48 stories by "Rachel Williams"
It's that time of year again... here's View From the Circle's Top Ten shows of 2019.
Inua Ellams' writing is always so multifaceted and beautiful and this interpretation of Three Sisters is no exception, whether you have strong feelings on Chekhov or not.
The Antipodes is certainly not the play for you if you want an easy, purely entertaining night at the theatre. However, if you're willing to put in the effort and have something to chew over…
You'd be hard pressed to see a better version of Sam Shepard's play Ages Of The Moon.
Peter Gynt, a new adaptation of Ibsen's apparently unstageable Peer Gynt by David Hare, is a great success as a piece of writing and so much fun.
I really can't recommend Sweat highly enough. It's not just a great play, and a great production, it's an actually important one.
The writing is brilliant, the production is brilliant and it is brilliantly performed. I would love it if Hedgehog at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre were picked up a venue like The Bush and …
Small Island is an absolute joy and an overdue, no reservations at all, win for Rufus Norris at the NT. There's nothing else to say. Well except this: you must see it, immediately.
ANNA is such a great little show. It's a curiosity, certainly, and it is worth seeing for the technical bravado alone. But it's also an absolute belter of a thriller too, something which I d…
Rutherford and Son is not my cup of tea. No cup of tea has ever been as boring as this play is for one thing. The acting does just about salvage it, or at least stop it from being a complete…
Directed by Marianne (actual genius) Elliott and Miranda Cromwell and featuring an African American Loman family, this Death of a Salesman is the clearest, most moving and profound vision of…
First things first, how good a title for a play is Sad About The Cows? Pretty bloody good I would argue. It's also a pretty bloody good play, as it happens.
All My Sons may not be my favourite Arthur Miller play but The Old Vic's production of it is undeniably brilliant, especially the heavyweight and stunningly good cast.
Downstate at the National Theatre is a remarkable thing. An absolute masterpiece of writing, performed so sensitively and with such bravery.
Overall Going Through is just a beautiful thing. Gorgeous writing, a stonkingly good production and a brilliant cast. Seventy-five minutes of humanity and joy. Highly recommended.
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's script for Emilia at the Vaudeville Theatre is spectacularly good: funny, poignant, angry and inspiring. It's an amazing piece of theatre, yes, but it's also something…
I'm genuinely not sure Admissions could be done much better than it's done here. If you come expecting an entertaining comedy that will make you occasionally go 'oh actually that's a good po…
Look, as a piece of drama Alys, Always isn't the best thing you'll ever see. It's unlikely to be troubling the Olivier nominations next year I wouldn't think. But, actually, I sort of don't …
I really enjoyed and was really technically impressed with The American Clock. A decent play, in an amazing production by a truly visionary director, brought to life by a brilliant cast.
There's a line in Trial By Laughter, the new touring production of Ian Hislop and Nick Newman's play about freedom of the press, where one of the main characters says to the other: "But wher…
The way that the story of Violet is told elevates it to something really quite lovely, with huge emotional impact and a surprising timeliness.
Anomaly is a really exciting play. For all that it's hard to watch and challenging to process, it is immensely rewarding and a great hour of theatre all round. It's also an amazing showcase …
Somehow, despite the fact it's been around for about a billion years, it's taken me until 2019 to finally see War Horse on stage. Weird right? It's done the National Theatre, it's done the W…
Normally I do two of these " Top Ten Shows and Top Ten Performances " but this year I'm combining the two " plus some sundry other awards.
Currently my favourite partnership of Simon Russell Beale and Shakespeare is at work in The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (or Richard II if you prefer, and as the person typing this I v…
