Arcola, LondonJack Gamble directs a first-rate revival of DH Lawrence's even-handed account of a conflicted marriageThree years ago, the National Theatre pointlessly conflated DH Lawrence's …
Playground theatre, LondonGregory Evans' staging of the 1986 'homes for votes' saga is enlightening and enjoyably foul-mouthed " but ducks key political questionsTwo of my favourite postwar …
Grand theatre, LeedsOpera North present a deft revival of the 1949 Cole Porter show mixing The Taming of the Shrew with showbiz shenanigansWhat is the best musical based on a Shakespeare pla…
Menier Chocolate Factory, London Four applicants undergo a gruelling selection process while tricks are played on the audience in Jordi Galceran's dramaSince its Barcelona premiere in 2003, …
Trafalgar Studios 2, LondonThe comedian's debut play gives a double portrait of mother-daughter relationships on the eve of a weddingIt comes as a shock to walk into the theatre and be confr…
Noel Coward, LondonHoward Davies has a gift for revitalising Coward's comedies. Having put the sexuality back into Private Lives, he now visually redefines Hay Fever and pulls off the daring…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonThe new artistic director's ensemble give fine performances but this pairing raises questions about staging ShakespeareIn this pairing of two plays performed by th…
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsJoe Murphy directs an adaptation of the 2015 thriller with Jill Halfpenny playing an amateur sleuth drawn to the case of a missing womanSurveying an elliptical…
Birmingham RepCalixto Bieito's intense theatrical collage brings together four first-rate actors and the miraculous Heath QuartetCalixto Bieito, as anyone who has seen his productions of Cal…
Wyndham's, LondonMichael Grandage directs a well-judged revival of John Logan's play about the artist and his assistant 'Make something new," the painter Mark Rothko urges his young assistan…
Ustinov Studio, BathIonesco's imperfect study of a power-crazed monarch facing death is helped by a powerful performance from Alun ArmstrongIn early plays such as The Bald Prima Donna and Th…
Her Majesty's, LondonWe have had some pretty grim experiences in musical theatre in recent years. We have seen people turned into roller-skating ciphers, dwarfed by laser-beams and sententio…
Hampstead theatre, LondonRajiv Joseph's ambitious three-hour drama features an outstanding performance from David BirrellIt is tough luck on Rajiv Joseph that his play, first seen in Houston…
Theatre Royal Haymarket, London Sergey Kuryshev shines as a nuclear scientist stuck in a moral maze in this vivid staging of Vasily Grossman's sprawling novelConsciously modelled on War and …
Bridge theatre, LondonClaire Skinner is outstanding as a bereaved mother trying to save her farm in Barney Norris's poignant new play, but the venue overwhelms the drama's delicacy All the q…
Park theatre, LondonThe president's war on illegal immigrants is taken to its logical conclusion " a heartening sign that dramatists are responding with something stronger than lampoonsHow d…
National, LondonThis is an odd evening: one in which Brian Cox gives us a dramatised reading of Vladimir Nabokov's novel in a potted, two-hour version by Richard Nelson. It prompts two quest…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonPlays about painters are fraught with difficulty. Either the hero preaches about art without practising it, or the Bohemian lifestyle supersedes the work. But John Lo…
Vaudeville, LondonEdward and Freddie Fox, as a father and son, are the star turn in this stylish revival of Wilde's send-up of a money-mad societyRailing against fashionable society's overpo…
Old Vic, London A row over intellectual property is at the heart of a fascinating and topical drama starring Ben Chaplin and Seána KerslakeJoe Penhall is very good at showing how a crisis…
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonThere are strong performances in Eric Whyman's swift production but it doesn't solve the problems of the playIn 1845, the American Charlotte Cus…
Dorfman, LondonNatasha Gordon's impressive debut about living between two cultures gains extra resonance in the light of the Windrush scandalThere's a key moment in Natasha Gordon's highly i…
Roger Michell's film Nothing Like a Dame brings four legends together " and evokes decades of brilliant performancesSometimes the best ideas are the simplest. The wheeze of bringing together…
Chichester festival theatrePlayed as a broad farce, Sean Foley's revival starring Rufus Hound ignores Noël Coward's faultless verbal stylingsRufus Hound, whose recent roles include Mr Toa…
Lyttelton, LondonJoe Hill-Gibbins gives Rodney Ackland's drama the full expressionist works in a production full of visual bravuraAt the curtain call for this revival of Rodney Ackland's 195…