De Beauvoir's novel gets an often charming but undemanding staging The Finborough has once again performed the miracle of creating a whole world in its intimate space: this time, inter-war …
New play about two sisters, death and hoarding is well written, but feels incomplete "They fuck you up your Mum and Dad; they may not mean to, but they do." These lines from Philip Larkin'…
★★★★★ GHOSTS, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH - Ibsen screams into 2025 in this perfect reimagining Ten years on, Gary Owen and Rachel O'Riordan top their triumphant Iphigeni…
New play about a sibling's death is well imagined and deeply felt, but a bit slender The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. Or words to that e…
Amy Ng's take on two Chinese titans needs more dramatic ballast The writer Amy Ng has made a sterling effort in digging up the true story behind her new play at the Kiln, Shanghai Dolls, but…
After his Olivier Award win for Oedipus, Robert Icke turns to a modern "monster" Are we really in "a new era of male anger, societal discontent and rage"? This is what Royal Court artistic d…
★ MIDNIGHT COWBOY, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Ambitious project overwhelmed by challenges Two misfits misfire in misconceived show It seems a bizarre idea. Take a pivotal film in America…
Writer-actor Keelan Kember floods the stage with a torrent of gags but few ideas Keelan Kember's play Thanks for Having Me may look like a vehicle for Kedar Williams-Stirling (Sex Education,…
Ionesco classic gets an entertainingly vivid and contemporary update Is the theatre of the absurd dead? In today's world, when cruel and crazy events happen almost daily, the idea that you …
★★★★ THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR, JERMYN STREET THEATRE One man play from 1960 given a compelling revival Alastair Whatley honours his subject in a quietly powerful…
★★★★ STILETTO, CHARING CROSS THEATRE Castrato finds comfort by the canals Quirky, operatic show won't please everyone, but will delight many That friend you have wh…
New play about motherhood and vampirism is disappointingly incoherent Motherhood is a high stress job. Ask any woman and they will tell you the same: sleepless nights, feeding problems and …
★★★ ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS - THE MUSICAL, THEATRE ROYAL BATH Ambitious new musical isn't slaying 'em in the aisles 1950s America feels a lot like 2020s America in…
Johnson Willis captures the anarchic energy and wit of the late guitarist Resurrecting the origins of old rock stars is becoming quite the thing, After cinema's Elton John, Freddie Mercury…
April De Angelis's 1993 play is a delightful if sketchy account of Restoration female actors Creatives " or creatures? In the 1660s, women " having been banned from working as actors in pre…
James Graham adds a neat coda to his ode to decency in sport With qualifying about to begin for the soccer World Cup, and England sporting a brand new manager, it's fitting that James Graham…
KT Tunstall's new score brings bite and momentum to a high octane evening Before there was Barbie: The Movie, before there was Legally Blonde, there was Clueless, the Valley Girl movie that …
Julia McDermott triumphs as a Californian weather girl coping with fires inside and outside her head Can Francesca Moody do it again? Fleabag's producer has brought Weather Girl to London, a…
New play about the game of Dungeons & Dragons explores fact and fantasy "The exercise of fantasy is to imagine other ways of life," says one of the role-players during a Dungeons & …
Jean-Philippe Daguerre tries to mix a farcical comedy of manners with the holocaust When Yasmina Reza's cerebral play Art arrived in London in 1996, we applauded it as a comedy. Now another…
★★★★ EDWARD II, SWAN THEATRE Rapid and racy adaptation draws on its writer's legend Putsch in the palace brings down a king who chose the wrong person to love "Do…
Perfectly judged performances enhance a subtle staging of Nick Payne's two-hander Nick Payne, the writer of Constellations, has created another 90-minute zinger for two actors. This one is m…
The Guyanese migrant experience of 1970s London gets the big-stage treatment Plays about the Windrush Generation are no longer a rarity, but it's still unusual for revivals of black British…
Missed opportunity to create a rich drama from this intriguing historical encounter Why is it so hard to write a decent play about Bach? Maybe, in part, because there are no words that can e…
Gaza play is both surreally humorous and finally devastating The war in Gaza has been going since 7 October 2023 " that's about 15 months. But it's strangely absent from British stages. Of …