': Almeida reopens with play devised during lockdown by Andrew Dickson

With auditions on Zoom, social distancing on stage and scenes that can be cut if an actor tests positive, Nine Lessons and Carols is a play for Covid times In the near-empty Almeida theatre …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:03pm on December 7, 2020[SHARE]

Shakespeare in lockdown: did he write King Lear in plague quarantine? by Andrew Dickson

Pestilence was rife in the Bard's time, closing theatres and ravaging life. Did he write his bleak, desperate drama while self-isolating? We sift the evidence While those of us stuck in sel…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:32am on March 22, 2020[SHARE]

Toby Jones: 'Actors talking about acting? It makes you scream!' by Andrew Dickson

He's played everything from an elf in Harry Potter to Truman Capote and a harassed coach driver. Now, Jones is taking on Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. Just don't call it the role of a lifetime Twen…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 4:24am on January 21, 2020[SHARE]

Bans, defiance and death blows: how theatre tore down the Berlin Wall by Andrew Dickson

They defied the Stasi and sparked a revolution. Our writer reveals the pivotal role East Germany's dynamic theatre culture played in the fall of the GDR " and the collapse of European commun…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 4:24pm on November 1, 2019[SHARE]

To BP or not BP … Would Shakespeare have taken oil company money? by Andrew Dickson

The RSC has finally turned its back on BP funding after actor Mark Rylance said it is what the Bard would have wanted. But as Simon Callow points out " the playwright was hardly a model of c…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 4:42am on October 9, 2019[SHARE]

The Bard stuff: actors reveal their favourite Shakespeare character by Andrew Dickson

To mark the Stratford playwright's birthday, Ophelia Lovibond, Paapa Essiedu, Jade Anouka, Roger Allam and John Kani discuss the roles they love best The great thing about Shakespeare is tha…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 1:00am on April 23, 2019[SHARE]

The best Shakespeare films " ranked! by Andrew Dickson

Kenneth Branagh graduates from player to playwright this week for All is True, in which he plays an ailing Bard. But which big-screen Shakey is the greatest?Despite its hey-nonny-nonny reput…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 5:48am on February 8, 2019[SHARE]

Cate Blanchett on her S&M-themed play: 'I see theatre as a provocation' by Andrew Dickson

Cate Blanchett has played queens, vagabonds and Bob Dylan. Now the double Oscar-winner is hitting the London stage in an avant garde work about sexual domination " and hinting at a farewell …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 1:06pm on January 9, 2019[SHARE]

'Don't spit on the deck!' Arts bosses on how to hand over power by Andrew Dickson

When Indhu Rubasingham turned the Tricycle theatre into the Kiln earlier this year, there were protests and passionate defences. Vicky Featherstone, Richard Eyre and Charles Saumarez Smith d…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 8:04am on December 14, 2018[SHARE]

Rediscovering Queen Margaret: 'I tried to think of Shakespeare as my co-writer' by Andrew Dickson

A new work by Jeanie O'Hare distils four Shakespeare plays to retell the story of the Wars of the Roses, focusing on Margaret of Anjou, the formidable wife of Henry VIThe unmissable theatre …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 6:18am on August 27, 2018[SHARE]

South Western review " pasties at dawn in a riotous wild west homage by Andrew Dickson

Tobacco Factory, BristolWardrobe Ensemble's western pastiche is a diverting gallop through fake blood, feminist twists and Bristolian in-jokesIn 2015, boutique, Bristol-based collective the …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:12am on July 23, 2018[SHARE]

A is for 'ah well', F is for fish and chips: show delivers A-Z of Englishness by Andrew Dickson

English, created by National Theatre Wales and Quarantine, is a brainstorm about language and identity On either side of the stage, screens flash up words and phrases. "Accident of birth", r…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 5:54am on June 19, 2018[SHARE]

King Lear " review by Andrew Dickson

Shakespeare's Globe, LondonA gaunt and arthritic king totters on stage, his head a thatch of matted white hair " then, grinning, he springs up like a jack-in-the-box and whisks off the wig. …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 8:54am on May 28, 2018[SHARE]