Theatre Reviews
Something in the Air, Jermyn Street Theatre review - evocative London mood musicTuesday, 25 October 2022
As its title suggests, Peter Gill’s Something in the Air is an elusive piece – it’s about catching at instinct, responding to intuition, bringing together overlapping hints of present and past lives. From these different stories, spun out of lived experience and imagination equally, the octogenarian playwright leaves the audience to craft a whole. Read more... |
Marvellous, @sohoplace review - silly, singular and sentimentalMonday, 24 October 2022
Opening a theatre should be a celebration, says Nica Burns, the West End power behind this new theatre which is situated next to Tottenham Court Road tube. The co-owner of Nimax Theatre group, she has come up with an elegantly gleaming 600-seat theatre in the round as part of the urban regeneration of the scuzzy top of Charing Cross Road. Read more... |
Blues for an Alabama Sky, National Theatre review - superb cast and production for this period hitSaturday, 22 October 2022
The cynical might think Pearl Cleage’s play had been expressly written to address the over-riding issues in today’s USA – abortion and contraception rights, gun control, homophobia, racism. But the cynical would be wrong, as Blues for an Alabama Sky was written in 1995. What is notable is its timely scheduling by the National Theatre. Read more... |
The Solid Life of Sugar Water, Orange Tree Theatre review - two-hander gets a punchy refreshFriday, 21 October 2022
This is not a play for the squeamish: here be blood and cum and unsavoury descriptions of genitalia, male and female, that make you wonder why humans relish sex so much. And it’s all played out in the close quarters of the small in-the-round space of the Orange Tree. Read more... |
My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican review - dazzling stage adaptation of a Japanese classicThursday, 20 October 2022
As 10-year-old Satsuki observes as she arrives in the countryside with her little sister Mei, “We’re not in Tokyo anymore” – and they’re not in Kansas either, but there is a tang of Oz in the air. The 1988 Studio Ghibli film, My Neighbour Totoro has the classic status of The Wizard of Oz for a generation of youngsters brought up on whimsical Japanese animé. Read more... |
Good, Harold Pinter Theatre review - brilliant but half-bakedThursday, 13 October 2022
“The bands came in 1933.” So begins C P Taylor’s Good, a play that tries its hardest to resist being Googled. Read more... |
The Band's Visit, Donmar Warehouse review - still waters run bittersweetMonday, 10 October 2022
Not much happens but, in its way, everything does in The Band's Visit, the gentle, sweet-natured musical that rather unexpectedly stormed Broadway late in 2017 and is just now receiving a notably empathic London debut. Read more... |
Ravenscourt, Hampstead Theatre review - strong, but slenderSaturday, 08 October 2022
Therapy is inherently dramatic. After all, it’s all about character – and it has the aim of producing a recognizable change. But who is the most affected by the process: client or therapist? Read more... |
The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Rose Theatre review - new production of classic proves a gruelling experienceFriday, 07 October 2022
Brecht – as I suppose he intended – is always a shock to the system. Read more... |
The Boy with Two Hearts, National Theatre review - poignant yet humorous story of family forced to flee AfghanistanThursday, 06 October 2022
It’s particularly poignant to watch this story in the knowledge that a little over a year after US-led troops withdrew from Afghanistan, women and girls are enduring a renewed repression of their rights under the Taliban. The real-life story of The Boy with Two Hearts took place in 2000 – the year before the western invasion began; to see it today is a depressing reminder of how little was achieved through that ill-thought-out venture. 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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