1,230 stories by "Arifa Akbar"
Coliseum, LondonA colossal cast of singers, dancers, acrobats and contortionists take your breath away in this epic and moving story of betrayal and parental sacrifice
This show, about the g…
Stanley Arts, LondonCombining spoken dialogue with BSL this innovative production shines a light on the unsung heroes who keep the economy running while the world sleeps
The drama opens as t…
Performing naked except for a well-positioned accordion, sprig of parsley or mirror, Eliona Haines tackles labia-shaming by chopping up slices of beef and grilling them. She explains all to …
Hampstead theatre, LondonSocial disparities are highlighted in Magdalena Miecznicka's satirical study of the power play between two former lovers
We enter this drama in the middle of a conve…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonUnsettling ideas about sinister political forces are debated in a haunted house. It's timely subject matter, but fails to create any sense of tension
Holed up in a…
Duke of York's theatre, LondonPenelope Wilton plays the isolated royal and Luke Evans is her courtier in a light production that never gains much depth
She was the Queen Mother, he was the p…
Finborough Theatre, LondonThe third play in this programme of work by Scotland's first major modern female playwright redeems an otherwise underpowered evening
The first two plays in Ena Lam…
There may be comfort in the retelling of Dickens' familiar tale, but the best adaptations show the imagination to still surprise
Has Charles Dickens' charming little Christmas story become a…
Park theatre, LondonA crisp and jarringly satirical play presents the 1995 Panorama documentary as a forerunner of today's fake news
Martin Bashir's now discredited 1995 Panorama interview w…
Apollo theatre, LondonJoss Stone and Dave Stewart's strangely forgettable score does little to lift this musical but there are some wonderful set pieces
For the millions of readers held rapt…
Arcola theatre, LondonThe enigmatic 1999 novel about three entwined lives is sleekly adapted by Bryony Lavery and sharply directed by Melly Still
Here is a story of unrequited love in which …
Wyndham's theatre, LondonAt two hours with no interval, the actor-director's production hurtles past at such speed that the depths of the play are too rarely realised
Kenneth Branagh has con…
Theatre Royal, BathAn excellent cast give the story of Ruth Snyder, a woman executed by electric chair in 1928 for killing her husband, a cleverly inventive, chillingly modern update
Ruth Sn…
Featuring contributions from poets, novelists and a Nobel laureate, this highly charged night " interrupted by updates from Gaza in real time " marked the suffering on both sides of the conf…
Welsh and Scottish venues have progressed, but only male artistic directors have run the National Theatre. It's time to address that
Let's begin with a pub quiz style Q&A about British t…
Harold Pinter theatre, LondonStarry cast including Lily James and Doon Mackichan are tossed around in a plot that never gets hold of its many concerns
Lyonesse has all the makings of a power…
Roundhouse, LondonSimon Stephens' adaptation of Max Frisch play about bourgeois indifference to a rising crisis should ring loud bells, but its absurdism fails to resonate
There is a great t…
National Theatre, LondonAlexander Zeldin's profoundly moving play grew from his parent's reflections, which he uses to conjure an epic struggle for love and freedom
A reluctant protagonist s…
Theatre Royal BathThe Succession star excels in Oliver Cotton's play about the meeting between the composer and Frederick the Great
It is promoted as a dramatic encounter between God-fearing…
Orange Tree theatre, LondonIn a chic kitchen a Trinidadian couple discuss their high-end lives, but their cook, whose recipes the audience can scent, draws them back to deeper roots
This dra…
As her play set in a truck stop kitchen is staged in London, the twice Pulitzer-winning playwright talks about the healing power of cooking, US theatre's recent shockwaves and her Michael Ja…
Sherman theatre, CardiffAstounding tale of how a volunteer at a Welsh hospital changed the lives of neurodivergent people globally is dynamically directed and movingly told
This is a local s…
Savoy theatre, LondonLloyd brings hipster edginess, style and unpredictability to this revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical " though it's more surface-level than penetrating closeup
W…
Royal Court Upstairs, LondonAn aspiring journalist comes up against the difficulties of accurately representing his shisha-going community in Mohamed-Zain Dada's energetic debut
This debut d…
Dorfman theatre, LondonClint Dyer and Roy Williams' state-of-the-nation series continues, this time giving the perspective of the women in its central duo's lives
From its inception as an on…