3,489 stories from The Arts Desk
Ivo van Hove's stage version of Hanya Yanagihara's bestseller is a real misery fest
Wow! James Norton naked! Wow! New play by Ivo van Hove. Wow! It's four hours long. Wow! Wow! Wow! The much…
A terrific ensemble make an exhilarating plea for Black boys with blighted lives
For a show that comes with a trigger warning about the themes of racism, gang violence, toxic relationships, …
A reprehensible man treats women badly, but the political magic is left entirely unexplored
One wonders if Ricky Simmonds and Simon Vaughan pondered long over their debut musical's title. S…
Murder in the forest
Complicité, the adventurous theatre company led today by Simon McBurney, one of its founders, is now 40. Over the last four decades, McBurney and his collaborators hav…
Debut play about sex, race and queerness is a disappointing mishmash
The act of idol worship is, at one and the same time, both distantly ancient and compellingly contemporary. Whether it is…
White-heat Strindberg from Norwegian actors undeterred by technical hitches
You don't have to be Scandinavian to act out Strindberg's fantastical extremes at the highest level, but I've not …
Mark Gatiss and Ian Hallard's ABBA tribute is fun, but clunky
Is it a good idea to work with your spouse? The Way Old Friends Do, a love letter to ABBA tribute bands " which premiered at th…
Pulitzer finalist asks how good an ally is modern technology
Artificial intelligence has become an even hotter topic since Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime was first staged in Los Angeles in…
Empathetic revival of Zinnie Harris's 2000 play about a lost world
Some plays are instantly forgettable, others leave a tender fold in the memory. I well remember seeing Zinnie Harris's evo…
Nicholas Hytner and a crack cast deliver a fresh take on the classic musical
It now seems an inevitability that Marisha Wallace will be a frontrunner at next year's theatre awards, not just…
Willy Russell's play gets a renewed lease on life
Can lightning strike twice? Very much so, when it comes to Shirley Valentine, Willy Russell's much-revived solo play which I saw back in th…
Enda Walsh's second drama on now about ritualised isolation is mesmerising
Commuting between London and Dublin has its fascinations.10 days ago, I saw for the first time at the Southwark Pla…
It's more adult panto than mature musical, with the sauce liberally ladled on
If you are hoping for some harmless fun at The Great British Bake Off Musical, probably with a few dodgy jokes a…
Joseph Charlton's 2018 play revived on the back of his subsequent West End success
It never hurts the trajectory of a promising young playwright if they have a good eye for the zeitgeist, a…
Evanna Lynch heads up wan troubles-themed dark comedy
"Darkly comic thrillers" (as they like to say) set in Ireland tracking how families, or quasi-families, fall apart under pressure are ve…
A vivacious cast are great fun to hang out with
Can a play ever be a bit too much like real life? The thought came to me while watching Matilda Feyisayo Ibini's entertaining new play Sleepo…
Two theatres, one concept, but no lasting sparks from Shakespeare's tragi-comedy
As course after course of Noma-style creations are served up to Leontes and his guests " curious mouthfuls wi…
Tim Crouch's latest show intriguingly deconstructs theatre in a post-truth world
Has theatre's time passed? In Tim Crouch's latest 70-minute show, first staged at the Royal Lyceum Theatre i…
Ambitious but misconceived take on musical theatre landmark outstays its welcome
It is, perhaps, important to note that this production was first staged in London at the Young Vic, a venue …
Four spot-on performances confirm that Enda Walsh's queasy thriller is here to stay
The farce in question is fast and furious, but not often hilariously funny; that's because it's the invent…
Second instalment of urgent documentary drama condemns the system that let the tower burn
It's been five years since 72 people died in the Grenfell Tower fire in West London. Five years and …
Rising star Lulu Raczka offers an ambitious if erratic tale of witchcraft and civil war
A man in modern garb reads a tabloid newspaper and makes smarmy wisecracks about the malaise of conte…
History play about an African-American GI in Cardiff never really takes off
With the fast-approaching anniversary of the latest war in Europe, our culture's continued fascination with World…
Michael John O'Neill's debut stirs up questions but not emotions
Michael John O'Neill's first full-length play, premiering at the Hampstead's studio space downstairs, is a puzzler. There's t…
Dominic Cooke's otherwise uneven production boasts formidable performances
What is one to do with Greek tragedy on the contemporary stage? For Simon Stone, whose Phaedra is currently playing…