1,230 stories by "Arifa Akbar"
Barbican, LondonSimon McBurney directs a toweringly innovative adaptation of the eco-thriller by Nobel-winner Olga Tokarczuk
The opening night of this Complicité production was aborted at t…
Riverside Studios, LondonThe puppets are lovely but this hour-long show has anodyne songs and a hodgepodge of tales
On paper, this Disney musical about AA Milne's honey-loving bear and his …
Pleasance, LondonThe climate crisis is explored via the senseless bureaucracy of a travel agency in a show that lacks subtlety
Office politics can be a keen mirror of group behaviour and so…
Riverside Studios, LondonA talented cast can't save this bizarre production about a holiday romance dogged by a conflict in ideology
This musical begins like a cheesy Mills & Boon romanc…
Royal Court theatre, LondonPart satire, part serious drama, Danny Lee Wynter's story of gay love and acting slowly reveals its emotional powers
Actor Danny Lee Wynter's debut as a playwright…
Park theatre, LondonTwo friends put together an Abba tribute band and explore ideas of male friendship, homophobia and family in Ian Hallard's witty play
Abba superfans might recognise this …
Verbal clashes from history are being thrillingly restaged for modern audiences. Do these grand battles prove we've lost the art of disagreement? And could watching them anew change the poli…
Young Vic, LondonSet on a volcanic island, this play goes through dormant spells but its themes of colonial conquest are enriched by dazzling design and atmosphere
Here is a keen study of is…
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonAs the race to produce the first atomic bomb nears its terrible conclusion in 1945, six members of Germany's nuclear weapons programme are detained at a stately …
Bridge theatre, LondonThis immersive production of the New York musical has a bold design, superb singing and chemistry between its stars
Frank Loesser's 1950 musical comedy about sin and ro…
Distracting behaviour, from eating noisily to using mobile phones, is a vexed issue. But the chorus of disapproval often suggests elitism and overlooks theatre's history
The recent debate ov…
Vault festival, Network theatre, LondonA depressed 500-year-old wants to remove her immortality implant in this entertaining and kooky dark comedy which lands just short of saying something …
New Diorama, LondonEllice Stevens and Billy Barrett's fizzing production traces the story of the Tories' anti-gay legislation
If section 28 holds no meaning for you, you were probably not pa…
The Vaults, LondonLovely portrayals of childhood friends in postwar Ireland can't really make up for a muddled production
This coming-of-age story begins in postwar Ireland and follows a fri…
The Vaults, LondonRoann Hassani McCloskey and Joel Samuels' show at the Vault festival reimagines and reclaims mythical characters
Remythed dramatises several mythic tales but not as we know…
Arcola theatre, LondonTim Edge's harrowing and darkly funny play starring Evanna Lynch has razor-sharp dialogue and swerving plot twists
Northern Ireland's Troubles are channelled through on…
As their Edinburgh fringe hit Sap heads on a UK tour, playwright Rafaella Marcus and producer Ellie Keel discuss the future of new writing, the rise of 'safe' programming and the need for be…
Vault festival, LondonEloka Obi and Saul Boyer re-examine the forgotten story of 19th-century Sierra Leonean barrister August Boyle Chamberlayne Merriman-Labor, who wrote a delicious spoof o…
Vault festival, The Cage, LondonSophie Bentinck tells the stories of herself, her mother and her grandmother, tracing the latter's descent into depression, dependency and suicide
Sophie Bent…
Riverside Studios, LondonThe desperate extremity of women's experiences trapped in the UK immigration system gets an intense multimedia treatment
This production startles not only with its s…
Watford Palace theatreA striking, slick adaptation of Shakespeare's problematic play sees Tracy-Ann Oberman play a Jewish matriarch up against the fascists of 1930s London
In Tracy-Ann Ober…
Duke of York's theatre, LondonWilly Russell's 1986 monologue about a neglected woman's midlife liberation is given new life in this perceptive production
Willy Russell's 1986 monologue was a…
Shoreditch Town Hall, LondonThe new work by Charlie Josephine gives us teenagers' thoughts about objectification, shame, body image and sex
Last year Charlie Josephine presented Joan of Arc …
Almeida, LondonLulu Raczka's new play, directed by Rupert Goold, is beautifully designed but the plot " and the point " is puzzling. Maybe the joke's on us?
This confounding play is nothing …
Dorfman theatre, LondonGary Owen's tale of star-crossed, working-class lovers in modern Cardiff offers existential questions and awkward encounters
Writer-director team Gary Owen and Rachel …