HEART WALL Bush Theatre, W12 by Libby Purves and Friends

UNIVERSAL ,  INTIMATE, TRUE             Sometimes  it’s more than worth it to flog irritably  through a London strike day, make it without even time for a drink  but find someth…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 7:18am on April 23, 2026☆⚑

A MIRRORED MONET Charing Cross Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

IMPRESSIONS AND OBSESSIONS    The old `Players' Theatre has a good eye of oddball new musicals, cheap enough to sample before anyone's train home. And here off-Broadway's Carmel Owe…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 9:56am on April 10, 2026☆⚑

THE OLD LADIES Finborough Theatre, Earls' Court by Libby Purves and Friends

A SHUDDER FROM THE PAST I came to this fresh from admiring two 76-year-olds , Anna Wintour and Meryl Streep, being painfully cool and haughty in a trailer plugging Devil Wears Prada 2.   …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 8:38am on April 9, 2026☆⚑

COPENHAGEN Hampstead Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

FRIENDSHIP, BRILLIANCE, DOUBT        The universe as a bundle of unknowable of approximates:  Relativity and Complementarity, Uncertainty theory, quantum mechanics, particles …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 4:49am on April 8, 2026☆⚑

THE AUTHENTICATOR Dorfman, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A HOUSE OF ANCIENT SHAME         What terrible secrets lie in an impressive yet spooky mansion,  with artful descending ceilings and a trapdoor designed by Jon Bausor ?  We…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 9:25am on April 3, 2026☆⚑

IN THE PRINT Kings Head Theatre, Islington by Libby Purves and Friends

RUPERT AND BRENDA     Couldn't miss this piece of 40th anniversary history by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky because I had a very small "  infinitestimal "  dog in this fight. I wa…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 6:05am on April 2, 2026☆⚑

HENRY V Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon by Libby Purves and Friends

    CRY HAVOC!   Director Tamara Harvey, who gave us that beautiful, thoughtful PERICLES last year (also starring Alfred Enoch),  is not one to interpret Henry V in the stormingl…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 7:41pm on March 24, 2026☆⚑

VINCENT IN BRIXTON Orange Tree, Richmond by Libby Purves and Friends

TOO DEEP FOR TEARS Perhaps this imagining of the young Vincent  gains extra power after the emotional hit of the recent Van Gogh at Arles exhibition; starry nights and wonder lie fresh in…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 8:14am on March 21, 2026☆⚑

AETHER Jermyn st theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

REACH FOR THE LIMITLESS STARS       This 70-minute squib was a big Fringe hit, though one clenched reviewer suggested that it could only appeal to those who love physics.  This f…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 6:14am on March 20, 2026☆⚑

SUMMERFOLK Olivier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

SECOND HOME HOLIDAY HELL IN OLD RUSSIA       Watch a Chekhov play,  and however deep the characters' despair and disappointment you feel the author's love, just as you do f…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 8:44am on March 18, 2026☆⚑

YENTL          Marylebone theatre, NW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

MYSTICISM AND MISCHIEF         This extraordinary show from Kadimah Yiddish Theatre, based on Isaac Bashevis Singer's story (and absolutely not with  the Streisand movie…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 4:04am on March 12, 2026☆⚑

THE HOLY ROSENBERGS Menier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

BROKEN HEARTS AND MACAROONS: A DISTANT WAR CLOSE TO HOME          How is it for a family to be a symbol, focus and vortex of murderous global disharmony?   The Rosenbergs k…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 5:56am on March 10, 2026☆⚑

THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES Mercury Theatre, Colchester by Libby Purves and Friends

A DARKNESS FROM THE PAST, WITH MODERN ECHOES           Fittingly in ou age of outing, condemnation and cancellation there have within a twelvemonth been three plays about t…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 5:58am on March 6, 2026☆⚑

BROKEN GLASS Young Vic SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

1939:  GLOBAL MOMENT , INTIMATE PAIN      There are some tremendous moments  in the last ten minutes of this late-period Arthur Miller play: some from Pearl Chanda as Sylvia,�…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 7:40am on March 4, 2026☆⚑

UKRAINE UNBROKEN Arcola, Dalston by Libby Purves and Friends

A THOUGHTFUL ANGER        We need to know and feel something beyond the daily global news; sometimes theatre can place us carefully and mercilessly in the room and try to make us…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 5:38am on March 3, 2026☆⚑

EASY VIRTUE Arts Theatre, Cambridge by Libby Purves and Friends

A 1920's BIRD OF PARADISE IN THE HENCOOP    Trust Trevor Nunn to make this a bit of an event: a rarely-seen Noel Coward play set with ferocious accuracy and style in its birth-year 192…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 6:40pm on February 24, 2026☆⚑

BIRD GROVE Hampstead Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

THE MARY ANN WHO BECAME GEORGE ELIOT      It's 1842; Bird Grove is the handsome house near Coventry which Robert Evans bought in his retirement from managing a grand estate. With he…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 4:48am on February 24, 2026☆⚑

IOLANTHE Wilton's Music Hall, E1 by Libby Purves and Friends

PEERLESS,  COMPLETE WITH PEERESSES     Melodious romantic yearning and extreme nonsense, Victoriana sending itself up in rap-speed pattering rhyme and lovesick fairies invading the …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 6:15am on February 20, 2026☆⚑

I'M SORRY PRIME MINISTER Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue by Libby Purves and Friends

GAGS BEFORE GRAVITAS  They're a national treasure:Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey,  inventions of Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay long before the age of Spads and WhatsApps.  The TV shows…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 5:36am on February 13, 2026☆⚑

MAN AND BOY. Dorfman, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

WICKED ECHOES FROM ANOTHER DEPRESSION          Well, here's something oddly familiar!  A legendary international financier with charm, vast wealth, grubby fingers in many p…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 6:42pm on February 10, 2026☆⚑

RED ROSE CHAIN AND JOANNA CARRICK by Libby Purves and Friends

This is an adapted version of a piece I wrote for The Times on 19 January. Following Joanna Carrick's funeral on Friday, it seems right to put it up here, because theatre pioneers and projec…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 1:42pm on February 8, 2026☆⚑

THE RAT TRAP Park Theatre Finsbury Park N by Libby Purves and Friends

SLY USEFUL OBSERVATION…MARRIAGE OF EQUALS Noel Coward was a lad of 18 when he finished this very adult portrait of a marriage in trouble, invalided out of the army, nervous and tuber…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 5:53am on February 3, 2026☆⚑

CHRISTMAS CAROL GOES WRONG Apollo WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

A VERY GREAT TALENT TO AMUSE         Rival psychopathies emerge from the first moments of "Cornley Drama Society" as Chris (Daniel Fraser) and Robert (Henry Lewis) face off  a…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 7:55am on December 20, 2025☆⚑

OH MARY! Trafalgar Theatre SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

OH DEAR…     Event theatre!  New from NY!     It got Tony and Pulitzer nominations,  and smart Broadway people called it "heartwarming:  and "best crafted and exacting…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 9:46am on December 19, 2025☆⚑

CHRISTMAS DAY Almeida, NW by Libby Purves and Friends

UNDER AN ALIEN TREE    The suffering and the pity of Gaza affects us all:  bitter division on the streets,  hysterical demonstrations feeding a violently rising antisemitism. And…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 3:35am on December 18, 2025☆⚑