Theatre Reviews
King Lear, Duke of York's Theatre, review - towering Ian McKellenFriday, 27 July 2018
Jonathan Munby's production starring Ian McKellen, first seen last year in Chichester and now transferred to the West End, reflects our everyday anxieties, emphasising in the world of a Trump presidency, the dangers of childish, petulant authoritarianism. And while King James I was keen to... Read more... |
Exit the King, National Theatre review - vivid, brilliant production that somehow leaves you feeling emptyThursday, 26 July 2018
The image of a raging, narcissistic tyrant, convinced that he can crush even death into oblivion, has all too many resonances these days. Read more... |
Spamilton, Menier Chocolate Factory review - fun if overstuffedThursday, 26 July 2018
If it's possible to have somewhat too much of a good thing, that would seem to be the case with the British premiere at the Menier Chocolate Factory of Spamilton. Read more... |
Pity, Royal Court review - whacked-out and wearingSaturday, 21 July 2018
The apocalypse arrives as a series of collegiate sketches in the aptly-named Pity, the Rory Mullarkey play that may well prompt sympathy for audiences who unwittingly find themselves in attendance. Read more... |
Allelujah!, Bridge Theatre review - hilarious but dark, darker, darkestFriday, 20 July 2018
The NHS is us. For decades our national identity has been bandaged together with the idea, and reality, of a health service that is free at the point of delivery. Read more... |
A Monster Calls, Old Vic - wild, beautiful theatre that beguiles and bruisesThursday, 19 July 2018
A raw pagan vitality animates this extraordinary story about a teenage boy wrestling with tumultuous emotions in the face of his mother’s terminal illness. Read more... |
End of the Pier, Park Theatre review - thought-provoking play about comedy and raceTuesday, 17 July 2018
Les Dennis was once a marquee name on Saturday night television as host of Family Fortunes, but since giving up the light entertainment lark he now plies his trade as an actor, and a very good one at that. If you've not seen it, give yourself a treat and watch his bang-on-the-nose performance as “Les Dennis”, a delusional, whinging has-been, in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Extras. Read more... |
The Lehman Trilogy, National Theatre review - an acting tour de forceSaturday, 14 July 2018
There's surprising and then there's The Lehman Trilogy, the National Theatre premiere in which a long-established director surprises his audience and, in the process, surpasses himself. The talent in question is Sam Mendes, who a quarter-century or more into his career has never delivered up the kind of sustained, smart, ceaselessly inventive minimalism on view here. Read more... |
Alkaline, Park Theatre review - faith, friendship and failureSaturday, 14 July 2018
Britain is rightly proud of its record on multiculturalism, but whenever cross-cultural couples are shown on film, television or the stage they are always represented as a problem. Not just as a normal way of life, but as something that is going wrong. I suppose that this is a valuable corrective to patting ourselves on the back about how tolerant a society we are, but do such correctives make a good play? Read more... |
As You Like It, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - love among the bucolic hippiesFriday, 13 July 2018
It's been raining in Regent's Park. On a balmy summer evening during a prolonged dry spell – perfect for outdoor theatrics – it seems ironic to tempt fate by creating artificial downpours and thunderstorms. Read more... |
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★★★★★
‘A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.’
The Observer, Kate Kellaway
Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.
★★★★★
‘This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.’
The Times, Ann Treneman
Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.
Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.
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