3,495 stories from The Arts Desk
Alan Ayckbourn's vast dystopian fantasy feels cosy rather than alarmingA society that segregates men and women, prescribes what women can learn, read, wear, even which words they can sa…
Lopsided results in faithful reconstruction of Rodgers and Hammerstein's groundbreakerOnly one thing could equal the wow factor of seeing and hearing a youngish Hugh Jackman launch into…
theartsdesk recommends the shows to catch this AugustWondering what on earth to choose between as you tramp the streets of the festival. These are our highlights so far.STANDUPTiff Stevenson…
Three compelling shows on identity - gender and otherwise - at the Traverse TheatreEve ★★★★Transgender issues are high on the agenda at this year's Fringe, with th…
Zinnie Harris's new verison of Ionesco, and Vox Motus take on the subject of migrationÂ
If this is a great era for theatre, it is not only welcome but necessary Could we be inhabiting a new golden age of theatre? It sometimes seems that way, not least in the blurring of boundar…
Broadway legend Stockard Channing dominates this family dramaThe 1960s were "hilarious", says one young character in this revival, starring Broadway icon Stockard Channing, of Alexi Kaye Cam…
Kevin Elyot's 1982 debut has value, but his swansong should have stayed in the darkLike his smash-hit My Night With Reg, Kevin Elyot's first and last plays have a role to play in the hi…
John Tiffany leads Jim Cartwright's debut play towards the sublimeWho'd have guessed that the London theatre scene at present would be so devoted to the numinous? Hard on the heels of G…
Musical with its finger on the pulse of the 1980s and its heart in the right placeBack in Margaret Thatcher's middle England, teenagers got by somehow. Without recourse to wands or Ballardia…
Lucy Kirkwood play fusing science and familial disarray is as exhausting as it is enlightening There's enough plot for a dozen plays buzzing its way through Mosquitoes, Lucy Kirkwood's play …
Conor McPherson meets Bob Dylan in the Depression-era dustbowl with disconnected resultsPlays with songs in, or more precisely plays with famous songs in, can feel like the uncanny valley of…
Starry cast lay bare body and soul in Tennessee Williams classic "Maggie the cat is alive: I am alive," or so remarks the feline, eternally frustrated heroine of Tennessee Williams's Cat on …
The actress summoned to Hollywood who lived to tell the tale, wittilyOlivia Williams's first film was, (in)famously, seen by almost no one. The Postman, Kevin Costner's futuristic flop, may …
It's fiesta time in Matthew Dunster's colourful new showWhen I say that Matthew Dunster's Much Ado is revolutionary I'm not talking about the many textual updatings and rewritings,…
Oliver Cotton's new play, directed by Trevor Nunn, begins well before succumbing to absurdity and hysteria "What is this, Saving Private Ryan?" a character randomly queries well into th…
Dickens adaptation succumbs to the didacticMuch loved, yes. But Dickens's novel is probably little read by modern audiences and so a chance to see a new adaptation of this tale of discontent…
In association with The Hospital Club's h.Club 100 Awards, we're launching a new competition to find a brilliant young criticThe Hospital Club's annual h.Club100 awards celebrate t…
How a new play at Chichester Festival Theatre was inspired by a conversation overheard in a caféMy inspiration for The House They Grew Up In, my new play at Chichester Festival Theatre came…
New drama about surrogacy is rich in metaphor and fraught with conflictSurrogacy is an emotionally fraught subject. The arrangement by which one woman gives birth to another's baby challenge…
This new history play gets bogged down in period detailHow well do you know your British history? Fancy explaining the causes and origins of the Glorious Revolutions or listing the members o…
The RSC's tech-powered production of Shakespeare's island play suffers badly after transfer from thrust to prosceniumCan The Tempest open on stage without a tempest " of crashing, …
F Murray Abraham crackles as a temperamental playwright German writer Daniel Kehlmann's light-touch 90-minute comedy is a chic satire on the slippery business of making art " and especially …
Across the centuries: finding contemporary London in Dickens's French Revolution novelWhen you are adapting a novel like A Tale of Two Cities, it's a privilege to sit with a great piece…
Investigation into the charity's downfall is slickly dramatised at Donmar WarehouseA memorable 2015 parliamentary select committee hearing asked Kids Company CEO Camila Batmanghelidjh a…
