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]Thursday, October 26, 2017
Brand-new London theatre is wonderful, but its first show is disappointingGiven the rather uneven record of the National Theatre at the moment, there's already a certain nostalgia for the da…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:06PM[SHARE]Monday, October 23, 2017
This site-specific revival of 1953 courtroom drama works like a treatSome site-specific theatre feels like a really good fit. You could say, in this case, that it seems like poetic justice. …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:42PM[SHARE]Friday, October 20, 2017
New play about gay parenthood suffers from an identity crisisA new baby is like an alien invasion: it blows your mind and it colonises your world. For any couple, parenthood can be both exal…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:12PM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Doctor Foster writer explores Englishness with enormous metaphoric zealProlific writer Mike Bartlett is the most impressive penman to have emerged in British theatre in the past decade. The …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:18PM[SHARE]Monday, October 9, 2017
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…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:33PM[SHARE]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…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:54PM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 3, 2017
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…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:42PM[SHARE]Monday, October 2, 2017
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…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:24PM[SHARE]Friday, September 22, 2017
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…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:48PM[SHARE]Monday, September 18, 2017
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),…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:18PM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Playwright August Strindberg goes psychotic in Howard Brenton's latestAnyone who likes playing "Spot the weirdo" will find themselves instantly at home in Howard Brenton's new play, which ha…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:12PM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Anniversary revival of Joe Orton's farce is a delight from start to finishFifty years ago this month, playwright Joe Orton was murdered by his lover Kenneth Halliwell. His debut play, Entert…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:33PM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 22, 2017
The star director's revival of a nineties classic is atmospheric but unconvincing Hark, is that the call of the earth I hear? In a frenetic urban world, the myth of rural simplicity exerts a…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:42PM[SHARE]Friday, August 18, 2017
New American drama about God and violence is baggy, but often brilliantLuke is a Silicon Valley billionaire, a high-tech wizard. And he's just had a message from God. And what does God say? …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:36PM[SHARE]Monday, August 14, 2017
New play about democracy is entertaining, but a bit too tricksy A new plague is sweeping British theatre: audience participation. Instead of just sitting back and enjoying the show, your vis…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:18PM[SHARE]Thursday, August 3, 2017
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…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:33PM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 11, 2017
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…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:12PM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Rupert Murdoch saga by 'This House' playwright is too detailed and overblownThe recent general election result proves that the power of rightwing press has diminished considerably in the dig…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:04PM[SHARE]Thursday, June 22, 2017
Audience participation cannot save a trial that suffocates in abstractionCan the theatre be a courtroom? A good public place to debate morality and to arrive at profound decisions. You could…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:33PM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 20, 2017
New American satire about families only rarely hits the markDonald Trump's electoral success was, we have been told, fueled by the anger of the American working class. But how do you show th…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:12PM[SHARE]Sunday, June 11, 2017
Katie Mitchell returns with a powerful account of depression and despairDorothy Parker's take on suicide is called "Resumé": it goes, "Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:33PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 7, 2017
New play about fatherhood and masculinity has an enjoyably global reachThe strapline for this joyful show is: "One day; six cities; a thousand stories". Allowing for hyperbole, this is just …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:18PM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Epic new play about the Enclosures gets bogged down in obscurityHistory is a tricky harlot. She is bought and sold, fought for and thrown over, seduced and betrayed " and always at the mercy…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:48PM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Three monologues brilliantly summon up a punchy world of pain and violenceThe monologue is a terrific theatre form. Using this narrative device, you can cover huge amounts of storytelling te…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:24PM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Finn from Star Wars dominates a radical rewrite of Georg Büchner classicWelcome back John Boyega. Less than a decade ago, he was an unknown budding British stage actor, then he took off as …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:24PM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 9, 2017
New twist on the biblical story gets bogged down in a portentous production Is God female? It says a lot about Yaël Farber's overblown new version of this biblical tale that, near the end…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:02PM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 3, 2017
New epic from the 'Jerusalem' playwright is a breathtaking experienceI hate the kind of hype that sells out a new play within minutes of tickets becoming available. I mean isn't there someth…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:36PM[SHARE]Saturday, April 29, 2017
Colourful and vivid revival of Martin Crimp's 1993 tale of New YorkPlaywright Martin Crimp's 1993 satirical epic, The Treatment, is a fabulous work, but it's rarely revived. Although much of…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:12AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 27, 2017
Masterpiece of 'New York Trilogy' is visually amazing and intellectually satisfying on stagePlaywright Duncan Macmillan has had a good couple of years. In 2015, his play People, Pl…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:03AM[SHARE]Friday, April 21, 2017
New play about loss offers an unusually experimental and immersive experienceText can sometimes be a prison. At its best, post-war British theatre is a writer's theatre, with the great pensm…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:24PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
