Watermill theatre, NewburyIan Hallard impresses as the detecting rector in a thoughtful adaptation that sometimes strains under a villageful of suspects, victims and doubling actorsPoirot, M…
Menier Chocolate FactoryJesse Tyler Ferguson’s 85-minute monologue and Paul Farnsworth’s immersive set deserve better than a Broadway museum piece text on the Breakfast At Tiffany’s au…
Chichester Festival theatreA narcotic, orgiastic woodland party clashes with the traditional values of John Major’s Tory party in Justin Audibert and Hannah Joss’s exuberant productionTh…
Rose theatre, Kingston upon ThamesA rag puppet Montmorency, a fake moustache and an aria for reeking cheese add to the mischief of Jerome K Jerome’s very English storyBack from Lib Dem con…
Writer and critic who became known for her sharp, composed appearances on TV shows such as Late Review and Question TimeThe writing and broadcasting of Bonnie Greer, who has died aged 77, we…
Royal Court theatre, LondonStarting in Germany in the 1930s, there is a stinging topicality to Manfred Karge’s play addressing the renaissance of Nazi ideologyEarly autumn London theatre h…
Marylebone theatre, LondonDarren Raymond’s update drops Rylance’s impostor into a Jamaican-Nigerian wedding, with clever rhyming couplets but less political stingSpitting posh platitudes…
Crucible theatre, Sheffield The 82-year-old actor gives a performance of absolute authenticity and clarity as the erratic demagogue in a uniformly impressive productionThe word “nothing”…
Theatre Royal BathAntihero actor Garry becomes a magnificent new kind of beast as Gerri, played with blistering hilarity by Tracy-Ann ObermanThe reputation of Noël Coward’s plays has invo…
The Old Vic, London The suburban romp of envy and infidelity in two different homes comes bouncing back to life with a fizzing cast led by Roger AllamEarly in a career that reaches 92 plays …
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonThis prequel to the TV series has one joust after another, spectacular stagecraft and plenty of modern resonanceDuring the RSC’s 65 years, num…
Curve, LeicesterThere are electrifying – and also queasy – moments in this version of the classic 90s horror about the interrogation of a psychotic psychiatrist by an FBI rookieSoon afte…
In a bold new production starring Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss, the NT is fusing Sophocles and Ingmar Bergman. So what can two stories written 23 centuries apart tell us about how we live to…
Having cut his teeth in the holiday camps of the north, the comic bestrode 80s TV with his unthreatening brand of fun, being knighted by the pope in 2015• Jimmy Cricket, comedian known for…
Shakespeare’s Globe, LondonChoreographers Carmen Igarza and Vanessa Guevara deserve to take a bow as spectacular dance and movement add passion to the seemingly unfinished playThe fact tha…
Braboeuf Manor, GuildfordElegantly stitching the plays into two parts of the same continuing story, Tom Littler’s sunny al fresco productions play every possible tragicomic noteTwo Shakesp…
Lowry, SalfordThese lonely travellers overlap with Bowie’s Maj Tom, Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary or Spielberg’s Disclosure Day as they contemplate our place in the vastness of the v…
Hampstead theatre, LondonRobert Lindsay excels as Franklin D Roosevelt in Richard Nelson’s fascinating retelling of King George VI’s diplomatic visit in 1939The 2012 film Hyde Park on Hu…
Royal Court Downstairs, London Hunger and TB, as much as imperialism, are triggers for the assassination that precipitated the first world war in Rajiv Joseph’s tragicomic reimagining of t…
Apollo theatre, LondonStephen Mangan, Sarah Hadland, Ardal O’Hanlon and Janie Dee are seat-shakingly funny in this study of adulteryAlice and Michel must conceal their affair from possibly…
Orange Tree theatre, RichmondA stealing sculptor struggles to keep his visitors in the dark, while they lope and grope with the lights out, in Shaffer’s escalating slapstick showA regular …
Minerva theatre, ChichesterJohn Morton’s debut as a playwright is a finely crafted family drama with shades of Alan AyckbournAs a TV writer-director, John Morton specialises in the sort of…
Regent’s Park Open Air theatre, LondonThe detective and his sidekick return for a new case by Joel Horwood in an alfresco setting that playfully refers to nearby attractionsOutdoor drama i…
Chichester Festival theatreDavid Haig shines as writer and star of this dramatisation about the fraught friendship of two entertainment giants and their debate over what is real or simply il…
Bristol Old VicThe Reduced Shakespeare Company returns with a frantic mix of pratfalls, audience participation and lightning-flash characterisations A classical actor who appeared in a recen…