Wednesday, February 5, 2014
What exactly is unconventional about an unconventional couple? In Abi Morgan's new two-hander, an adaptation of last year's book of the same name by She and He (a West Coast American couple …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Thursday, January 23, 2014
Feminism suddenly seems to be all the rage in London theatre. Yesterday, I reviewed Nick Payne's Blurred Lines, and tonight I saw this show by American provocateur Gina Gionfriddo, whose Bec…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:02PM[SHARE]Wednesday, January 22, 2014
You can't accuse Nick Payne of being fainthearted. His new play explores what it means to be a woman and it features a wonderful all-woman cast. But wait a minute: isn't he a man? And what d…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:02PM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Gate Theatre, London: The third show in this venue's These American Lives season, this multi-award-winning play by New York playwright Dan O'Brien features two actors playing more …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:55AM[SHARE]Friday, January 17, 2014
Unlike television, with its series of Spooks and Homeland, theatre has more or less ignored the secret services. For reasons of snobbery (thrillers are somehow beneath the interest of young …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:03AM[SHARE]Friday, January 10, 2014
There are few things as depressing as whinge drama. But the Anglo-Irish have a reasonable claim to be considered the Republic of Ireland's forgotten losers. The term means the wealthy Protes…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Monday, December 9, 2013
The Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 is one of those epoch-making events that are so huge as to be almost beyond our comprehension. It affected the lives of literally millions of peop…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Friday, December 6, 2013
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court, London: In its tradition of alternative Christmas shows, the Royal Court is hosting an adaptation of Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist's nove…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:44AM[SHARE]Thursday, December 5, 2013
Vampire romance is a genre which has a mysterious tendency. Every time it migrates from one art form (say novel) to another (say film) it loses some of its darkness and acquires a strange sw…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Friday, November 29, 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, London: Vicky Featherstone's new regime at the Royal Court not only upholds this venue's traditions as a playwright's theatre, but also …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:05AM[SHARE]Thursday, November 28, 2013
You can see why sport makes for good drama: it has competition, conflict and clashes of egos. It delivers a result, and it has a touch of glory. At its best, it can send you out of the theat…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Thursday, November 21, 2013
Is there a danger that a show can be oversold? Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room sounds innocuous enough " until you read its subtitle: The Vibrator Play. Marketed as the most provocative drama …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 6, 2013
The Shed, National Theatre, London: Debbie Tucker Green makes her National Theatre debut in the venue's successful temporary space, which is dedicated to adventurous and experimental wo…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:18AM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 5, 2013
One of the best kept secrets about contemporary theatre is that audiences rather like short plays. Of course, there's nothing wrong with epic classics, but sometimes it makes a change to wit…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Thursday, October 24, 2013
The comedy of manners is not dead. It's alive and kicking, often literally, at this north London venue in actor Simon Paisley Day's new play. Although the title suggests a group of teenagers…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, London: The fact that you can find good actors for a large-cast play set in Kashmir sends a positive message about our multicultural society. This play…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:55AM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The Royal Court is justly proud of being the home of British new writing, but it is also a venue which has a great tradition of staging work from abroad. From bringing Brecht and Beckett her…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Monday, October 14, 2013
Is this the year's most controversial play? When it opened at Edinburgh in August, David Greig's The Events created a stir because its depiction of the aftermath of an atrocity is reminiscen…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 8, 2013
British theatre is obsessed with the new, with novelty. And one of the obvious casualties of this is old plays that are not by Ibsen or Chekhov. Plays that feature in every history of Britis…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Thursday, October 3, 2013
The life of Margaret Thatcher seems to draw sympathetic writers like wasps to a particularly sweet jam. In 2011, playwright and screenwriter Abi Morgan gave us a portrait of the first female…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:06PM[SHARE]Thursday, September 26, 2013
Royal Court, Jerwood Upstairs, London: Following the outstanding success of her first play, The Westbridge, in 2011, Rachel De-lahay - who came to the Royal Court through their Unheard Voice…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:06AM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 25, 2013
You could call it the iceberg syndrome. It's a work of art that is a flash, a sliver or an imprint: think of a passport photograph, a cheap trinket or a half-finished graffiti. Yet beneath t…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Thursday, September 19, 2013
Bush Theatre, London: The debut play by the Olivier award-winning actor Rory Kinnear (currently playing Iago in Othello at the National Theatre) is being staged at <a href="http://ww…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:08AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Once a staple of British drama, the middle-class family play has recently, after about a decade of being unfashionable, made a remarkable comeback. This current example is the playwriting de…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Sunday, September 15, 2013
Berkoff is back. The legendary actor, director, playwright and author has just finished a stint on stage in Edinburgh and is about to open a new production in the West End. Steven Berkoff's …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:02AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 12, 2013
In playwriting, there's near-perfection, perfection and oh-my-God-how-I-wish-I'd-written-that. Terry Johnson's Hysteria, which was first staged at the Royal Court 20 years ago, is definitely…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:02PM[SHARE]Royal Court, Jerwood Downstairs, London: At long last Dennis Kelly makes his Royal Court debut. The talented playwright, who has demonstrated his versatility by writing the book for Matilda …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:40AM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Since his arrival about a decade ago, Dennis Kelly has proved himself to be a master of versatility. He has written in-yer-face shockers such as Osama the Hero and Orphans, elaborate experim…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Trafalgar Studios, London: Jamie Lloyd's third production for the Trafalgar Transformed season is Alexi Kaye Campbell's multi-award-winning debut play, The Pride, which he first st…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:55AM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Is there such a thing as a gay play? As opposed to a play by a gay writer, or one which has some gay content or is about gay characters. The programme to this atmospheric and moving revival …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Donmar Warehouse, London: Josie Rourke, artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, continues her support of young award-winning playwright Nick Payne, whose debut - If There is I Haven'…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:42AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
