Dominic Dromgoole's Oscar Wilde seasons opens with a winnerIn a rather clever wheeze, Dominic Dromgoole, former artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe " who therefore knows a thing or…
The actor stars opposite Natalie Dormer in Venus in Fur. Why is he always exploring the dark side?"He has something of Dillane about him." Thus Patrick Marber on David Oakes. "I rate him ver…
David Eldridge's wry-warm two-hander on the unsexy side of singledom Loneliness: in the age of the digital hook-up and the flaunting narcissism of social media, it's become a strange so…
Chekhov's classic bird updates entertainingly, even if lopsidedly, as a play for todayThe awful mother, the celebrity-obsessed teenager, the mediocre old writer who wants some young sex…
Religious faith, family tragedy and gay love make an unholy trinity in this European premiereGod makes few appearances at the modern playhouse " so few that the Finborough Theatre saw fit to…
Broadway misfire finds chuckles aplenty, and a heart, at the Garrick TheatreWhat a difference an ocean and a change of scale can make. When I saw the Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein on…
England's patron saint travels through time to demonstrate changing views of heroismBold and fearless are adjectives that might describe playwright Rory Mullarkey as accurately as any chival…
The Court's international director explores the roots of this autumn's international seasonThe autumn season of plays at the Royal Court leads with international work. B by Guiller…
Ibsen hits the Caribbean in The Lady from the Sea at the Donmar. Its star explainsNikki Amuka-Bird spent the summer in Antigua, swimming and scuba diving and could have claimed to be working…
New two-hander is a stylized account of a nihilistic realityWhat does it mean to feel contemporary? Feel. Contemporary. According to theatre-maker Chris Thorpe, whose new play Victory Condit…
Anne-Marie Duff and Kenneth Cranham in unconvincing rom-comPlaywright Simon Stephens and director Marianne Elliott are hyped as a winning partnership. Their previous collaborations include T…
The war on facts takes marital form in Florian Zeller's comedyA year after premiering acclaimed French playwright Florian Zeller's The Truth, London's Menier Chocolate Factory now hosts…
News from The Hospital Club's annual awards for the creative industries, plus theartsdesk's Young Reviewer of the Year At a festive ceremony on Tuesday night at The Hospital Club i…
Comedy about Labour Party history is starry, but tediously overblownProlific playwright James Graham aspires to be nothing if not timely. His latest, a play about the Labour Party, was origi…
New Chilean play about terrorism is satirical, but ends up non-committalIn the 1960s, we had the theatre of commitment; today we have an attitude of non-committal. Once, political playwright…
The playwright describes the first day of rehearsal of a new play produced by a new companyAll theatre workers have a day that they dread. For actors there is a particular terror about a fir…
The playwright explores the gestation of his new play for the National TheatreMy friend, the playwright Robert Holman, says that the writing of a play is always "the product of a moment". Of…
Two dramas about acting and being, illusion and reality, form an inseparable wholeThree tall orders must be met in any successful transfer of an Ingmar Bergman text from screen to stage. Fir…
Announcing the shortlist of our critics' competition, with extracts from each entryIn July we launched a competition in association with The Hospital Club to unearth talented young crit…
Athletic adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's novel doesn't quite flySometimes you go to the theatre and in the first 10 minutes are convinced that the production is going to smash …
Arthur Kopit's poetic drama about post-stroke aphasia and facing up to death astoundsNow look here, Giles Coren: immersion in a great play well acted can send you out of the theatre fee…
Heartwarming new play about young love is good fun, if a bit slenderLocation, location, location. Jim thinks he lives in the "shittiest" small town in Scotland. It's Mallaig, on the west coa…
Alice Childress's groundbreaking 1955 drama played with panache Truth is pursued in different ways in Alice Childress's groundbreaking 1955 Trouble in Mind, and its play-within-a-play story…
Port Talbot steelworkers take a stand against the ravages of global capitalismPort Talbot (population 38,000) is a town on the south Wales coast famous for two things: steel and actors. The …
Award-heavy American play about the Oslo Accords is highly entertainingDocumentary theatre has a poor reputation. It's boring in form, boring to look at (all those middle-aged men in suits),…