Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Waiting for Godot meets Exodus in American drama about Black Lives Matter
The Black Lives Matter movement is such an important international protest that it is odd how few contemporary plays…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:54PM[SHARE]Friday, February 14, 2020
New debut play is a heartfelt account of the black lesbian experience
Queer people of colour face a double discrimination: racism and homophobia. Against this sickness of negation and stupid…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:12PM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Revival of Caryl Churchill's brief dystopic classic is vivid but unexceptional
Caryl Churchill, Britain's best living playwright, is enjoying a spate of high-profile revivals of her classic …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:54PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 6, 2020
New monologue about rage, racism and national identity is simply magnificent
Is this an angry island? Although the British national character (if there is such a thing) has traditionally be…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:33PM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Excellent revival of Lucy Prebble's disturbing debut play about illegal desire
Your sweet tooth can get you into trouble. Lots of trouble. In this revival of Lucy Prebble's provocative debut…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:42PM[SHARE]Thursday, January 23, 2020
Maxine Peake struggles to make the voice of reason heard in feminist history play
History plays should perform a delicate balancing act: they have to tell us something worth knowing about th…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 01:42AM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 21, 2020
New play about female friendship is refreshingly original and dazzlingly exciting
Tonight, I discovered the gasp index. Or maybe just re-dicovered. The what? The gasp index. It's when you se…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:54PM[SHARE]Thursday, January 16, 2020
New blood courses through the West End's longest-running musical
Do you hear the people sing? In recent months, you're more likely to have heard news stories about the longest running West …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:54PM[SHARE]Monday, December 16, 2019
Mike Bartlett's Christmas cracker goes with a bang - eventually
The prolific Mike Bartlett " from whose pen have leapt television series such as Doctor Foster and Press, as well as stage hit…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:33PM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Family tragedy is emotionally powerful but incomplete and unsatisfying
The trouble with prejudice is that you can't control how other people see you. At the start of her career, playwright G…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:54PM[SHARE]Sunday, December 8, 2019
Magnificent makeover of the French classic - a jaw-dropping success
Actor James McAvoy is much in demand: in the BBC's His Dark Materials he is busy saving a parallel world, while in the poe…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:33PM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 3, 2019
New autobiographical play about night thoughts on bodies real and digital
Eve Leigh is an experimental playwright who has tackled difficult issues for more than a decade. Yet most members of…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:12PM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Director Bijan Sheibani turns playwright in a fine two-hander about family
Family dramas are a staple of British new writing, but as well as talking about our nearest and dearest, can they …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:36PM[SHARE]Thursday, November 14, 2019
David Greig's much-lauded mountaineering story doesn't quite peak
Theatre can touch thousands of lives. But can it compete with the success of a bestselling book? First published in 1988, mo…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:36PM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Family drama is occasionally entertaining, but too dark for its own good
Actor Miriam Margolyes is a phenomenon. Not only has this Dickensian starred in high-profile shows both here and in A…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:54PM[SHARE]Monday, October 28, 2019
First Ed Thomas play for 15 years is a post-apocalyptic metaphor-fest
Memory involves places, people, things and words, especially words. This abstract proposition is given knotty life in We…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:03PM[SHARE]Friday, October 25, 2019
Jordan Tannahill's queering of Renaissance art is riotously vulgar and unapologetic
Botticelli is a household name, but who knows the true story behind his most famous painting? The painter'…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:36PM[SHARE]Thursday, October 17, 2019
Alice Birch's new play prioritizes form over content, and is depressingly reactionary
Clean Break, the theatre company that specializes in working with women in the criminal justice system,…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:06PM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 15, 2019
New lecture about British imperialism is energetically engaging, but rather slender
Sabrina Mahfouz is a British-Egyptian writer who has explored issues of Muslim and British identity in var…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 12:03AM[SHARE]Friday, October 11, 2019
Provocative one-man show about a stalker by stand-up comedian Richard Gadd is darkly exciting
True stories, even in a fictional form, have the power to grip you by the throat, furiously shak…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:36PM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Sharp revival of Peter Nichols's taboo-busting fantasia is magnificent
Playwright Peter Nichols died aged 92 last month, just before the opening of this starry West End revival of his most c…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:36PM[SHARE]Thursday, September 26, 2019
Caryl Churchill's latest offering is wonderfully bright and incisively perceptive
At the age of 81, Caryl Churchill, Britain's greatest living playwright, is still going strong. Her latest i…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:06PM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Excellent acting in a play that tickles the senses by morphing from one genre to another
Are first ladies second-class citizens? Do they always have to stand behind their husbands? What are …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:24PM[SHARE]Thursday, September 12, 2019
New docu-drama about a distressing case of 1990s corruption and cover-up
New artistic directors are popping up all over British theatre. Every week seems to usher in a refreshingly new talen…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:48PM[SHARE]Saturday, September 7, 2019
Lively gig theatre revival of a 1980s account of the black lesbian experience
Identity politics has been around for decades. One of the great things about the Bush Theatre in West London is …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:42AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 5, 2019
Experimental exploration of belief and determinism is touched by genius
Playwright and performer Tim Crouch is one of Britain's most innovative creatives, with a big back catalogue of chall…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 11:12PM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Debut play about the parliamentary ruling class is timely, but ultimately unsatisfying
In the current feverish atmosphere at Westminster, with arguments about Brexit becoming increasingly sh…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 01:48AM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Juliet Stevenson is brilliant in an ethical debate that is both thrilling and challenging
After six years, associate director Robert Icke bids farewell to the Almeida Theatre. In this time h…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:24PM[SHARE]Thursday, August 8, 2019
Rare Philip King play turns a farce into a serious drama - and it doesn't work
Theatre legends die hard. Playwright Philip King, who passed away in 1979, was once hailed as the monarch of th…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:12PM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Star cast deliver a terrific revival of Tennessee Williams's last masterpiece
One of the glories of contemporary London theatre is its revivals of classic American drama. Year after year, a…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 12:06AM[SHARE]Monday, July 8, 2019
Bright new two-hander about an internet troll is intelligent, provocative and funny
Few theatres have done as much to promote new young talent as the Royal Court; few theatres have done as m…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:12PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
