Theatre
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…
‘I aspire to write for posterity’: An interview with Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard is Britain’s — perhaps the world’s — leading playwright. Born Tomas Straussler in Zlin, Czechoslovakia, in 1937,…
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…
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…
‘You either are panto, or you aren’t’: Christopher Biggins on his favourite time of year
Christopher Biggins has managed to bag some of the nation’s favourite TV characters over the years: Lukewarm in Porridge and…
Punk spirit underpinned by darkness and horror: Richard III at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre reviewed
The history plays are different. In dramas like Othello, Hamlet and Much Ado, Shakespeare laid out the plot with great…
Smart, funny and beautifully imagined: RSC’s The Boy in the Dress reviewed
David Walliams is one of the biggest-selling children’s authors in the world (having shifted some 25 million copies in more…
An astonishing treat: Dear Evan Hansen at the Noël Coward Theatre reviewed
Dear Evan Hansen, by Steven Levenson, opens as a standard American teen-angst musical. Evan is a sweaty geek with a…
Riveting and beautifully staged analysis of totalitarianism: Arcola’s #WeAreArrested reviewed
When the RSC does modern drama it usually lays on an ultra-worthy yarn with a huge cast, dozens of fancy…
The script’s a dud: Antipodes at the Dorfman Theatre reviewed
The Antipodes, by the acclaimed dramatist Annie Baker, is set in a Hollywood writers’ room. Seven hired scribblers are brainstorming…
Why the Royal Court is theatre’s answer to Islamic State
The Royal Court is the theatre’s answer to Islamic State, a conspiracy of nihilists fascinated with death, supported by groups…
‘The only place I can’t get my plays on is Britain’: Sir Peter Brook interviewed
‘Everyone of us knows we deserve to be punished,’ says the frail old man before me in a hotel café.…
A surefire international hit: Lungs reviewed
No power on earth can stop Lungs from becoming an international hit. Duncan Macmillan’s slick two-handed comedy reunites Matt Smith…
How did Richard Herring become the comedy podcast king?
What does it mean to be a successful comic? Richard Herring isn’t sure. He’s been a ‘professional funnyman’ for nearly…
A 90-minute slog up to a dazzling peak: ‘Master Harold’… and the boys reviewed
Athol Fugard likes to dump his characters in settings with no dramatic thrust or tension. A prison yard is a…
A hoot from start to finish: The Man in the White Suit reviewed
The Man in the White Suit, famously, is a yarn about yarn. A brilliant young boffin stumbles across an everlasting…
Circus routine rather than theatre: Noises Off reviewed
Michael Frayn’s backstage comedy, Noises Off, is the theatre’s answer to Trooping the Colour. Everyone agrees that it’s an amazing…
Flimsy and pretentious sketches: Caryl Churchill’s Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. reviewed
Caryl Churchill is back at the Royal Court with a weird collection of sketches. The first is set on a…
Is it time to give up on the Ibsen adaptations?
Pub quiz question: what do John Osborne, Brian Friel and Patrick Marber have in common? The answer is they’ve all…
A decorative pageant that would appeal to civic grandees: The Secret River reviewed
The Secret River opens in a fertile corner of New South Wales in the early 1800s. William, a cockney pauper…
Watching Stephen Fry was like being in the presence of a god
Stephen Fry lies prone on an empty stage. A red ball rolls in from the wings and bashes him in…
Tony Slattery is still a miraculously gifted comedian
Some of the marketing efforts by amateur impresarios up in Edinburgh are extraordinary. I was handed a leaflet for a…
