The National Theatre’s live-streaming policy is bizarre
The National’s bizarre livestreaming service continues. On 7 May, for one week only, it released a modern-dress version of Antony…
How Tom Stoppard foretold what we’re living through
A TV play by Tom Stoppard, A Separate Peace, was broadcast live on Zoom last Saturday. I watched as my…
Worth watching for the comments thread alone: NT's Twelfth Night livestream reviewed
‘Enjoy world-class theatre online for free,’ announces the National Theatre. Every Thursday at 7 p.m. a play from the archive…
The best theatre of the 21st century
Not looking great, is it? Until we all get jabbed, theatres may have to stay closed. And even the optimists…
Reflections on isolation: the first lockdown dramas reviewed
High Tide got there first. The East Anglian theatre company has produced a series of lockdown mini-dramas, Love in the…
Absorbing and meticulously researched play about Partition: Drawing the Line reviewed
Theatres have taken to the internet like never before. Recorded performances are being made available over the web, many for…
Ill-disciplined and self-indulgent: The Guilty Feminist podcast reviewed
With theatres shut, radio must lighten the darkness. The Guilty Feminist is a wildly popular podcast performed by Deborah Frances-White…
War and plague have menaced theatres before, but rarely on this scale
War and plague have menaced theatres before, but rarely on this scale, says Lloyd Evans
A mesmerising piece of theatre: On Blueberry Hill reviewed
On Blueberry Hill sounds like a musical but it’s a sombre prison drama set in Ireland. Two bunkbeds. Above, an…
Two gentlemen of corona: the scientists helping to fight Covid-19
Boris Johnson’s medical wingmen
Corpse! really is as good as everyone says it is
Here’s the problem. Much communication is done online, especially by youngsters, and much drama focuses on communication. So how do…
Unimpressive: The Prince of Egypt reviewed
The Prince of Egypt is a musical adapted from a 1998 Dreamworks cartoon based on the Book of Exodus. So…
Comedy gold: The Upstart Crow at the Gielgud Theatre reviewed
A Moorish princess shipwrecked on the English coast disguises herself as a boy to protect her virtue. Arriving in London,…
Why foreign-language series will always have the edge over American ones
An office worker stands on the ledge of an open window about to leap. Two colleagues enter, ignoring him completely.…
A brilliant, unrevivable undertaking: Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt reviewed
History will record Leopoldstadt as Tom Stoppard’s Schindler’s List. His brilliant tragic-comic play opens in the Jewish quarter of Vienna…
A terrific two-hander that belongs at the National: RSC's Kunene and the King reviewed
The Gift is three plays in one. It opens in a blindingly white Victorian parlour where a posh lady, Sarah,…
‘We will never return, there is no going back’: the Brexit Day party, as it happened
Remainers were there too. The first people I met at the Brexit Day festivities were opposed to the whole idea.…
Strong performances in a slightly wonky production: Uncle Vanya reviewed
Uncle Vanya opens with a puzzle. Is the action set in the early 20th century or right now? The furnishings…
Sweeping, sod-you comedy – irresistible: Billionaire Boy reviewed
Falling In Love Again features two of the 20th century’s best-known sex athletes. Ron Elisha’s drama covers a long drunken……
People expecting punishment won’t be disappointed: Almeida’s Duchess of Malfi reviewed
The Duchess of Malfi is one of those classics that everyone knows by name but not many have witnessed on…
Redneck twaddle: Young Vic’s Fairview reviewed
Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury won last year’s Pulitzer Prize. It deserves additional awards for promoting racial disharmony and entrenching…
Lily Allen to Newsnight: The 41 most annoying things in 2019
Lily Allen. Lights! Camera! Hanky! It’s been a vintage year for Twitter’s comedy genius. The needy pub-bore grumblings of Tony…
Full of fascinating data and excellent comedy: Messiah at Stratford Circus reviewed
I’ve joined the Black Panthers. At least I think I have. I took part in an induction ceremony at the…
All the world’s a stage: this election has echoes of Shakespeare and Dickens
The Christmas election has unfolded like a series of mini-dramas from panto, Dickens and other popular classics. Boris has come…
A flimsy tale of self-pity and thwarted ambition: Hunger at the Arcola reviewed
Oh my God. The Nazis have invaded the Arcola Theatre. Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsen won the Nobel Prize in 1920…
