The actor, who has died aged 80, had a thriving screen career but was also a terrific stage star and an essential member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre company Ronald Pickup, who has…
The star's long career, from her stage debut at 15 to her film, TV and literary success, reveals a shrewd talent who has risen to many a challenge Acting must be the best rejuvenation pill o…
Theatre Royal Stratford East's colourful history is documented in more than 100 boxes of material collected by actor Murray Melvin It is cheering to learn that the Murray Melvin Archive, doc…
The play Rossum's Universal Robots clearly belongs to the 1920s but its satirical take on the meeting of humans and machines is all too relevant today Not many plays introduce a new word to …
A new exhibition is devoted to the visual flair of a debonair playwright whose tastes are almost impossible to define Noël Coward was the epitome of style. Fittingly that is the subject o…
The late actor took on Brecht, Falstaff and panto and will be remembered for her collaborations with Joan Littlewood Peter Bradshaw on her film career Fame is a funny thing. Barbara Windsor …
Harwood's witty tribute to actors' endurance, with its echoes of King Lear, is likely to be his permanent claim on posterity I last saw Ronald Harwood, who has died aged 85, at Harold Pinter…
The giant street party has been cancelled. But there are still plans to celebrate the theatre that wowed young crowds, championed black playwrights and conjured finales from Italian cuisine …
Our series ends with a passionate play about gender politics and women's rights that still rings true When Elizabeth Robins's play was first produced in 1907, it was billed as "A Dramatic Tr…
James's rich dialogue and clashing-cultures theme make his country-house play worthy of a renewed offer Henry James had a love-hate relationship with the theatre. He had boyhood dreams of be…
The Peter Pan author caught Hitchcock's eye with a Hebridean ghost story about the intensity of mother-son relationships Read the rest of our Forgotten plays series I have neglected Scotland…
A drama in which the spirit of Jonathan Swift haunts a seance and an astonishingly brief update of the Oresteia confirm the poet's remarkable skills as a playwright Few plays are more forgot…
She has given unforgettable performances in Shakespeare, Chekhov and Shaw over her extraordinary 70-year career. Where's this great actor's damehood? The concept of the classical actor is fa…
She has played cops, rockers, monarchs and murderers. As Helen Mirren turns 75, we celebrate her astonishing career " and remember her letter to the Guardian that led to questions in parliam…
The critics howled derisively but this challenging story of the violence lurking beneath society's surface was a game-changer Where does it all begin? Is there a moment that marks a radical …
Reckord's unflinchingly honest social document pinned down the flaws in a UK education system that consigned an underclass to a dead-end future Why are there so few good plays about school l…
The collapse of the 1968 protests left this incisive political dramatist searching for answers " and his response delved brilliantly into the dilemmas of revolution Aside from Comedians (197…
It's time to accept artists know more about art than politicians. Without a proper plan, the industry will be decimated Dear Oliver Dowden, You presumably heard Boris Johnson, when asked at …
The writer unleashed her gift for black comedy to excoriate British attitudes to property and possessions in this sprightly drama Caryl Churchill is rightly admired for many qualities: her f…
This magnificently honest play about the Shelleys and Byron's summer of sexual experimentation raises difficult questions about the cost of utopian aspirations Howard Brenton's output is mas…
A Caribbean-set 'play of revolutionary dreams' acquires a chilling new relevance when protests confront the legacy of colonialism Although I admired its ambition, I was sceptical about The C…
Our series on forgotten theatre classics continues with Wertenbaker's stylish dissection of Thatcher-era morality I recently caught on BBC Four a repeat of Andrew Marr's History of Modern Br…
Our new series on lost theatre classics begins with an exceptional play about the dashed hopes of a middle-aged Jamaican woman When the theatrical lockdown ends, I suspect there will be a te…
He was our 'greatest theatrical architect', the creator of 150 magnificent buildings that delighted crowds from Glasgow to Blackpool to London. On the centenary of his death, we celebrate a …
A lengthy 2017 interview, to be streamed online, shows the acting great opening up about her craft and sharing priceless memories One of the many tantalising shows lost to the lockdown was …