Theatre Reviews
Xanadu, Southwark PlayhouseTuesday, 03 November 2015
It trashed Olivia Newton-John’s film career, halted the movie-musical revival, and was so critically reviled it led to the creation of the Razzies. How, then, could the stage version of hubristic 1980 flop Xanadu become a 2007 Broadway hit? The answer, as illustrated by Paul Warwick Griffin’s sublimely silly Southwark Playhouse production, is to laugh at itself first. Read more...
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Dinner With Friends, Park TheatreSaturday, 31 October 2015
After 12 seemingly idyllic years, Tom and Beth’s marriage is over. That’s a concern for Gabe and Karen, partly because they care for their friends, and there’s the ugly business of choosing sides, but mainly because it causes them to call into question their own previously impervious union. In Donald Margulies’s ruminative 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winner, solipsism rules. Read more... |
The Hairy Ape, Old VicFriday, 30 October 2015
Never use one word when you can get away with two: that seems to have been the maxim of Eugene O’Neill even in one of his shorter plays. After all, when is an ape not hairy, and why does stoker Robert “Yank” Smith, a natural hulk brought low by mechanised capital, have to bang home the title at every opportunity? Read more... |
The Moderate Soprano, Hampstead TheatreFriday, 30 October 2015
Remember back when David Hare was left-wing? I’m not sure that he does. Read more... |
Husbands & Sons, National TheatreWednesday, 28 October 2015
If the thought of three hours of DH Lawrence fills you with dread, fear not. Ben Powers’ inspired melding of Lawrence’s trio of mining plays births a spellbindingly intimate epic with atmosphere thick as the coal dust engulfing this cloistered 1911 East Midlands village. The community is powered and oppressed by the industrial machine swallowing up the menfolk, but our focus is on the women’s claustrophobic domestic sphere. Read more... |
Plaques and Tangles, Royal Court TheatreWednesday, 21 October 2015
Once upon a time, quite recently, you couldn’t move for plays about youth. Now, there’s been an avalanche of dramas about ageing, usually in the context of dementia and family life. Maybe all of our main playwrights have suddenly grown up, or maybe the endless quest for novelty has deposited us on the shores of the current trend-setting idea. Read more... |
Joanne, Soho TheatreSaturday, 17 October 2015
On my way to see this show, I had to walk across Soho. No fewer than five people asked me for money; one was a real hassle. Yes, I know that the government says that the economy is booming, but the record number of homeless in the capital tell a very different story. Yes, I bumped into five of them in 15 minutes, although I know there are thousands more. And maybe one of them is Joanne. Read more... |
The Crucible, Bristol Old VicFriday, 16 October 2015
Tom Morris has a strong feel for drama that explores the personal implications of fanaticism: his production of John Adams’s powerful opera The Death of Klinghoffer for New York's Met and the ENO, used a language of great simplicity that allowed the work’s most disturbing complexities to come through with formidable power. Read more... |
A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, Tricycle TheatreFriday, 16 October 2015
Molière’s 1664 comedy Tartuffe transplanted to present-day Atlanta, Georgia: it sounds like an inspired idea. The hypocritical religious devotee becomes a charlatan preacher fleecing his flock, offering salvation in exchange for hard cash and a distinctly unpriestly grope. But Marcus Gardley’s attempt to put a contemporary spin on a once incendiary play comes with a trying side order of cartoonish caricatures and creaky sex farce. Read more... |
French Without Tears, Orange Tree TheatreWednesday, 14 October 2015
Over the past quarter century the reputation of toff playwright Terence Rattigan has been restored, mainly by strong stagings of his classic dramas, such as Deep Blue Sea. But his first smash hit, French Without Tears, has been the unicorn of his output – often talked about, often mentioned, often remembered, but never actually seen. 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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