Forgotten play by the author of Tom & Viv is realistic, but lacks dramatic focus British Theatre abounds in forgotten writers. And in ones whose early work is too rarely revived. One su…
★★★ THE GOOD JOHN PROCTOR, JERMYN STREET THEATRE Witch Hunt play fails to fly An overdue response to 'The Crucible', but very much rooted in its place, if not its time I…
Poltergeist activity in the suburbs remains earth-bound Reports of supernatural events are always met with either willing belief or dismissive scepticism. The "camps" generally don't have mu…
★★★★ 1979, FINBOROUGH THEATRE Comedy-drama set in 1970s Canadian politics proves much more interesting than it sounds! There's fun and profundity in the thick of Otta…
The National Theatre fielded hit after hit, and smaller venues scored as well Wait, and your wishes are answered. That seemed to be the case during the theatre year just gone, following on f…
Jonathan Spector is a Stoppard fan, but might Mamet have been better? How do you make a play out of Stalin's defecting daughter Svetlana, the psycho-economic theories of Daniel Kahneman and …
Jack Thorne's backstage Gielgud-Burton 'Hamlet' drama is full of compassion Plays about the theatre tend to go down well with audiences. Why wouldn't they? The danger is that they become too…
Les Enfants Terribles can't work their usual magic at the QEH There are probably two distinct audiences for the latest adaptation from Les Enfants Terribles, The House with Chicken Legs: the…
Nina Raine's revival of Tom Stoppard's 2006 epic rocks, but also stumbles There is a song by Syd Barrett, founder member of Pink Floyd, called "Golden Hair". It's on his album The Madcap Lau…
Monsters of ego clash in David Ireland's demolition of posturing theatre types David Ireland's Edinburgh Fringe hit Ulster American is essentially a play about a play that a Hollywood big…
The Netflix hit broadens its beguiling story with this thrilling, high-powered stage production Stranger Things has shown us over four seasons that the alternate dimension known as the Upsid…
Grit, authenticity and raucous comedy in a five-woman soccer show You can keep your Cinderellas, your Aladdins, your wannabe Lord Mayors of London. The way forward with Christmas shows is cl…
Beautiful Elvis Costello songs and stirring music underpin a fine adaptation There's a touch of Dr Zhivago about director PaweÅ‚ Pawlikowski's screenplay for his 2018 film Cold War. It…
★★★★ A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK, THEATRE503 Russian tale resonates far beyond Moscow Roxy Cook's dramedy has echoes of Chekhov in its melding of comedy and tragedy We'…
★★★ PANDEMONIUM, SOHO THEATRE Armando Iannucci finds some laughs but nothing fresh If you're ready for more gags about Boris Johnson's House of Horrors administration, t…
Stephen Sondheim's fascinating 1976 show enriches aurally and, this time round, visually This is, by my reckoning at least, the third major London production over the years of Pacific Overt…
Chris Thorpe's one-man show about nuclear weapons is intelligent and humane Let's start with what we know: the climate emergency is the single most burning question facing the planet. Our li…
Unsettling investigation of patriarchal family and sexual relationships has uneven force As the audience enters, thick mist envelopes the thrust stage and jazz music fills the theatre. The s…
Terrific showcase for writer-director Kwame Owusu and his performer Kwame Owusu's 55-minute one-hander does just what it says on the tin: it features a young student who dreams he is drowni…
★★★★★ £1 THURSDAYS, FINBOROUGH THEATRE Beautifully delivered by two sensational leads Seldom does one see a writer's vision so perfectly realised on stag…
Annie Baker delivers a richly satisfying piece about hungry women A sun deck with seven pale-green padded loungers is the latest setting for the latest National Theatre premiere from Ame…
Seasonal Eng Lit mash-up returns with its festive message of forgiveness It's an elementary fact that Dickens sells at this time of year " look at all the perennial Christmas Carols sproutin…
★★★★ MACBETH, THE DEPOT War in a warehouse scores on its beautiful line readings and spectacle Touring show lands first in Liverpool with a terrifying relevance Next …
Mischief Theatre's sight gags are faultlessly timed, though the verbals need a trim Mischief Theatre set themselves a big challenge when they evolved their brand of knowing slapstick. And n…
Harriet Walter is a toweringly monstrous matriarch in Lorca's tale of cruelty and repression Rebecca Frecknall opened 2023 with a youthful, visceral, and brutal Streetcar Named Desire …