Birmingham RepEveryone has something to hide in this funny yet serious examination of cultural values, blood ties and atonementIn 2004, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti wrote Behzti (Dishonour), a produ…
Nottingham Playhouse / Sheffield Crucible Studio Beth Steel gives a clear-eyed account of 1984 strike while Ray Castleton and Kieran Knowles focus on its legacy for womenThe rock glistens in…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonGeorgie Henley and Tyrone Huntley star in a swaggering production that seldom deepens into anything meaningfulThere's so much to be angry about in the world that t…
"Why are actors' biographical details in theatre programmes so universally rubbish " just a long list of past plays and films?" asked
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsIn this adaptation of Lisa Genova's bestselling novel, it's the subject rather than the staging that moves the emotionsBest known from the 2014 movie and Julia…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterKendall Feaver's striking debut pits a daughter who wants to give up medication against the mother who wishes to keep her safeWhen Anna (Norah Lopez Holden) was sev…
While at Edinburgh in 2009, I reviewed a play called A Western staged at Forest Fringe by a young company called Action
Battersea Arts Centre, LondonPost-9/11 anxieties come to the fore in a muddled show that likens rehearsing for a play to preparing for a disaster There are plenty of writers and academics ex…
From Frances Poet's Gut to Monica Dolan's The B*easts, new plays about parenthood raise vital questions about societyWhen playwright Frances Poet ventured out alone as a child she knew her f…
Royal Court, LondonVicky Featherstone's bleakly beautiful production of Simon Longman's play is a compelling tale of rural lifeNature is cruel in Simon Longman's play, which is set on a remo…
With a body of experimental work behind him, the maverick director and founder of Improbable has embraced opera and is helping lead
Sherman, Cardiff McPherson's prose glimmers and glows in his richly understated tale of an undertaker seeking salvation on Christmas EveIn A Christmas Carol, Scrooge encounters three ghosts …
New Diorama, LondonLulu Raczka's disorienting drama about a missing schoolgirl searches for truth in the shadows of a dystopian cityThe title sounds like the start of a joke, but there is no…
I have sympathy for those making tricky decisions about how to distribute arts funding. It's not an easy task and requires imagination,
The Other Palace, LondonA school nerd escapes the bullies but meets a murderous movie mogul in an imaginative 1980s-themed musicalThings are looking up for new British musicals. The gorgeous…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonFive New Yorkers, all named Betty, are magically transformed in this swaggering production of Jen Silverman's playJen Silverman's often raucously funny piece is ab…
Park theatre, LondonBanking dynasty story is beautifully sung, but the central character lacks the doleful warmth of Tevye'If I were a rich man," sings Tevye, the poor Jewish milkman in Jerr…
At a play last year, the couple in the seats next to me " after realising I was alone " asked if
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonLanie Robertson's one-woman play mines the American heiress and art collector's turbulent life for gossipThe American heiress Peggy Guggenheim called the works i…
Vaudeville theatre, London Jennifer Saunders and Samantha Spiro find genuine emotion among the epigrams in Kathy Burke's productionAppearances can be deceptive. That, of course, is one of th…
Kirsty Housley navigates the fault line between devised work and playwriting. She tells Lyn Gardner about the industry divide, why she doesn't
At the theatre some years ago, I witnessed an exchange that has stuck with me. Upon leaving the performance, a child was
Camden People's theatre, LondonRacheal Ofori is a British-Ghanaian millennial reckoning with sex, spirituality and herself in this refreshing one-woman showHeadlining Calm Down Dear, an annu…
When was the first trapeze performance? Who launched 'the greatest show on Earth'? And which showman was celebrated in song by the Beatles? Here's a history of circus in 25 momentsIn 1768, P…
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonShakespeare's play about deceit and self-deception is given a gloomy candlelit production with some misjudged comedySome Shakespeare plays are like buses: they…