The Royal Court hosted a moving celebration of Arnold Wesker. His early works such as Roots are well known " let's rediscover the rest of his 44 playsIf there is an ideal place to stage a ce…
Jermyn Street theatre, London A strong cast imbue Lillian Hellman's 1951 play with a keen malaise, though they are shackled by the author's enervating attitude towards her charactersA group …
Ustinov Studio, BathTwo nursing-home visitors watch their ailing parents strike up a romance in a play that explores the mysteries of the human heartIs sex the exclusive property of the unde…
Theatre Royal, BathAs the complex chaperone Charlotte Bartlett, Kendal is a pleasure to watch, but her presence unbalances this rich tale of middle-class self-discoveryThe presence of Felici…
Director Ivo van Hove's production has a sombre aesthetic beauty while Binoche avoids the easy path of pathosTeam Juliette Binoche with Ivo van Hove, director of A View from the Bridge, in G…
Watford Palace theatreTwo soldiers square up over an heiress in Brigid Larmour's production of this 1894 play that hints teasingly at Shaw's mature styleWhy would most producers rather cut t…
Menier Chocolate Factory, London Political and artistic revolutions collide in a sprightly revival, directed by Patrick Marber, highlighting the emotion as well as the erudition of this bril…
Old Vic, LondonDwan's vocal range is astonishing in her adaptation of Beckett's Texts for Nothing, but the ingenious staging still struggles to give physical life to mysterious proseLisa Dwa…
Finborough, LondonElmer Rice's 1923 satire about a browbeaten wage slave gets added musical spice in this savagely comic adaptationEuropean expressionism had a big impact on American theatre…
The French playwright's comedy has been packing audiences in worldwide for 20 years. What is the secret of its success?Twenty years ago Yasmina Reza's Art opened at the Comédie des Champs-E…
The play that burned down the Globe theatre in 1613, after a stage cannon ignited the thatch, is a potent farewell to this seriesIt seems strange to end this series of favourite Shakespeare …
Wilton's Music Hall, LondonThere are some striking performances in this musical about an explorer stuck underground, but too many of the lyrics are incomprehensibleA musical about a hero tra…
Young Vic, LondonThe director's new work based on the ancient text is one of aesthetic beauty and great skill, if less convincing as a parable of our times Three decades ago, Peter Brook's p…
Theatre Royal Haymarket, LondonCooper commands the stage as the Restoration rebel John Rochester in Stephen Jeffreys' portrait of debauchery and self-destructionDominic Cooper follows in the…
Shakespeare's Globe, London EastEnders actor Maddy Hill brings gutsy toughness as the heroine of this refocused Shakespeare adaptation, but Matthew Dunster's violent setting seems at odds wi…
Garrick, London This 1950s courtroom drama is an efficient piece of entertainment but is beginning to show its ageReginald Rose's script has had an incredibly long life. It first surfaced on…
Royal Court, LondonPerformed by an excellent cast, Suzan Lori-Parks's trilogy about the US civil war is riddled with Homeric allusions and seamlessly incorporates songs into the action Relat…
Prince Edward theatre, LondonThe opposing forces of communism and capitalism carry strange visual echoes in this production by Laurence ConnorSo how does Boublil and Schönberg's musical sta…
Rose, KingstonJohn Malkovich's immaculately staged version of Zach Helm's clever play about drug dependency and genius doesn't quite escape its sentimental conclusion John Malkovich is renow…
Theatre Royal HaymarketIt's a sign of how much our theatre has changed that Beckett's masterpiece, once seen as a subversion of West End theatre, now occupies one of its iconic temples. But …
Wyndham's theatre, LondonSean Mathias's production shows the comedy and bleakness in the story of a pub potman invited to a writer's luxurious homeWhen Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart joine…
Tara theatre, LondonTara's new theatre is an enticing venue for this adaptation of a medieval tale, with topical lessons, about lovers manipulated by religious ideology This vital multicultu…
Theatre Royal, BathClare Higgins and Tim Pigott-Smith trade blows with relish, but Adrian Noble's revival brings little fresh insight to Albee's classicWhen Peter Hall ran the Bath summer se…
Lyric HammersmithThis strongly cast British/Australian collaboration is a pleasure to watch but glibly assumes the strains of domestic life are the same the world overThe fraught family has …
The film, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, led Edward Albee's play to be remembered as a boozy marital slugfest. But it is as much about America itselfEdward Albee occasionally …