Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Trafalgar Studios, LondonAlexi Kaye Campbell's play reminds us that despite the sexual sea-change in Britain since the 1950s, prejudice is still with usLast Saturday, Whitehall in London was…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:37PM[SHARE]Monday, August 12, 2013
The ShedBased on more than 30 hours of interviews, Nadia Fall's production provides a vivid picture of life in a homeless hostelOne virtue of verbatim theatre is that it takes us behind clos…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:35AM[SHARE]Friday, August 9, 2013
Sadler's Wells, LondonBy keeping faithful to the Broadway original, the brilliance of this powerful Romeo and Juliet adaptation is rediscoveredThere's nothing radical or revisionist about th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 8, 2013
Stephen Joseph, ScarboroughAlan Ayckbourn may have written funnier plays, but few are more affecting than this Beckett-inspired tale of terrorismWhat astonishes you about Alan Ayckbourn is h…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:49AM[SHARE]Lyttelton theatre, LondonRichard Eyre's staging of the lusty Pirandello village comedy is nuanced, yet its Irish accent is ultimately discomfitingThis play by Luigi Pirandello is not what yo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Donmar Warehouse, London Nick Payne's excellent new play takes us into the world of no-win, no-fee accident cases, as a dubious claimant gives two lawyers the runaroundIf I reveal that Nick …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:25AM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Open Air theatre, Regent's Park, LondonIs it possible for a musical's numbers to be too familiar? At the preview I attended of Rodgers and Hammerstein's popular classic, several spectators a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:11PM[SHARE]Friday, August 2, 2013
St James's Studio, LondonIn the bowels of this spanking new theatre lurks an intimate performance space, with a well-stocked bar: the ideal setting for this 70-minute, one-man play, written …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:48PM[SHARE]Thursday, August 1, 2013
Tom Stoppard's fierce, unrelenting opposition to the abuse of human rights makes him the ideal recipient of the Pinter/PEN prizeIn Antonia Fraser's book, Must You Go?, detailing her life wit…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:59AM[SHARE]Theatre Royal, BathDavid Haig, like the late Nigel Hawthorne, follows an acclaimed performance in Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III by playing Shakespeare's deranged monarch. But, alt…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 30, 2013
King's Head, LondonTV has given us The Vicar of Dibley and Rev, but the Church of England rarely gets a look-in on the British stage. For that reason alone it is refreshing to see Nicola Bal…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:44PM[SHARE]Friday, July 26, 2013
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonShakespeare's supposedly difficult comedy yields easily the best production of the current Stratford season. Director Nancy Meckler treats the p…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:24PM[SHARE]Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonShakespeare's supposedly difficult comedy yields easily the best production of the current Stratford season. Director Nancy Meckler treats the p…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:24PM[SHARE]Thursday, July 25, 2013
Theatre in the Park, ChichesterChichester has acquired a 25-metre-high big top to stand in for the temporarily closed Festival theatre. It would seem appropriate that it opens with a revival…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:08PM[SHARE]Theatre in the Park, ChichesterChichester has acquired a 25-metre-high big top to stand in for the temporarily closed Festival theatre. It would seem appropriate that it opens with a revival…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:08PM[SHARE]Sunday, July 21, 2013
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonMost theatre falls into familiar categories. This, however, is a piece that gloriously defies definition. It can best be described as a series of short plays by Sa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00PM[SHARE]Friday, July 19, 2013
Bush, LondonCountless artists, from Diana Ross to Beyoncé, have been inspired by the story of the legendary dancer and singer Josephine Baker, who was born in St Louis and became the toast …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:49PM[SHARE]Thursday, July 18, 2013
Park theatre, LondonHow much should one reveal? That is the critic's eternal dilemma. It's especially acute in a play such as Oliver Cotton's Daytona, which deals with deception and depends …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:02AM[SHARE]Actor Paul Bhattacharjee, who has died, was better known for his role in EastEnders but he was most impressive on stageThe disappearance, and possible death, of Paul Bhattacharjee gave me, l…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:55AM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 17, 2013
31 London Street, London W2The problem with an immersive company like Punchdrunk is that people tend to take fixed attitudes: either they are a signpost to the theatrical future or they take…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30PM[SHARE]Young Vic, LondonThe turbulence following Congolese independence partly inspired John Arden to write the unjustly forgotten Armstrong's Last Goodnight in 1964. Two years later, the Martiniqu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:13AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonI am sometimes accused of failing to report audience reactions. So let me say unequivocally that this musical version of Alice Walker's 1982 novel was greeted…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:12AM[SHARE]Sunday, July 14, 2013
Campfield Market Hall/Albert Hall, Manchester International festival★★★/★★★★★Like all the best festivals, the one in Manchester opens up the c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:30AM[SHARE]Saturday, July 13, 2013
Rose Lipman Building, LondonAnnie Baker's much-lauded play takes place in a windowless studio in a community-centre in Vermont; and the Royal Court, as part of its "theatre local" project, h…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:07AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 11, 2013
Theatre Royal, BathGeorge Bernard Shaw's Candida used to be a stock rep piece, but today is rarely seen. That's a pity because, as Simon Godwin's nifty revival shows, this 1895 play still ha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:23AM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Vaudeville, LondonI warmed greatly to Graham Linehan's version of this classic Ealing comedy when I first saw it in 2011. But, while the script is still funny, this revival has a f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:40PM[SHARE]Monday, July 8, 2013
Regent's Park theatre, LondonThe only Shakespeare at the Open Air theatre this summer is this late play, "reimagined for everyone aged six and over". What this amounts to is an utterly begui…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:12PM[SHARE]Friday, July 5, 2013
St Peter's Church, ManchesterThis is more like it. After a lightweight Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, we now get a production that gets closer to the heart of the play's mystery. Staged in …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:16PM[SHARE]Palace, ManchesterThe Manchester International festival is nothing if not daring. As proof, it kicks off its theatrical programme with Robert Wilson's visualisation of a surreal novella writ…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:45AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 4, 2013
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonThe last Macbeth we saw at this venue was a pop-culture Polish production in which the transvestite witches assiduously fellated the hero. No such excesses ta…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 2, 2013
White Bear, LondonWhen the maverick playwright and director Charles Marowitz ran the Open Space theatre in London he did a fascinating adaptation of Wilde's The Critic as Artist. In this new…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:34PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
