Theatre
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet is far too nice
You can’t play the part of Hamlet, only parts of Hamlet. And the bits Benedict Cumberbatch offers us are of…
Theatre, gossip and Guinness: the craic of Dublin
What a delight it is to toy with a wooden newspaper-holder rather than a smartphone, tucked away in the cosy…
Shakespeare's Wars of the Roses is being staged without a single black actor. So what?
Trevor Nunn is staging Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses without a single black actor. So what, says Robert Gore-Langton
The Magic Flute has never made more cartoonish sense - an Edinburgh Festival roundup
London may cry foul over Hamlet’s misplaced to-be-ing and not-to-be-ing but Edinburgh is in raptures over a Magic Flute which…
Our Country’s Good prizes the concerns of the actors over the audience
Australia, 1788. A transport ship arrives in Port Jackson (later Sydney harbour) carrying hundreds of convicts and a detachment of…
The Heckler: the disingenuous custom of the ‘press night’ should be scrapped
Sam Mendes once said there is no such thing as the history of British theatre, only the history of British…
How common is adultery? Much more common than getting caught
How many cheats? More data on members of extramarital dating site Ashley Madison were put online. How widespread is adultery?…
Edinburgh Fringe highlights: world-class improv, Bible study and an hour with a gentle genius
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical offers a brand new song-and-dance spectacular at every performance. It opens with a brilliantly chaotic piece…
‘People are interested in what I’m doing again’: Robert Lepage interviewed
The visionary theatremaker Robert Lepage is back in Edinburgh after a 20-year absence. Matt Trueman talks to him about trends and legacies
Feels like Chekhov scripted by a Chekhov app: Three Days in the Country at the Lyttleton reviewed
Chekhov so dominates 19th-century Russian drama that Turgenev doesn’t get much of a look-in. His best known play, A Month…
‘I’m about to lose a lot of money’: our theatre critic prepares for his Edinburgh Fringe debut
Our theatre critic, Lloyd Evans, makes his Edinburgh debut
Turn this play into a film and it’ll win Oscars – Hollywood can’t resist a posh Brit battling disability
God, what a title. The Gathered Leaves. It sounds like a tremulous weepie about grief and endurance with a closing…
BNP supporters will enjoy this new play from the Bush Theatre
Richard Bean, the country’s most bankable playwright, knocks out a new script every four months. Thanks to the success of…
A handy liberal guide on how to save mankind, courtesy of Soho Theatre
Refugee crisis in the Mediterranean! Fear not. Anders Lustgarten and his trusty rescue ship are here to save mankind. Lampedusa…
The Seagull needs a roof to stop Chekhov's subtleties flying off
A new Seagull lands in Regent’s Park. Director Matthew Dunster has lured Chekhov’s classic into a leafy corner of north…
We’ve forgotten just how attractive Jimmy Savile once was
Ho hum. Bit icky. Not bad. Hardly dazzling. The lukewarm response to An Audience With Jimmy Savile has astonished me.…
Patrick Marber’s Red Lion at the Dorfman reviewed: ‘the woman next to me yawned a lot’
For nine years Patrick Marber has grappled with writer’s block (which by some miracle doesn’t affect his screenplay work), but…
Dear Mary: Should I follow Cilla Black’s lead on disabled loos?
Q. I was at the theatre recently and bumped into a well-known Liverpudlian crooner coming out of the disabled lavatory.…
There's a reason why the past four centuries have ignored Shakespeare's King John
King John arrives at the Globe bent double under the weight of garlands from the London critics. Their jaunt up…
Are we ready for a play about Jimmy Savile?
Will Gore talks to the playwright who has brought Jimmy Savile’s crimes to the stage
The Anglican elite laid bare: Temple at the Donmar Warehouse reviewed
In October 2011 anti-capitalist vagrants built an open-air squat outside St Paul’s within shrieking distance of London’s financial heart. The…
Amazing. Thatcherite propaganda at the Young Vic
St James Theatre hosts a new play about Alexander McQueen (real name Lee), whose star flashed briefly across the fashion…
Why I won’t be going on Celebrity Big Brother — despite being tempted
Why I had to say no to Celebrity Big Brother
Fine production of a painful play: Death of a Salesman at the Noel Coward reviewed
Here come the Yanks. As the summer jumbos disgorge their cargoes of wealthy, courteous, culture-hungry Americans, the West End prepares…
Merchant of Venice at the Globe reviewed: a tip-top production - and a high quality script too
If Julian, Dick, George and Anne had become terrorists they’d have called themselves The Angry Brigade. It’s such a Wendy…
