An ingenious depiction of the artist's gravity-defying love One of Marc Chagall's last commissions was for a stained-glass window in Chichester Cathedral, which channelled his characteristic…
It's a true achievement to feel the chemistry of a cast whirring into action again The Prohibition-era setting of The Great Gatsby brings an appropriately illicit feel to this bold dec…
Alan Bennett's monologues make us reflect on our own little worlds For some of us, it doesn't take a lockdown to imprison us in our own hellish little world. Since his first series of dramat…
Theatre itself become an act of rebellion against the microbe For a riveting, cathartic " and often surprisingly humorous " 50 minutes Ralph Fiennes paces the stage at the Bridge Theatre to …
As Mozart, Adam Gillen erupts onto the stage as a Tourette's tornado It is 41 years since Peter Shaffer ripped off Mozart's respectable façade to reveal a foul-mouthed verbally incontinen…
Helen McCrory is the broken, irreparable heart of this production Helen McCrory is an actor who can inject a world of feeling into one syllable that many actors would struggle to muster in a…
Food crimes of the Sixties and Seventies are revealed here as Michelin-starred memories I knew what a Howard Hodgkin painting would look like before I ever saw one because of Nigel Slater. T…
A story told with the wit and elegance of a tune played on a harpsichord It has been the fate of George III " who on many levels was a visionary and accomplished monarch " to go down in hist…
The power of the mob still resonates in a production that speaks powerfully to our times An arrogant leader contemptuous of his people. Could there be a more perfect timing for Josie Rourke'…
James Graham acutely perceives the obsessions and motivations of our times There is a line of argument that " unfairly " blames playwright James Graham for Dominic Cummings. Would Cummings, …
Barbershop banter and the place it occupies in black male identity Barber shops " as we are all starting to appreciate in this time of lockdown " fulfil an emotional as much as a cosmetic ro…
Robert Lepage seizes on the fragments of human lives to build an epic If you want to pinpoint the genius of Robert Lepage's multi-faceted seven-hour epic, that has returned to the National T…
Paul Kember's play doesn't sing convincingly any more It may seem strange to watch a play about four English people on a kibbutz in the Seventies, and find yourself thinking about Brexit, bu…
In the #Metoo era, the exploitation of the female characters is particularly resonant This raunchy, gleefully cynical production takes one of Thomas Middleton's most famous tragedies and tur…
Joe Crilly believed in skewering the romance surrounding sectarian violence The news that the Continuity IRA created a bomb destined for England on Brexit Day has added to the timeliness of …
Raw depiction of a community where dreams go to die Despair hangs like mildew over the small iron-ore mining town of Duluth, Minnesota, where dreams go to die, and the living haunt the clapp…
An interrogation of power, womanhood and the mythologies with which we surround ourselves History has corseted Elizabeth I with the title of "Virgin Queen" for centuries, but in Ella Hickson…
A stunning tribute to the wild and wonderful life of the mind This scary, electrically beautiful adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book about living on the faultline between imagination and realit…
An electric interpretation in which the White Witch " like the devil " has all the best tunes We all remember that moment when we walked through the back of the wardrobe: the heaviness of th…
The script misses all that was distinctive about Berlin and Akhmatova's meeting How do you begin to dramatise one of the most extraordinary conversations of the 20th century between two of i…
Wendell Pierce confirms a performance as exciting as any this theatrical year It is 70 years since Willy Loman first paced a Broadway stage; 70 years since audiences were sucked into the vor…
 RSC transfers works best when it engages with the complex emotions of the play Even the most ardent Bardophile has to admit that most of the time the Fool doesn't shine in a Shakespeare…
A potent anatomy of how words and power intertwine At a point in history where " yet again " a few misplaced words from English politicians could wreak havoc with Irish lives, this is a welc…
First-time playwright Ruby Thomas is a daring and exciting new voice This ingenious short work deftly investigates themes of love and identity with a breezy assurance that marks first tim…
Incisive, intelligent and deeply moving The Permanent Way first roared its way into the national consciousness in 2003 when, after a triumphant opening in York, it toured the UK before tr…