Southwark Playhouse
Is Coogan’s Dr Strangelove as good as Sellars’s? Of course not
Stanley Kubrick’s surreal movie Dr Strangelove is a response to the fear of nuclear annihilation which obsessed every citizen in…
Unmissable – for professors of gender studies: Alma Mater, at the Almeida Theatre, reviewed
Alma Mater is a topical melodrama set on a university campus. The new principal, Jo, (amusingly played by Justine Mitchell)…
Like an episode of Play School: Dr Semmelweis, at the Harold Pinter Theatre, reviewed
Bleach and germs are the central themes of Dr Semmelweis, written by Mark Rylance and Stephen Brown. The opening scene,…
The show works a treat: Globe's The Tempest reviewed
Southwark Playhouse has a reputation for small musicals with big ambitions. Tasting Notes is set in a wine bar run…
Right play, wrong place: The Fellowship, at Hampstead Theatre, reviewed
Roy Williams’s new play is a wonky beast. It has two dense and cumbersome storylines that aren’t properly developed. Dawn…
Paul Bettany's Warhol is a tour de force: The Collaboration, at the Young Vic, reviewed
The Collaboration is set in the 1980s when Andy Warhol teamed up with the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat to create bad…
An amazing technical achievement: Life of Pi at Wyndham's Theatre reviewed
Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi is a complicated organism. The action starts in southern India where we meet a…
Glib and snarky: Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella, at Gillian Lynne Theatre, reviewed
It’s a rum beast the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Cinderella is set in Belleville, a European city of 18th-century…
One for hardcore Tennessee Williams fans only: The Two Character Play reviewed
It can be difficult to remember that Tennessee Williams, the great songster of the Deep South during the 1950s, was…
Enjoyable in spite of the National's best efforts: Under Milk Wood reviewed
Before the National Theatre produced Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood they had to make a decision. How could they stuff…
Do theatres actually read scripts before agreeing to stage them?
Money is a new internet play about financial corruption starring Mel Giedroyc. She appears on-screen for less time than it…
Unhappy blend of melodrama and allegory: Southwark Playhouse’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice reviewed
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a musical fantasy set in a Nordic town near the Arctic circle. Johan is a magician…
How Facebook became a freedom-gobbling corporate monster
Southwark Playhouse is beating the latest lockdown with a zingy new musical about social media. The performers, Francesca Forristal and…
Skilful and riveting: Poltergeist at the Southwark Playhouse reviewed
Sasha is angry. He’s a gay artist on his way to his niece’s birthday party and he keeps popping codeine…
The jackboot zealotry of ushers is ruining theatre
Southwark Playhouse has revived an American show, The Last Five Years, whose run was cancelled in March. In advance, I…
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…
Heavy-handed
Oliver Cotton is an RSC stalwart who looks like a man born to greatness. Google him. He has the fearless…
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…
Is there a difference between being prejudiced and being a connoisseur of prejudice?
Paul Minx ventures boldly into Tennessee Williams country with The Long Road South. It’s 1965 and the Price family are…
Trevor Nunn’s Volpone reviewed: Henry Goodman bewitches the audience by doing nothing wittily
Easy playwright to get on with, Ben Jonson. His world is simple, his tastes endearing. He likes golden-hearted swindlers and…
Radiant Vermin at the Soho Theatre reviewed: a barmy little sketch posing as a revolutionary satire
Philip Ridley is best known as the screenwriter of The Krays, in which Gary and Martin Kemp played Ronnie and…
Muswell Hill reviewed: a guide on how to sock it to London trendies
Torben Betts is much admired by his near-namesake Quentin Letts for socking it to London trendies. Letts is one of…
Young Vic's Golem: its status as a cult hit fills me with troubled wonder
The Young Vic produces shows that please many but rarely me. Its big hit of 2014, A Streetcar Named Desire,…
The recruitment company to go to if you've got no arms or legs
When to launch? For impresarios, this is the eternal dilemma. Autumn is so crowded with press nights that producers are…
Were the cast of the Old Vic’s Electra clothed by Oxfam?
First, a bit of background. Conquering Agamemnon slew his daughter, Iphigenia, in return for a fair wind to Troy. This…
