Michael Billington recalls that he was "bowled over" by the performance of St Mark's Gospel given in 1978 by Alec McCowen. So too were very many of us, including a group of Anglican worshipp…
In the 50s, Arthur Miller used 17th-century Salem to comment on the 'red scare'. His drama is chillingly pertinent in the first weeks of Trump's presidencyIs The Crucible the ultimate post-t…
We need a rebirth of political comedy: preaching to the converted about Trump and Brexit isn't going to be enoughMelissa McCarthy's Saturday Night Live impersonation of Sean Spicer, the Whit…
The Bunker theatre, LondonExaggerating the element of chance in Arthur Schnitzler's play slows it down, removes vital sexual tension and makes it feel old-fashionedLove, apparently, makes th…
Crucible, SheffieldDan Gillespie Sells has a lot to offer musical theatre, but this Billy Elliot-style story about a northern teen drag queen lacks dramaA northern working-class lad strikes …
Card whose receipt Bernard Shaw noted in his diary is identified in uncatalogued album and will go on displayOn 14 February 1886, George Bernard Shaw wrote in his diary: "Got a handsome Vale…
The Other Room, CardiffLucy Rivers' show, inspired by the case of Ruth Ellis, hanged in 1955, uses a clever conceit to tell a story of music, murder and motherhoodA microphone suddenly sugge…
The filmed staging of the hit Broadway musical comes thrillingly close to replicating the live show " and its message is more relevant than everWho would have thought that one of the most po…
An upcoming piece of queer theatre by Declan Greene reflects uncomfortable truths for those it skewersThe faggots are burning. The fire alarm rings in gay couple Warren and Kim's angular Syd…
Love and connectedness are central themes in a dreamy, relaxation-inducing installation at MPavilion This year's MPavilion, Melbourne's temporary summer events venue that sits in the garden…
Growing a Hitler moustache was comedically interesting, but the routine also revealed a troubling liberal hypocrisy about raceHitler Moustache came from a slightly childish conceit: why is t…
My colleague Sally Grace, who has died aged 78, was a leading voice and speech specialist whose most recent role was with the boys and girls appearing in the West End stage show of Billy Ell…
Finborough, LondonThis new play heightens our awareness of the city as a sterile Shangri-La, but the arguments would carry greater weight if it was more balancedAlongside all the promotional…
In Between Time reveals a readiness to respond to the times with shows about refugees, race and togetherness, posing vital questions about an anxious worldI'm wearing headphones. In my ears,…
Often people just Asian assume Asian that Asian everything you Asian talk about Asian is just the Asian fact that you're AsianIt has become a rule that if I ever make any sort of joke about …
Gary McNair has created a show using verbatim testimonies from hundreds of interviewees to reveal the prevalence of a hidden, misogynistic male languageGary McNair has accosted a stranger. H…
Tamsin Greig is Malvolia in a gender-shifting Twelfth Night at the National Theatre, while the Traverse's brilliant Black Beauty does a final lap and Sherlock's Andrew Scott stars as HamletL…
New York medical examiner says death of comedian last month resulted from a predictable complication from procedureJoan Rivers died from low blood oxygen during a routine medical procedure t…
London Palladium, LondonThe US comedian's first standup show in the UK got personal with segments about the indignities of getting old and her resentment for her child-friendly reputation Th…
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, LondonThis superbly performed production of Pearl Cleage's drama gives a fierce sense of the conflict between belonging and the desire to escape Given the big …
Northern Stage, NewcastleDr Victoria Frankenstein is the gender-switched, life-creating star of Lorne Campbell's radical and illuminating gothic rebootThe year is 1831: debarred from attendi…
In Between Time at Arnolfini, BristolExquisite torture and infinite complexity are wrung from three performers, six words and scenario repeated like a demented Groundhog Day"Right, let's get…
Northern Stage, NewcastleSelma Dimitrijevic's adaptation, while daring in parts, is ultimately found wantingDr Frankenstein is translated from a he to a she: Victor becomes Victoria. As the …
The Vaults, LondonFrom the Great Gatsby to Martian odysseys and life in a refugee camp, south London plays host to worlds of possibilitySince 2011, the traditionally torpid theatrical weeks …
Hampstead theatre, LondonDespite fine performances, Laura Eason's 2009 play about two writers having a fling is too rooted in its timeLaura Eason's Sex With Strangers was first staged by Ste…