Leeds Playhouse This portrait of a family devastated by a random stabbing lands its blows with a heavy thudIn 2008, random was a sharp retort to the stereotypical "urban" image of soaring kn…
Home, ManchesterCuts of the Cloth explores a family torn apart by the state while storyteller Conor A offers an account of chronic illnessNurturing new performances is a balancing act: shows…
Arts education is in crisis but theatre company Slung Low has set up a pay-what-you-can community college, offering lessons in art activism, wood-whittling and much moreOn board a double-dec…
This year's panto is one long bow for writer, director and long-running dame Berwick Kaler. Marking 40 years of what he calls
Crucible, Sheffield Standout turns from strong female leads can't tame the darkness at the heart of Cole Porter's Shakespearean musicalKiss Me, Kate is a musical of many layers. The fiction …
On stage and screen, Christmas tends to look a certain way: twinkling tree, glistening turkey, picture-perfect nuclear family. The new seasonal show
Liverpool PlayhouseSpymonkey riff with pop culture " from funk-anthem carols to Torvill and Dean " in a bizarre take on the Dickens classicAt this time of year, Scrooge is as reliable as min…
'Shimmer and sparkle': Catherine Love reviews an unlikely Christmas show which delights as much as it unsettles. The post Review: The Producers at the Royal Exchange, Manchester appeared fir…
Home, ManchesterThe playwright's prison time inspires an all-male production that is dazzling, dangerous and captivatingly queasyJean Genet understood the essence of theatre: everything is a…
It is practically a professional requirement that actors be emotional and vulnerable, but only recently has protecting their mental wellbeing become a priorityActor and playwright Milly Thom…
Leeds PlayhouseJames Brining's revival of this rueful study of foreignness and fear doesn't go out of its way to seem timely because it doesn't need toWhat is Europe? A continent, an idea, a…
'Dream space': Catherine Love reviews Sarah Frankcom's fresh, insightful take on the 20th Century American staple The post Review: Death of a Salesman at the Royal Exchange, Manchester appea…
York Theatre RoyalRelocated to northern England, this fast-paced panto-esque comedy is damningly relevant nowAfter the 2008 banking crisis, Dario Fo redrafted his 1974 play Can't Pay? Won't …
Albion Electric Warehouse, LeedsKeeping the audience on the move, Red Ladder's 50th-anniversary production stars Pauline McLynnMother Courage and Her Children is a play of perpetual movement…
The Snow Queen " like so many of Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales " is a dark story. A boy is kidnapped and
York Army Museum Lying in a row of beds, an audience of 10 is transported to a wartime hospital in Sound&Fury's arresting showThere are no images of the first world war in Sound&Fury…
Building community: Catherine Love writes on a quietly radical performance, part of a series of public interventions by Common Wealth. The post Review: Radical Acts at Bradford Club appeared…
Why do we keep telling the same stories? Director Jude Christian's mash-up of Othello and Macbeth, two of the oldest and most
Crucible, SheffieldBush tackles sexism and racial prejudice in a cross-generational commentary on contemporary politicsIn Chris Bush's new play, steel is a multi-faceted metaphor. It's resol…
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughAlan Ayckbourn's 82nd play, about an over-the-hill crime novelist, struggles to come up with anything new to say about creativity, fame or failureAn ageing…
Theatre and acrobatic shows at the Edinburgh festival use the experiences of donors to explore fertility, faith and family'Who is the family?" asks aerial artist and theatre-maker Sarah Bebe…
Pleasance Dome/Zoo Charteris, Edinburgh★★★☆☆/★★☆☆☆Grace Chapman tries to outrun her fears and Fredrik Høyer works up a sweat in…
Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghIn Theatre Ad Infinitum's latest show, George Mann and Nir Paldi consider whether they can cope with the prejudice that two dads still faceTo procreate or not t…
Traverse theatre, EdinburghFood's nostalgic power is captured with mouth-watering success in this poignant staging of the popular memoirFood tells stories. The homemade mince pies that whisp…
Underbelly Cowgate, EdinburghFrom a Deliveroo driver to a dying Christ, Julian Spooner seamlessly shapeshifts in an enthralling restaging of a Dario Fo classicSolo shows are everywhere at th…