Theatre
Lungs, Old Vic review - deluxe casting and slick deliveryTuesday, 22 October 2019
Playing our monarch and her husband in The Crown has made actors Claire Foy and Matt Smith into TV drama royalty, so reuniting the pair onstage guarantees a hot ticket. What’s less clear is why Lungs, Duncan Macmillan’s rather thin 2011 play, merits... Read more... |
First Person: Hannah Khalil on museum as metaphor in her new play for the RSCTuesday, 22 October 2019
It all started in 2009 in the National Portrait Gallery. I’d had a meeting nearby so popped in to get a cuppa and stare at the beautiful rooftop view of London from their top-floor café, but a picture caught my eye. It was part of an exhibition of... Read more... |
Translations, National Theatre review - stunning revival of poignant tragicomedyTuesday, 22 October 2019
At a point in history where – yet again – a few misplaced words from English politicians could wreak havoc with Irish lives, this is a welcome revival of Ian Rickson’s stunning production which first played here to rapturous reviews last year. Brian... Read more... |
Cyrano, Bristol Old Vic review – comedy with emotional intelligenceMonday, 21 October 2019
Tom Morris’s production of Cyrano starts with a procession of nuns, some of them bearded, chanting verses from the medieval mystic Hildegarde of Bingen. In this original and lively version of Edmond Rostand’s late 19th century classic, Morris has... Read more... |
[Blank], Donmar Warehouse review - strong but dispiritingFriday, 18 October 2019
Clean Break, the theatre company that specialises in working with women in the criminal justice system, is doing a lot of celebrating. It's the 40th anniversary of this unique female organisation and already this year they have put on a variety of... Read more... |
Solaris, Lyric Hammersmith review - moving and finely cerebralTuesday, 15 October 2019
David Greig’s reimagining of Stanisław Lem’s 1961 novel has brought a masterpiece of intellectual science fiction back to its philosophical core. Over the concentrated two hours of Matthew Lutton’s production, which reaches the Lyric Hammersmith... Read more... |
A History of Water in the Middle East, Royal Court review - feminist dreams and passionsTuesday, 15 October 2019
Sabrina Mahfouz is a British-Egyptian writer who has explored issues of Muslim and British identity in various formats. Her work includes poetry, fiction, anthologies and performances, as well as plays. And she's pretty prolific. Since her Dry Ice... Read more... |
Baby Reindeer, Bush Theatre review - break, break, breaking GaddSaturday, 12 October 2019
True stories, even in a fictional form, have the power to grip you by the throat, furiously shake your body and then give you a parting kick in the arse. This is certainly true of stand-up comedian Richard Gadd's Baby Reindeer, a blistering... Read more... |
Groan Ups, Vaudeville Theatre review - adding ambition and emotion to the mixFriday, 11 October 2019
If ambition were all, Groan Ups would get an A*. Marking the first of a very welcome three-show residency at the Vaudeville Theatre, this latest from the cheerfully unstoppable Mischief Theatre tethers the japery we have come to expect from the team... Read more... |
Either, Hampstead Theatre review - funny, ingenious investigation of gender and loveFriday, 11 October 2019
This ingenious short work deftly investigates themes of love and identity with a breezy assurance that marks first time playwright, Ruby Thomas, out as a daring and exciting new voice. In an age where gender fluidity and polyamory are becoming... Read more... |
Assassins, Watermill Theatre, Newbury, review - Sondheim musical in scalding formThursday, 10 October 2019
“Every now and then the country goes a little wrong”: so goes one of the many lyrics from the Stephen Sondheim-John Weidman musical Assassins that makes this 1990 Off Broadway musical (subsequently chosen to open Sam Mendes’ Donmar Warehouse in 1992... Read more... |
Mephisto [A Rhapsody], Gate Theatre review - the callowness of historyThursday, 10 October 2019
You wonder about the title of French dramatist Sam Gallet’s Mephisto [A Rhapsody], an adaptation for our days of Klaus Mann’s 1936 novel about an actor unable to resist the blandishments of fame, even if they come at the cost of losing himself.... Read more... |
