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…
The evening is as devastatingly moving as it is bitingly funny If Russia is, as Winston Churchill once so memorably said, "a riddle, wrapped inside a mystery, wrapped inside an enigma", then…
A resonant tragedy of mutual incomprehension, fresh from the Edinburgh Festival Neil Armfield's resonant, turbulent production of Kate Grenville's classic Australian novel The Secret River s…
Energetic two-hander offers a sparky portrait of a transforming city This witty street-smart play about a white-skinned boy born to a mixed-race mother deploys its narrative with the dexteri…
Navigating the script is a bit like going in a car with a driver who's just passed their test This lovingly lo-tech visit to galaxies far far away is a curious proposition, which, while neit…
Nicholas Hytner's vivacious 21st-century take shines like a disco glitterball Nicholas Hytner's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bridge Theatre is a feat of exuberant brilliance, a gender-ju…
A moving antidote to fast-paced narratives and rampant individualism Our Town was written shortly before World War Two about a small town in America in the years leading up to World War One,…
A simultaneously sweeping and intimately human production Mammon and Yahweh are the presiding deities over an epic enterprise that tells the story not just of three brothers who founded a ba…
Roy Williams revival looks beyond the headlines to see the codes, complexity and camaraderie of crime We are living in a time when gang culture rips and roars its way down London streets, an…
The production's levity eviscerates the underpinning emotional realities Often the greatest works of dramatic absurdism spring from the worst extremes of human experience, whether it's Iones…
A soaringly irreverent postmodern caper through shifting attitudes to homosexuality A loo with fuschia-pink carpet to catch splashback; an Archbishop of Canterbury who's in it for the skirts…
A spikily poignant reminder of humanity in politically dark times In an age where political, social, and gender norms seem to be in perpetual meltdown, it should be pretty much impossible fo…
Adjoa Andoh is a magnetic Richard with her hawk-like glare and vigorous swagger Richard II has become the drama of our times, as it walks us through the impotent convulsions of a weak and va…
Anna Washburn's play for the Almeida achieves lift-off in the West End As China and the US arm-wrestle for world-domination in everything from trade to military power, we find ourselves in t…
This dark comedy raises disturbing questions about sound and intimacyTwo men called "Massimo" face the audience, one very tall, one very, well, minimo. The tall Massimo (Tom Espiner, picture…
Sex and technology run like faultlines through this workThere is no doubt that this Cherry Orchard, whirled into town by Roman Abramovich from Moscow, is going to be divisive. If you, lik…
Revolution is about youth, music, anger, and - frankly - sexIs there a connection between revolution and theatre? The answer has to be yes " a visceral one. The supremacy of symbols, the col…
Revelations that should feel toxic seem tepidTheatrical alchemy is eternally slippery.
Shakespeare's study of flawed leadership becomes a paralable for our ageJoe Hill-Gibbins' uncompromising production of The Tragedy of Richard II for the Almeida hurtles through Shakespe…
Justin Audibert's production excels at portraying the book's alchemical qualitiesIf you're looking for a Christmas with more pagan edge than saccharine cheer, where the wolves are …