Saturday, April 14, 2018
New sci-fi drama about suburban perfection lacks the necessary human touch There's a whole universe which British theatre has yet to explore properly " it's called the sci-fi imagination. Al…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:59PM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Documentary drama about the weather on the eve of D-Day is a successThere are few things more British than talking about the weather. What makes this play about a meteorologist interesting, …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:32PM[SHARE]Thursday, March 22, 2018
Yorkshire hikers reclaim the English countryside - and their identitiesIn the same week that Arinzé Kene's Misty, a play that passionately questions the clichés of plays about black Briton…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:01PM[SHARE]Monday, March 19, 2018
Brilliant, and epic, new thriller about Japanese citizens abducted by North KoreaYou could call it an absence of yellow. Until very recently British theatre has been pretty poor at represent…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:20PM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 13, 2018
★★★★ HUMBLE BOY, ORANGE TREE Spirited revival of Charlotte Jones's 2001 hit buzzes with funSpirited revival of Charlotte Jones's 2001 hit buzzes with funGood pro…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:20AM[SHARE]Monday, March 12, 2018
Spirited revival of Charlotte Jones's 2001 hit buzzes with funGood programming is an art, and Paul Miller " artistic director of the Orange Tree Theatre " is clearly on a continuous rol…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:20PM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 6, 2018
★★★ THE BEST MAN, PLAYHOUSE THEATRE Martin Shaw and Maureen Lipman fail to heat up chilly political thrillerMartin Shaw and Maureen Lipman fail to heat up chilly political …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:01PM[SHARE]Martin Shaw and Maureen Lipman fail to heat up chilly political thriller Is it possible to get too much of American politics? With Donald Trump's daily tweets invading our digital space, a n…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:01PM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 21, 2018
★★★★ FROZEN, HAYMARKET THEATRE Suranne Jones, Jason Watkins and Nina Sosanya examine human darknessSuranne Jones, Jason Watkins and Nina Sosanya convincingly examine …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:45AM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Suranne Jones, Jason Watkins and Nina Sosanya convincingly examine human darknessWhatever the weather, this week is Frozen. On Broadway, the Disney musical of that name begins previews, but …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:59PM[SHARE]Saturday, February 17, 2018
★★★★ ANGRY, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Six monologues about extreme emotions offer trips to outer space and dystopiaSix monologues about extreme emotions offer trips to oute…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:30AM[SHARE]Friday, February 16, 2018
Six monologues about extreme emotions offer trips to outer space and dystopiaMonologues are very much the flavour of the start of this theatrical year. At the Royal Court, we have Carey Mull…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:30PM[SHARE]Dennis Kelly's remarkable new monologue is a terrific experienceThis is Carey Mulligan week. She appears, improbably enough, as a hard-nosed cop in David Hare's BBC thriller Collateral, as w…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:59AM[SHARE]★★★★★ GIRLS & BOYS, ROYAL COURT Carey Mulligan is stunningly brilliantDennis Kelly's remarkable new monologue is a terrific experienceThis is Carey Mul…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:59AM[SHARE]Thursday, February 8, 2018
★★ THE DIVIDE, OLD VIC Alan Ayckbourn's overblown dystopiaEpic, very long satire on religion and sexual segregation prefers comedy to tragedyPlaywright Alan Ayckbourn basically c…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:51AM[SHARE]Epic, very long satire on religion and sexual segregation prefers comedy to tragedyPlaywright Alan Ayckbourn basically comes in two flavours: suburban comedies of embarrassment and sci-fi fa…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:31AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 7, 2018
New misery fest about rural life is symbolic, but lacks drama and resonanceFirst the goats, and now the sheep " has this venue become an urban farm? Rural life, which was once so central to …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:05PM[SHARE]New misery fest about rural life is symbolic, but lacks drama and resonanceFirst the goats, and now the sheep " has this venue become an urban farm? Rural life, which was once so central to …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:05PM[SHARE]Monday, February 5, 2018
Three-piece repertory is well staged, but the short-play formula doesn't really workHype is a dangerous thing. It often raises expectations beyond the reasonable, and disappointment inevitab…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:01AM[SHARE]PAINES PLOUGH ROUNDABOUT, ORANGE TREE THEATRE Too brief to really rockThree-piece repertory is well staged, but the short-play formula doesn't really workHype is a dangerous thing. It often …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:01AM[SHARE]Saturday, January 27, 2018
★★★ THE BELIEVERS ARE BUT BROTHERS, BUSH THEATRE One-man show about political extremism on the internet occasionally disturbsOne-man show about political extremism on the i…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:00AM[SHARE]Friday, January 26, 2018
One-man show about political extremism on the internet occasionally disturbs Do boys never leave the playground? Just when I was reasonably sure that the crisis of masculinity was an old-fas…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:01PM[SHARE]Thursday, January 18, 2018
Toby Jones, Zoë Wanamaker and co breathe vibrant new life into classic Pinter comedy of menaceIs modernism dead and buried? Anyone considering the long haul of Harold Pinter's The Birthda…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:00PM[SHARE]Friday, December 15, 2017
New play about refugee camp life in Calais is a grueling docu-dramaRefugees, it is said, have no nationality " they are all individuals. This new docu-drama, deftly put together by theatre-m…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:12PM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 5, 2017
New drama about political extremism is brilliantly written " mostlyThe political story of our time is the upsurge in support for Jeremy Corbyn, leftwing leader of the Labour Party, mainly by…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:54PM[SHARE]Friday, December 1, 2017
New play about Syria is upstaged by its animal performersThe civil war in Syria spawns image after image of hell on earth. Staging the stories of that conflict presents a challenge to playwr…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:42PM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 22, 2017
International season continues with savage Ukrainian war playWar is morally acidic: it dissolves social rules, loosens inhibitions and gives permission to men to behave like animals. And the…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:06PM[SHARE]Friday, November 10, 2017
All-star cast in modern American classic celebrate the ideal of the dealAmerican classics dominate the straight plays in London's West End. Whenever a producer wants to revive a straight dra…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:04PM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 7, 2017
New play about getting away from it all by Peep Show writer fails to enlightenIs Buddhism a path to finding spiritual enlightenment " or just an excuse for not facing your personal problems?…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:24PM[SHARE]Thursday, November 2, 2017
New play about storytelling examines a children's book craze " and its repercussionsHarry Potter has a lot to answer for. The phenomenal success of J K Rowling's books, and of their film ver…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:48PM[SHARE]Monday, October 30, 2017
New adaptation of Patrick Hamilton novel is thinly written and poorly stagedThe second world war is central to our national imagination, yet it has been oddly absent from our stages recently…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:36PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
