Theatre
An Octoroon review - slavery reprised as melodrama in a vibrantly theatrical showSaturday, 27 May 2017
Make no mistake about it, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a playwright to watch. London receives its first opportunity to appraise his vibrant, quizzical talent with this production of An Octoroon, for which he received an OBIE in 2014 (jointly with his... Read more... |
Deposit, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs review - capital's housing crisis lands centre-stageFriday, 26 May 2017
Matt Hartley's personal take on London's housing crisis returns to the Hampstead Theatre's studio space downstairs and is sure to hit audiences where, so to speak, they live. First seen at the same address in a production not open to the press, the... Read more... |
Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's Globe review - Emma Rice goes out with a bangThursday, 25 May 2017
The Globe’s artistic director Emma Rice has made no secret of her desire to go out with a bang, in this, the final season of her brutally truncated tenure at the company. With this Twelfth Night she stages a departure with bells (and whistles, and... Read more... |
The Mikado review - Sasha Regan's all-male operetta formula hits a reefThursday, 25 May 2017
Men playing boys playing girls, women and men, all female parts convincingly falsettoed and high musical standards as backbone: Sasha Regan's single-sex Gilbert and Sullivan has worked a special magic on Iolanthe and The Pirates of Penzance, HMS... Read more... |
Woyzeck, Old Vic review - John Boyega’s thrillingly powerful triumphWednesday, 24 May 2017
Welcome back, John Boyega. Less than a decade ago, he was an unknown budding British stage actor, then he took off as a global film star thanks to his role as Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens after his debut in Attack the Block, the comedy sci-... Read more... |
Tristan & Yseult, Brighton Festival review - playful and inventive storytellingWednesday, 24 May 2017
Tristan & Yseult has become something of a calling card for Kneehigh, which was founded in 1980 and is now the unofficial National Theatre of Cornwall. Emma Rice, currently artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe in London, created this... Read more... |
The Gabriels, Brighton Festival review - hilarious drama in the shadow of TrumpTuesday, 23 May 2017
The subtitle of Richard Nelson’s new trilogy suggests an anti-Trump polemic. Instead, its miraculous, almost invisible craft fulfils the President’s most hollow promise. It restores full humanity to a family of lower-middle class Americans who often... Read more... |
Meow Meow's Souvenir, Brighton Festival review – subversive but evocative new song-cycleMonday, 22 May 2017
Dream palace, cesspit and church; celebrated, mopped (by Marlene Dietrich, no less) and fucked: Brighton’s Theatre Royal has seen a whole lot of history, of both the splendid and the seedy variety. Now it has found a magnificent if unlikely... Read more... |
Richard III review - Greg Hicks gruesomely impressive as power-crazed rulerSaturday, 20 May 2017
There may never have been a time when Shakespeare’s Richard III did not have contemporary relevance, but surely never more than it does right now. And it’s to the credit of director Mehmet Ergen that this production doesn’t go to town on it, but... Read more... |
Lettice and Lovage, Menier Chocolate Factory review - Peter Shaffer's star vehicle sagsFriday, 19 May 2017
You have to hand it to Felicity Kendal: this ever-game actress is fearless about treading in the footsteps of the British theatre's grandes dames. In 2006, she starred on the West End quite creditably in Amy's View, inheriting a part originated on... Read more... |
No Dogs, No Indians, Brighton Festival review – poor production shoulders too big a taskFriday, 19 May 2017
A whacking great story has gone largely untold in British theatre: the legacy of colonialism in India, including the cultural ghosts the British left behind. With the 70th anniversary of Indian independence just round the corner this summer, poet... Read more... |
Life of Galileo, Young Vic review - shared-experience Brecht is powerful, timelyWednesday, 17 May 2017
Never mind breaking the fourth wall, Joe Wright and the Young Vic have smashed the other three as well. This isn’t simply because their engaging production of Life of Galileo, demonstrating the struggle between science and prevailing authority, is... Read more... |
