Theatre Reviews
Re:Creating Europe, MIF Rewind review - last year's burning issue semi-dramatizedMonday, 04 May 2020
Are we really past all this? From Ivo van Hove's 2019 polyphony of opinions and reflections down the centuries, so much has gone into the oven on a low heat while more Brits discover that "better together" in the European Union might be a better catchphrase than "take back control". Read more... |
Frankenstein, National Theatre at Home review – creature discomfortsSaturday, 02 May 2020
So far, it could be said that the National Theatre is having a good lockdown. Every week, this flagship streams one of its stock of NT Live films, which are always a welcome reminder of the range of its output over the past decade or so. Read more... |
Theatre Lockdown Special 3: Mary Shelley twice over, Europe writ large, and one day more for a mega-musicalThursday, 30 April 2020
Time is moving in mysterious ways at the moment. It's been possible over the last month or so to mark out the beginning of each week with the arrival online of a different production streaming from the Hampstead Theatre archives. Read more... |
Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration, Broadway.com/YouTube review - slick, often sombre, but when funny, hilariousTuesday, 28 April 2020
Maybe you can't compare incomparables, but it was instructive to watch this Broadway lockdown gala feting nonagenarian Stephen Sondheim a night after the Metropolitan Opera's galaxy of stars welcoming us into their homes. Read more... |
#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei, Hampstead Theatre online review – imbued with an urgent new relevanceTuesday, 28 April 2020
London’s Hampstead Theatre has recently been very successful in bringing some of its best shows to a wider public – despite coronavirus. Read more... |
Theatre Lockdown Special 2: Birthdays aplenty, songs of hope, a starry quiz - and moreThursday, 23 April 2020
As lockdown continues, so does the ability of the theatre community to find new ways to tantalise and entertain. The urge to create and perform surely isn't going to be reined-in by a virus, which explains the explosion of creatives lending their gifts to song cycles, readings, or even the odd quiz night. At the same time, venues and theatre companies the world over continue to unlock cupboards full of goodies, almost too many to absorb. Read more... |
Tiger Country, Hampstead Theatre online review - a taut drama of NHS pressure and painWednesday, 22 April 2020
If ever there was a “play for today”, it’s surely this. Read more... |
Treasure Island, National Theatre at Home review - all aboard this thrilling adventure storyFriday, 17 April 2020
Swaggering pirates, X marks the spot, a chattering parrot, “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum”? All present and correct. Read more... |
Theatre Lockdown Special 1: Starry podcasts, late-career Shakespeare, a celebrity basement - and moreThursday, 16 April 2020
The lockdown has been extended, but here's the good news: each week whereby we are shut inside seems to bring with it ever-enticing arrays of theatre from across the spectrum, from online cabarets to freshly conceived podcasts and all manner of archival offerings of tites both familiar and not. Below is an unscientific sampling of items of interest to look out for either at the moment or during the week ahead. Read more... |
Twelfth Night, RSC/Stratford-upon-Avon online review - inventive but underfeltWednesday, 15 April 2020
Twelfth Night is rarely long-absent from the British stage and nor is it in our current climate of streaming aplenty. This 2017 production for the RSC from the director Christopher Luscombe will soon be followed online by the National Theatre’s gender-flipped version, with Tamsin Greig as Malvolia, which actually preceded this Stratford production at the time. Read more... |
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★★★★★
‘A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.’
The Observer, Kate Kellaway
Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.
★★★★★
‘This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.’
The Times, Ann Treneman
Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.
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