sat 21/06/2025

Theatre Reviews

A Christmas Carol, Old Vic review - Rhys Ifans takes on Scrooge, triumphantly

Saskia Baron

Fresh from the success of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Jack Thorne now gives us his exuberant adaptation of another much-loved text. Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol is the well-worn morality fable seared into our collective memory by countless screen versions and stage musicals....

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Inside Pussy Riot, Saatchi Gallery review - an immersive misfire

Will Rathbone

You say you want a revolution? Good luck locating one amid the tonally muddled Inside Pussy Riot.

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The Secret Theatre, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - a ferocious topical satire dressed up in period costume

alexandra Coghlan

The Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse may be a historical recreation, but the same shouldn’t be true of the plays staged within it.

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Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Apollo Theatre review - inclusive and utterly joyful

Marianka Swain

Everybody’s been talking about Everybody’s Talking About Jamie since its Sheffield Crucible debut earlier this year. It’s unusual to see a musical come steaming into the West End based on word on mouth – not star casting, or association with an existing franchise.

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Bad Roads, Royal Court, review – memorably unsettling

aleks Sierz

War is morally acidic: it dissolves social rules, loosens inhibitions and gives permission to men to behave like animals. And the people who have to put up with this deluge of amorality and abuse are, of course, women.

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Tiger Bay, Wales Millennium Centre review - ambitious but flawed spectacle

Owen Richards

During the 19th century, Tiger Bay in Cardiff was the beating heart of the Industrial Revolution and the most multicultural area in Britain. Visit today and the only signs remaining are the odd gothic buildings that sit between Doctor Who exhibitions and Nandos.

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Network, National Theatre review - Bryan Cranston’s searing London stage debut

Matt Wolf

Outrage knows no time barrier, as the world at large reminds us on a daily basis.

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Poison, Orange Tree Theatre review - study of grief is both courageous and subtle

Jenny Gilbert

Should Brexit ministers need help understanding the cultural mindset of their continental counterparts, they might consider a subscription to the Orange Tree, the compact Richmond producing house that is defiantly opening its arms to Europe.

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Glengarry Glen Ross, Playhouse Theatre review - Christian Slater is gently charismatic

aleks Sierz

American classics dominate the straight plays in London’s West End. Whenever a producer wants to revive a straight drama, they will inevitably look first at the back catalogue of Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller or, in this case, David Mamet.

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Mother Courage, Southwark Playhouse review - this production is not one for our times

Katherine Waters

One of the questions that can be asked of Brecht is whether for a modern audience his Verfremdungseffekt — or alienation effect — still works as intended, provoking genuine reflections on justice by distancing audiences from emotional entanglement with the characters. At a time when verbatim and community theatre is accomplishing just that with exactitude and force, it appears that inducing audiences to think morally is most effective when delivered in unexpected ways.

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Pages

Advertising feature

★★★★★

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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