James Graham's Dickens project is structurally ambitious but doesn't add upIt sounds like a marriage made in heaven. Charles Dickens and James Graham " both great chroniclers of…
Cold War surveillance drama is interesting, but can't quite conceal its ageWe do love our spy stories, don't we? The idea of betrayal, both political and personal, seems to be a strong …
Authentic performances hit the mark"I'm not a number, I'm not a grade, and I'm not a failure." The 17-year-old girl stands in front of the small class, who gaze at her goggle-eyed. "A robot …
An ambitious celebratory series kicks off in fine fashionTen years after Pinter's death, Jamie Lloyd has set about honouring the Twentieth Century's outstanding British playwright in an ambi…
Supreme lucidity and two commanding performances make for a moving productionYou always wonder about those final scenes of Shakespeare's tragedies. Are they really needed dramatically; do th…
Psychedelic Shakespeare feels rather too charming for its own good"Well, that was really sweet," one young audience member in front of me remarked on his way out of Edinburgh's Lyceum Theatr…
Semi-autobiographical coming of age story jumps to the sounds of grimeThere was once a time when grime music was very angry, and very threatening, but that seems a long time ago now. Today, …
Back to the 17th century: the village that cut itself off to dieThe end-of-season contemporary writing slot at the Globe must be a proposal as full of promise for playwrights as it is perhap…
The pity of war - a strikngly contemporary take on a humanity's addiction to conflictHenry V is a play shot through with martial energy and the terrible chaos of war. The almost overpow…
The spirit of Magritte pervades this brand of existentialismAs the Syrian conflict enters its final convulsions, renewing memories of how the Sykes-Picot agreement " between an Englishman an…
Full transcript of the playwright's passionate speech about the importance of the arts at the Hospital Club's h100 AwardsThank you. It's an honour to have been asked to speak here …
Death and all his frenemies descend on a vicious American high schoolThis London premiere of Kevin Murphy and Laurence O'Keefe's 2010 musical (based on Daniel Waters' oh-so-Eighties cult …
The end of the line at the the end of a telephone lineIt's night, and the woman (Leanne Best, pictured top) is waiting for a phone call. She's desperate for the voice of her lover "Â or ra…
The co-adaptors of the RSC's new 'Tartuffe' talk about translating a French classic to our times now Back in June 2017, in the days when English summertime was a lazy idyll ra…
The British master-director settles for vaguely Beckett-inflected bafflementOf the Edinburgh International Festival's three productions by 2018's resident company, Paris's Théâtre des Bo…
Deeply felt show about love, marriage and migration doesn't quite work Director Madani Younis, who since 2011 has transformed the Bush Theatre in West London into one of London's most outsta…
Onetime fringe success flounders in West End upgradeA sizable Off West End success nearly eight years ago looks more than a little exposed in a new, scaled-up production that is one of sever…
The playwright introduces 'Queen Margaret', her new play for the Royal Exchange, ManchesterI admit it took me a while to give myself permission to do this project. We English are v…
Overwhelmingly powerful new play about motherhood and psychological collapse Blackout. Dark, the colour of childhood fear. Black, the colour of despair. Black. No light visible; no colours t…
A year after his death, the great director was honoured by the stars at Westminster Abbey and the National TheatreSir Peter Hall had no ordinary life, as might be expected from the director …
The vampish comic actress has died at 90 not long after receiving an MBEFenella Fielding - "one of the finest female impersonators in the business," joked Eric Morecambe " has died at the ag…
The old Tricycle Theatre is transformed with a name change and a great opening playHoly shit! After being closed for two long years, the old and battered Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn has been…
A furious, darkly comic riff on race, this frenetic two-hander dazzlesUnderground Railroad Game is scabrous theatre " in every sense. To start with, Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R Sheppard's t…
New all-female musical might not be entirely unexpected, but it's a solid enough evening There's a clear theme running through this year's autumn programme at the Southwark Playhouse: new…
Didactic theatre piece stronger on facts than dramaThe title of Tony Harrison's teacherly entertainment - it can't be called a play - refers to the square bullets invented by James Puckle to…