Parlez-vous Moliere? His greatest comedy falls flat in a bilingual versionThe idea of producing a classic play in a mix of two languages is pretty odd. What kind of audience is a bilingual v…
A not-very-brief history of Russia's relationship with lies and lyingFive years ago, when New York playwright Rajiv Joseph started on his fantasy disquisition on truth, lies and the rec…
O'Casey's injunction to love thy neighbour above thy country hits home in this timely updateSean Holmes is artistic director of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, yet his revival of t…
Adaptation of Palestinian novella needs less tell, more showThis year the state of Israel marks its 70th birthday. Which means it will also be the year Palestinians remember the Nakba, the c…
Adaptation of Palestinian novella needs less tell, more showThis year the state of Israel marks its 70th birthday. Which means it's also the year Palestinians remember the Nakba, the catastr…
★★★★ MARY STUART, DUKE OF YORK'S Superb teamwork in Schiller thrillerRobert Icke's production reaches the West End with Juliet Stevenson and Lia Williams tossing…
The spin of a coin decrees which queen will wear the crownCasting decisions do not usually make gripping theatre. But in Robert Icke's version of Friedrich Schiller's 1800 political thriller…
Bernard Shaw curio gets its first major London revival in 30 yearsIf this play really were "A Debate in One Sitting" as its author called it in 1909, it would have sunk without trace. "Talk,…
Finely judged two-hander about death and how to survive itShould Brexit ministers need help understanding the cultural mindset of their continental counterparts, they might consider a subscr…
Religious faith, family tragedy and gay love make an unholy trinity in this European premiereGod makes few appearances at the modern playhouse " so few that the Finborough Theatre saw fit to…
Athletic adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's novel doesn't quite flySometimes you go to the theatre and in the first 10 minutes are convinced that the production is going to smash …
Goodbye Mr Chips, hello theatrical buried treasureLabels have their uses but they can also be a blight. The works of the Scottish playwright James Bridie " with their regional accents and do…
Emma Rice bows out in riotous style " Shakespeare would have cheered herThis show feels like an end-of-the-exams party, and in a way that's exactly what it is. If the fruits of Emma Rice's s…
As eavesdropping opportunities go, the barber shop has everything a playwright could desire a constant stream of close encounters and a broad range of people willing to sit still and talk. T…
Debut play about teaching and the unteachable hits a nerveWhen TV drama tackles Britain's class divide, the go-to working-class type is the northerner: gritty, blunt of vowel and partial to …
The very survival into the 21st century of an unfinished play written by a 23-year-old in 1836 is an extraordinary thing, made more extraordinary by the grimness of its subject. Even to call…
Greg Hicks' arch machinator lifts an otherwise under-nuanced productionThere may never have been a time when Shakespeare's Richard III did not have contemporary relevance, but surely ne…
From The Sound of Music to Gareth Malone's The Choir, the redemptive power of choral singing has provided a wealth of feel-good stories. The discipline, the communal spirit, the beauty of th…
Ivo van Hove's cultish staging of the Visconti film disappointsThere is a distinctive look, feel, even sound to a stage production directed by Ivo van Hove, which is becoming rather fam…
Scary? Not this ghost-story rock musical, sadlyIt used to be said that the devil had all the best music. But the devil seems to have lost his touch in this ghost-story rock musical from Dunc…
If Matthew Bourne had set out to produce a dance show to express the sentiments of Brexit, he couldn't have done it more effectively than this. The fact that Early Adventures is a mixed bag …
Christopher Wheeldon's staging of the movie is the most glamorous escape in townWhat's in a yellow dress? Hope over experience? Reckless confidence? This is a legitimate question when t…
What could be more cheering in a dank dark London February than a blast of Spanish flamenco Answer a Sadler's Wells flamenco gala, a fistful of stellar talents for the price of one.
For anyone who had been wondering, seven and a half years on from the demise of Pina Bausch, what was the point of her company's continued trawl through her back-catalogue, this visit is rea…
Tennessee Williams' first masterpiece gets the John Tiffany touchThe writing of Tennessee Williams, said his contemporary Arthur Miller, planted "the flag of beauty on the shores of com…