National Theatre
The Last of the Haussmans, National TheatreWednesday, 20 June 2012
When does an urgent new trend become a theatre cliché? Over the past couple of years, the idea of generational conflict between the have-it-all baby boomers and the have-nothing-but-debts youngsters has appeared in plays such as James Graham’s The... Read more... |
Antigone, National TheatreThursday, 31 May 2012
Although some contemporary plays — notably Posh and 13 — have accurately taken the temperature of the times, what about the timeless classics? Does Sophocles’s Antigone (dated about 441BC) have anything to say to us today? How can it be of our time... Read more... |
Detroit, National TheatreWednesday, 16 May 2012
The competition for best dramatic use of a coffee table is won hands down by the wagon-wheel one that prompts a major argument in When Harry Met Sally. Runner-up is the one that appears in Detroit. So deliciously hideous that it gets its own laugh,... Read more... |
Misterman, National TheatreThursday, 19 April 2012
Religious mania is bad for your love life. In Enda Walsh’s revamped 1999 play — which has already been seen in Galway and New York, and opened in London last night — a 33-year-old man (played with immense conviction and enormous presence by Cillian... Read more... |
Julie Walters and Simon Russell Beale star in National Theatre summerSunday, 01 April 2012Priority booking opens tomorrow for the spring and summer season at the National Theatre. It includes Simon Russell Beale directed by Nicholas Hytner in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens at the Olivier Theatre (opens 17 July) and Julie Walters as an... Read more... |
Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, National TheatreThursday, 15 March 2012
Like many a regular theatregoer, I have a little list of classic plays that I’ve never seen, or even read. One of these is, or rather was, Errol John’s evocatively titled Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. Written in 1953, this definitive “yard play” was a... Read more... |
Can We Talk About This? DV8 Physical Theatre, National TheatreTuesday, 13 March 2012
“Do you feel morally superior to the Taliban? Well, do you?” And we’re off, with another of director/choreographer Lloyd Newson’s interrogations of a taboo subject. DV8 Physical Theatre is 25 years old this season, yet if anything, it, and Newson,... Read more... |
Island, National TheatreTuesday, 21 February 2012
Half-term may be nearly over for many, but there is no shortage of children’s theatre on offer in London at the moment. Long-running family favourites including Shrek the Musical and The Lion King have recently been joined by the mighty Matilda the... Read more... |
She Stoops to Conquer, National TheatreWednesday, 01 February 2012
With its mistaken identities, a meddling mother, a chest of precious jewels, gulling of fops and two pairs of thwarted lovers, it's easy to see Shakespearean overtones in Oliver Goldsmith's 1773 masterpiece. And because She Stoops to Conquer's witty... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Director Barrie RutterSunday, 29 January 2012
In 1992 Northern Broadsides, the Halifax-based theatre company founded by Barrie Rutter, staged its first production, Richard III. Rutter (b 1946), an established actor who had worked with some of the most distinguished names in theatre such as... Read more... |
One theatre, five awardsTuesday, 24 January 2012
When the London theatre critics gathered to hand out their annual awards at lunchtime today in person, a notable percentage of the gongs were carried off by the National Theatre. There was no surprise, for example, that the best new play was One Man... Read more... |
Travelling Light, National TheatreThursday, 19 January 2012
An interfering producer, an accountant who keeps trying to cut corners and costs, even a casting couch – making movies was never easy, according to this amiable new play by Nicholas Wright. Set in 1930s Hollywood and, in flashback, in turn-of-the-... Read more... |
