Theatre
B, Royal Court review - intriguing, ironical, but flawedTuesday, 03 October 2017
In the 1960s, we had the theatre of commitment; today we have an attitude of non-committal. Once, political playwrights could be guaranteed to tell you what to think, to describe what was wrong with society – and what to do about it. Now, as Chilean... Read more... |
'First read-throughs have magic': Simon Stephens on Heisenberg: The Uncertainty PrincipleSunday, 01 October 2017
All theatre workers have a day that they dread. For actors there is a particular terror about a first preview that can fuel those performances with adrenaline. For playwrights - well, for me at least - it is the first time a play is ever read out... Read more... |
After the Rehearsal/Persona, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Barbican - van Hove reconfigures BergmanSaturday, 30 September 2017
Three tall orders must be met in any successful transfer of an Ingmar Bergman text from screen to stage. First, take a company of actors as good as the various ones that the master himself assembled over the years, both in his films and in the... Read more... |
'I’d never written a play as a single action before': David Eldridge on 'Beginning'Saturday, 30 September 2017
My friend, the playwright Robert Holman, says that the writing of a play is always “the product of a moment”. Of course, he’s right, but sometimes you have to pick your moment.In autumn 2015 a TV writing gig hadn’t worked out in the way that I’d... Read more... |
Young Reviewer of the Year Award: the four finalists are...Friday, 29 September 2017
In July we launched a competition in association with The Hospital Club to unearth talented young critics. We were clear about what we were looking for: “We want to read reviews that make us think – provocative, entertaining writing that gets under... Read more... |
Jane Eyre, National Theatre review - a dynamic treatment that just missesFriday, 29 September 2017
Sometimes you go to the theatre and in the first 10 minutes are convinced that the production is going to smash it, only to find by half time that it’s not. Initial delight gives way to mild irritation, and as a member of the ticket-buying public... Read more... |
Wings, Young Vic review - Juliet Stevenson goes high and lowSaturday, 23 September 2017
Now look here, Giles Coren: immersion in a great play well acted can send you out of the theatre feeling very different from when you entered it – and I don’t mean stressed-out. In this case, light as air and sad as hell, simultaneously. You may... Read more... |
Ramona Tells Jim, Bush Theatre, review – kooky, teenage heartbreakSaturday, 23 September 2017
Location, location, location. Jim thinks he lives in the “shittiest” small town in Scotland. It’s Mallaig, on the west coast, and he’s a deeply troubled 32-year-old, working for a fish merchant and as a nature guide, but having no friends. His flat... Read more... |
Trouble in Mind, The Print Room review - Tanya Moodie is a treat to watchFriday, 22 September 2017
Truth is pursued in different ways in Alice Childress’s groundbreaking 1955 Trouble in Mind, and its play-within-a-play story of rehearsals for a Broadway show fully mines the range of theatrical opportunities, for much comic as well as rather more... Read more... |
We're Still Here, National Theatre Wales review - powerful protest and heartfelt theatre-makingWednesday, 20 September 2017
Port Talbot (population 38,000) is a town on the south Wales coast famous for two things: steel and actors. The birthplace of Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins and Michael Sheen made a rare foray into the national consciousness at the beginning of... Read more... |
Oslo, National Theatre review - informative, gripping and movingTuesday, 19 September 2017
Documentary theatre has a poor reputation. It’s boring in form, boring to look at (all those middle-aged men in suits), and usually only tells you what you already know. It’s journalism without the immediacy of the news. But there are other ways of... Read more... |
Thebes Land, Arcola Theatre - meta-theatre at its most thrillingMonday, 18 September 2017
Thebes Land returns to the Arcola Theatre as part of the wider CASA Latin American Theatre Festival, following a short 2016 run that resulted in an Off West End Award, or Offie, for Best Production. Director Daniel Goldman's pinpoint translation of... Read more... |
