2,436 stories by "Michael Billington"
After 10 years, Spacey is stepping down from the London theatre he called home. There have been some resounding flops but he delivered the goods " and was a delight to watch on stageWhen it …
Tom Stoppard's fierce, unrelenting opposition to the abuse of human rights makes him the ideal recipient of the Pinter/PEN prizeIn Antonia Fraser's book, Must You Go?, detailing her life wit…
The Bridge, LondonLondon's first commercial theatre for 80 years opens with a pugnacious comedy about the early days of the political visionary " and shameless sponger Given the abundance of…
Almeida, LondonLynn Nottage's play arrives in London laden with American honours. And rightly so, since it offers a graphic portrait of women as perennial victims of war. More than that, it …
County Hall, LondonLucy Bailey's production of Agatha Christie's ingenious courtroom drama fits perfectly in this debating chamberWe seem to be going back in time. Oscar Wilde's A Woman of N…
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonThe quiet life of an elderly Jewish musician is disrupted by an aristocratic German woman in this exploration of guilt, reparation and rootlessnessWhat does it m…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonNikki Amuka-Bird is superb in a production that transposes the story to the Caribbean in the 1950s and is directed with panache by Kwame Kwei-ArmahIbsen can benefit f…
Almeida theatre, LondonVictoria Hamilton is on breathtaking form as a grieving mother in the Doctor Foster writer's richly layered play inspired by Chekhov's The Cherry OrchardGardens often …
Minerva, ChichesterIt would be nice to think that Caryl Churchill's 1982 play, written during the rise of Thatcherism, now looks dated. In fact, it seems terrifyingly topical in its portrait…
Vaudeville, LondonBest brings fierce emotional intensity, Eleanor Bron is a velvet-voiced aristo and Anne Reid delivers Victorian ballads in Dominic Dromgoole's fine revivalA West End Oscar …
An exhibition of highlights from the NT's archive triggers memories of striking productions and shows how the poster imprints a play on the public's imaginationTheatre posters are by definit…
National Theatre, London David Eldridge's new play is a poignant real-time examination of relationships with two damaged people reaching out at the end of a partyTwo lonely, damaged people c…
Olivier theatre, London Rory Mullarkey pits the knight of folklore against the tyrannies facing Britain in three eras of history " and finds today's foe is the hardest to pin downThe Nationa…
Vaudeville, LondonThe unfairly talented actor recalls a career that has taken him from Olivier's National to British film comedies and Broadway in this exuberant solo showCan it be true? The…
Lyttelton, LondonIn 1746, Carlo Goldoni wrote a classic comedy normally translated as The Servant of Two Masters. Richard Bean has used it for a riotous farce combining the original's struct…
Garrick theatre, London The horror-movie spoof is gleefully reanimated for the stage with even more jokes, superb set-pieces and barnstorming parody songs that stick a pitchfork into good ta…
Wyndham's, LondonAnne-Marie Duff and Kenneth Cranham are excellent in an immaculately designed production of Simon Stephens' fable about love and physics This production has an impressive pe…
Royal Court, LondonSharon Duncan-Brewster and Jonjo O'Neill star in Chris Thorpe's play which offers a bleak view of the world as a desolate wasteland This apocalyptic piece by Chris Thorpe …
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonReal-life couple Samantha Bond and Alexander Hanson star in this shrewd companion piece to The Truth, as a pair whose marriage is a labyrinth of deceit Floria…
Jimmy Porter takes on class, religion, politics and the press in Osborne's classic 1956 play " but its real revolution lay in its thrilling linguistic exuberanceIn the summer of 1955 an adve…
Barbican, LondonA revival of the Japanese director's 1985 production, filled with cherry blossom, poetically explores the obsession for power " and its emptinessThis production by Yukio Nina…
Young Vic, LondonErin Doherty emerges as one of the year's great discoveries with a stunning performance as the young American desperate to rectify the world's injusticesTime changes things.…
Chichester Festival theatre Blanche McIntyre's mordantly comic revival of the 1973 trilogy spotlights the plays' sadnesses along with their orgiastic frenzies Related: Blanche McIntyre: the …
Cottesloe, LondonWith plays such as My Child and Contractions, Mike Bartlett has established a reputation as a theatrical miniaturist. Now he has written a big, epic, expansive play about cl…
Noël Coward theatre, London Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig give sparkling performances as a reforming MP and his constituency agent fighting through Labour's fluctuating fortunes James G…
