2,441 stories by "Michael Billington"
'I've seen some woeful off-the-wall Shakespeare, including a Macbeth with Mark Rylance and Jane Horrocks where the sleepwalking Lady M peed on stage'Critics, like actors, need to avoid typec…
Hangar 858, RAF St Athan, Vale of GlamorganTwo summers ago, National Theatre Wales stunned us with a version of Aeschylus's The Persians set in a military training camp. Now the same directo…
Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon Continue reading...
Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonOn paper, it looked an intriguing prospect. In reality, the union of New York's experimental Wooster Group and the RSC on this cynic's Iliad proves strangely inferti…
Theatre Royal, BathTerry Johnson's dazzlingly original play reminds us that farce can be a vehicle for ideas. Even if the piece has lost some of its shock value since it was first seen at th…
Cottesloe, LondonIt doesn't matter a damn what I or my colleagues say about this adaptation of Mark Haddon's bestselling novel. Last night it was greeted with a great roar of approval. And, …
Courtyard, Stratford-on-AvonThis is not the first RSC Much Ado to be set in India. Veteran playgoers will recall John Barton's 1976 production, which set the action in a garrison town during…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonExile and emigration are constant themes of Irish drama. But Brian Friel's 1964 play, beautifully directed by Lyndsey Turner, lends fresh life to a stock situation in…
Criterion, LondonUnlike those theatre producers who regard the Olympics as an obstacle, Samuel Hodges, who founded Suffolk's High Tide festival, sees them as an opportunity. Accordingly he h…
Technical triumph showed Danny Boyle's great capacity for spectacle but was marred by strange shifts in toneWatching Danny Boyle's £27m spectacular, I was reminded of an old rhyme about a…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonHow to follow a phenomenal performance like Rooster Byron in Jerusalem? One answer is to play Shakespeare's dissembling double-Gloucester. And, although Mark Rylan…
Lyttelton, LondonHaving overcome his indifference to Shaw, Nicholas Hytner has now made the old boy a regular part of the National repertory. Once again the decision pays off handsomely, in …
Finborough, LondonIt show enormous enterprise for an unsubsidised theatre to stage a verbatim piece based on reports from inside Syria. One also has to applaud the courage of BBC corresponde…
Royal Court, LondonThis is one of the most disturbing evenings I have ever spent in a theatre. Stephen Emmott, an acclaimed scientist, stands in a re-creation of his cluttered Cambridge offi…
British Museum, LondonHow on earth do you represent Shakespeare in an exhibition? The short answer, in the exciting new show mounted by the British Museum in collaboration with the RSC, is t…
Olivier Theatre, LondonAlthough seldom seen, Timon of Athens always seems topical. It deals with a spendthrift hero who, fawned on when his credit is good, is rejected when poor and retreats…
Stephen Joseph Theatre, ScarboroughAlan Ayckbourn has always had an eye to the future, as we know from predictive pieces such as Henceforward and Communicating Doors. Now, in his 76th play, …
Three new Ibsen productions suggest our fascination with the sage of Skien hasn't waned. What keeps us so enthralled?"Do you think Shaw is coming back?" a student once rashly asked the late …
Can they rival Hamlet's final duel? And how do they channel all that concealed aggression?"A hit, a very palpable hit." How often have I heard that cry go up while watching the climactic due…
Jermyn Street, LondonImagine A Midsummer Night's Dream crossed with Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, and you get some idea of the wonderful weirdness of this early 1851 play by Ibsen only no…
Chichester festival theatreWhile Bertolt Brecht triumphs at the Chichester Minerva with Arturo Ui, George Bernard Shaw is blandly revived in the city's main house. In its angry indictment of…
Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonIt might at first seem odd to find Ibsen's tight-structured play forming the climax to a Festival of Chaos that has already brought us The Bacchae and Blood We…
Royal and Derngate, Northampton Continue reading...
Young Vic, LondonCarrie Cracknell's production certainly puts a new spin on Ibsen's 1879 classic. As if to remind us that this is a play about domestic revolution, Ian MacNeil's design revol…
Riverside Studios, LondonThis delightful piece, conceived by Adrian Fisher and Stuart Barham, celebrates the lives and careers of Noël Coward and Ivor Novello. They had a lot in common: b…
