New monologue about rage, racism and national identity is simply magnificent Is this an angry island? Although the British national character (if there is such a thing) has traditionally be…
Mike Bartlett's play has deepened in accordance with our divisive times It's not been three years since Albion premiered at the Almeida Theatre, since which time Brexit has happened a…
The audience is left squirming by an all-consuming performance about sexual consent in the social media era In a world where it was reported that a young English woman was gang raped with im…
Alan Cumming and Daniel Radcliffe lead a lively double bill "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness." Director Richard Jones has certainly taken Beckett's words to heart in this vividly comic, …
One woman barely speaks, the other can't be heard and two men interfere A work of genius isn't sacred, copyrighted territory. A great film may become a play, a novel a film; the adaptation s…
A strange meeting across the boundary of race: John Kani co-stars in his two-hander with Antony Sher John Kani's Kunene and the King is history in microcosm. Its premiere at the RSC last yea…
Chris Bush's retelling has feminist urgency, but lacks dramatic coherence Changing the gender of the title character "highlights the way in which women still operate in a world designed by a…
Excellent revival of Lucy Prebble's disturbing debut play about illegal desire Your sweet tooth can get you into trouble. Lots of trouble. In this revival of Lucy Prebble's provocative debut…
Cormac McCarthy two-hander tries an audience's patience Cormac McCarthy's two-hander, premiered at Chicago's mighty Steppenwolf Theatre in 2006, has by this point been everything short of a…
Ian Rickson's exemplary production relishes the nuances of Conor McPherson's adaptation Uncle Vanya must surely be the closest, the most essential of Chekhov's plays, its cast " just four ma…
Maxine Peake struggles to make the voice of reason heard in feminist history play History plays should perform a delicate balancing act: they have to tell us something worth knowing about th…
New play about female friendship is refreshingly original and dazzlingly exciting Tonight, I discovered the gasp index. Or maybe just re-dicovered. The what? The gasp index. It's when you se…
Overlong Sam Steiner play needs clarity to go with its compassion Armageddon would appear to be at the gates in Sam Steiner's intriguing if ramshackle play, a co-production between Paines P…
Current events lend urgency to this historical work "Take our country back!" is the rallying cry of the self-identified "real" Americans gathered to protest the arrival of immigrants.
New blood courses through the West End's longest-running musical Do you hear the people sing? In recent months, you're more likely to have heard news stories about the longest running West …
Athena Stevens confronts the challenges faced by wheelchair-users Scrounger is no comfortable evening in the theatre, for reasons both intentional and inadvertent. Athena Stevens' new pl…
Mischief Theatre and Penn & Teller mash-up Mischief Theatre's "Goes Wrong" oeuvre is now well established: broad humour combined with physical comedy and slapstick mishaps. Magic Goes Wr…
Quick-witted new play tackles a sibling bond in snapshots over 40 years The Tyler sisters start as they mean to go on: bickering. Middle sister Gail (Bryony Hannah) has come home from uni t…
An immortal lyricist and composer leaves us plenty to be joyful about How is it that, in the nearly 900 pages of Sondheim's collected lyrics with extensive comments Finishing the Hat and Loo…
The classics got a shake-up, while provocative new writing came mostly from America Political dysfunction and societal distress led many amongst us to the brink this year, so where better th…
Raw depiction of a community where dreams go to die Despair hangs like mildew over the small iron-ore mining town of Duluth, Minnesota, where dreams go to die, and the living haunt the clapp…
Mischief Theatre with another enjoyable farce Mischief Theatre is a wonder of modern commercial theatre. In 2008, group of young actors who had met at drama school started the ensemble " wri…
Late-arrival to the West End is broad, brash - and delightful Who knew? This West End premiere of the 2007 Broadway entry from the legendary songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb (Ch…
Mike Bartlett's Christmas cracker goes with a bang - eventually The prolific Mike Bartlett " from whose pen have leapt television series such as Doctor Foster and Press, as well as stage hit…
An interrogation of power, womanhood and the mythologies with which we surround ourselves History has corseted Elizabeth I with the title of "Virgin Queen" for centuries, but in Ella Hickson…