The many sides of satire
Brexit the Musical is a peppy satire written by Chris Bryant (not the MP, he’s a lawyer). Musically the show…
London calling
What is the Edinburgh Fringe? It’s a sabbatical, a pit stop, a pause-and-check-the-map opportunity for actors who don’t quite know…
Whither Ukip?
‘Some wine? How about a beer? Shall we settle into a good old pub?’ I make these suggestions to Ukip’s…
Starting block
Conor McPherson’s new play is set in dust-bowl Minnesota in 1934. We’re in a fly-blown boarding house owned by skint,…
Derek Jacobi as Mercutio is half-genius, half-prank: Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick reviewed
Out come the stars in Kenneth Branagh’s Romeo and Juliet. He musters a well-drilled, celebrity-ridden crew but they can’t quite…
I came out feeling euphoric and disorientated: Young Vic’s Blue/Orange reviewed
Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall enjoys the dubious status of a modern classic. A black mental-health patient, Christopher, is about to…
The Royal Court is the Eddie the Eagle of theatre
If there were an Eddie the Eagle award for theatre — to recognise large reputations built on minuscule achievements —…
What an extraordinary debut for Emma Rice: Globe's Midsummer Night's Dream reviewed
The Globe’s new chatelaine, Emma Rice, has certainly shaken the old place up. It’s almost unrecognisable. Huge white plastic orbs…
Wasn’t Lawrence of Arabia more annoying than this new play suggests?
T.E. Lawrence is like the gap-year student from hell. He visits a country full of exotic barbarians and after a…
A literary lap dance: Doctor Faustus reviewed
Great excitement for play-goers as a rare version of a theological masterpiece arrives in the West End. Doctor Faustus stars…
Down and Out in Paris and London is a chav safari
Down and Out in Paris and London is a brilliant specimen from a disreputable branch of writing: the chav safari,…
Was there a cover-up over Shakespeare’s death?
How did Shakespeare kick the bucket? Lloyd Evans considers the evidence
The time when Putin seduced Corbyn in an East Berlin nightclub
Corbyn the Musical feels like it comes from the heart. Did the writers live through the 1970s when the hard-left…
Les Blancs at the Olivier is good-ish, but it won't be a classic
Les Blancs had a troubled birth. In 1965 several unfinished drafts of the play were entrusted by its dying author,…
I didn’t enjoy it but I couldn’t help loving it: Sunset Boulevard reviewed
Sunset Boulevard is a tale of fractured glory with Homeric dimensions. The movie presents Hollywood as a never-ending Trojan War…
Slapstick enthusiasts will love this Branagh and Brydon farce: The Painkillers reviewed
Sir Ken’s excellent West End residency continues with a sugar-rich confection. Sean Foley has adapted and updated an elderly French farce…
Catherine Tate’s talents are wasted on this meandering musical about nuclear fallout
Miss Atomic Bomb celebrates the sub-culture that grew up around nuclear tests in 1950s America. The citizens of Nevada would…
Jean Genet’s fascinating play, The Maids, is botched at Trafalgar Studios
The Maids is a fascinating document. Written in 1947, Jean Genet’s drama portrays a pair of serving girls who enact…
Patriotic Traitor finds dramatic gold in France’s interwar history
Jonathan Lynn, co-author of Yes Minister, has excavated the history of France during the two world wars and discovered dramatic…
Sarah Kane's Cleansed is a thin, vicious pantomime
Big fuss about Cleansed at the Dorfman. Talk of nauseous punters rushing for the gangways may have perversely delighted the…
Kit-car Chekhov: Uncle Vanya at the Almeida reviewed
Director Robert Icke has this to say of Chekhov’s greatest masterpiece: ‘Let the electricity of now flow into the old…
The critics have it all wrong — Matthew Perry’s debut play is smart, stylish and sexy
Here’s how to set yourself up for a fall. You stage the world première of your debut play in the…
A great, weird play to rival Shakespeare: Old Vic's The Master Builder reviewed
The Master Builder, if done properly, can be one of those theatrical experiences that make you wonder if the Greeks…
The Mother is meaningless - I predict great things for it
Florian Zeller has been reading Pinter. And Pinter started out in repertory thrillers where suspense was created by delaying revelations…
Serious, popular art: Peter Shaffer's Five Finger Exercise reviewed
A beautiful crumbling theatre in Notting Hill is under threat. The Coronet, which bills itself as the Print Room, faces…
