2,446 stories by "Michael Billington"
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 …
Dramatists have long focused on the agonies and irritations of self-imposed or enforced isolation
'I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space," says Hamlet. H…
This is the art form that makes us feel most acutely human. We are going to need it more than ever
How will society cope with the total shutdown of theatres for the foreseeable future? It wi…
A versatile master of stage, radio and TV, Hudd survived changes in popular taste through his good-hearted skill
I last saw Roy Hudd, who has died at the age of 83, at a lunch organised by t…
From Olivier's strangled fury to Ralph Fiennes' Oedipal embraces, this complex political play is extraordinarily flexible
'The tragedy of Coriolanus is one of the most amusing of our author'…
To kick off our critical tour of Europe's cultural hotspots, Michael Billington reports on thrilling theatre in a post-slump Greece " from a minimalist Doll's House to Beckett like he's neve…
The playwright's new work has been seen as a departure from his intellectual stock-in-trade. But look deeper, and passion has always been present
What kind of writer is Tom Stoppard? In coun…
The Royal Shakespeare Company has vowed to drill the Bard's rhythms into its actors " but our alienation from his language runs deeper
'Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to y…
The former RSC director had a stellar career, seeing the depth in derided plays and restoring the Histories to their rightful stage
I was saddened to hear of the death of Terry Hands at the …
From Rome to Paris to London, Uncle Vanya delivers fresh meanings wherever and whenever it's performed
Which is Chekhov's greatest play? It tends to be the one you've seen most recently. But…
Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonAstrid Lindgren's nine-year-old rebel is suitably anarchic and altruistic in a festive musical show that leaves you chuckling
I've come late in life to Astrid …
Katori Hall gave us a miracle, Caryl Churchill delivered a dark quartet and Tom Hiddleston astounded in Betrayal. But the year's highlight was a breathtaking Ibsen with Hayley Atwell
More on…
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonElla Hickson's Elizabeth I story vividly portrays her battles with men and a patriarchal system but doesn't make a strong case for contemporary parallels
Ella …
Donmar Warehouse, LondonMike Lew's American update of Shakespeare, directed by Michael Longhurst, captures the king's complexity
Mike Lew's relocation of Richard III to a US high school is p…
Royal Court, London Race and relationships are the focus of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's deeply moving drama that presents an honest picture of multi-cultural Britain
There's a great story by Dost…
Lyttelton, LondonBuoyed by first-rate performances, this production transforms the Russian classic into an eye-opening account of the Biafran war
Inua Ellams describes his new play, his firs…
11 December 1972: on the evidence of recent shows, the musical is in dead trouble: the more one watches dancers catapulting across the stage as if fired from a cannon and leading ladies bari…
With shows such as Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Six and The Boy in the Dress, the musical is in rude health in this country " whether Broadway knows it or not
Has the British musical los…
Playhouse, LondonVisual flummery and the famous nose are dispensed with in Martin Crimp's modern take on Rostand's proxy-wooing play
This version of Edmond Rostand's play, as adapted by Mart…
