Theatre Reviews
Angela, Sound Stage online review - tender and time-shiftingFriday, 26 March 2021
Does a subjective theatre piece encourage a subjective critical response? I think it might, especially when it’s a memory play about dementia, so here goes: first I turn off the lights, then I press play. From the darkness comes jaunty music – it’s a dance class. Read more... |
Assembly, Donmar Warehouse online review - the future is coming, ready or notWednesday, 24 March 2021
“Your task is to imagine the future.” That’s what the citizens of Assembly, a new streamed production performed and devised by the Donmar Warehouse’s Local Company, are told. Read more... |
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Barn Theatre online review - a dazzling adaptationTuesday, 23 March 2021
Let’s face it, most adaptations of classic novels are disappointingly pedestrian. They are so middle-of-the-road – fancy-dress characters speaking fancy-dress dialogue in fancy-dress plots. Read more... |
The Band Plays On, Sheffield Theatres online review – to Sheffield with loveThursday, 18 March 2021
All theatre is local — if you can’t get to where a show is playing you can’t see it. That is, until a pandemic closes all theatres and forces their shows to go online. Read more... |
Dream, RSC online review - gaming version unleashes revolutionary potentialWednesday, 17 March 2021
Which of Shakespeare’s plays is most plagued by misperception? For my money, I would argue A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Most people encounter it at school age because of the ease with which it can be dressed up as a light comedy involving fairies. Read more... |
Typical, Soho Theatre online review - powerfully poetic and painfulFriday, 26 February 2021
As the events of last year made clear, the police have a problem with race on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, BAME people are more than twice as likely to die in police custody while being forcibly restrained than people from other social groups. Read more... |
Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Hung Parliament review – choose-your-own whodunnitThursday, 25 February 2021
I’ll admit, I’ve never been a fan of murder mysteries. Patience is not one of my virtues; if I can’t work something out in 30 seconds, I’m liable to give up, and whodunnits tend to need a bit longer than that. Read more... |
Barnes' People, Original Theatre Company online review - intriguing quartet of monologues revivedTuesday, 23 February 2021
The four monologues that make up Barnes’ People were filmed in the grand surroundings of the Theatre Royal, Windsor, and that venue's atmospheric spaces (now deserted, of course) seem to tell a sad tale of their own, one that chimes rather appropriately with the mood of some of them. Read more... |
The Color Purple - at Home, Curve online review – life-affirming musical retelling of Alice Walker's novelMonday, 22 February 2021
This production of The Color Purple is an extraordinary testimony to the fact that many of the 20th century’s most joyous forms of music – jazz, ragtime and of course blues – had their roots in misery and oppression. Read more... |
Hymn, Almeida Theatre online review - highs and lows of a soulful brother bondingFriday, 19 February 2021
Contact without touch: among the many readjustments that the pandemic has brought to theatre, its demands that restrict direct contact almost to nothing must be among the most testing. We have learnt much about how rigorously any new production – for now, only live-streamed – must be prepared: the regular testing in rehearsals, the two-metre distancing, the repeated cleaning of props. 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*
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