Theatre Reviews
Is God Is, Royal Court review – blister, flare and burn, baby, burnThursday, 16 September 2021
God is a tricky one. Or should that be One? And definitely not a He. So when she says take revenge, then vengeance is definitely not only hers, but ours too. Read more... |
The Memory of Water, Hampstead Theatre review – uneasy tragi-comedyMonday, 13 September 2021
Memories are notoriously treacherous — this we know. I remember seeing Shelagh Stephenson’s contemporary classic at the Hampstead, when this venue was a prefab, and enjoying Terry Johnson’s racy staging, which starred Jane Booker, Hadyn Gwynne and Matilda Ziegler as the trio of bickering sisters, and then being blown away by his West End version, in which comedy heavyweight Alison Steadman partnered Samantha Bond and Julia Sawalha (with Margot Leicester thrown in for good measure). Read more... |
Frozen, Theatre Royal Drury Lane review - twinkling spectacle with a sincere drama at its heartThursday, 09 September 2021
Let it snow! Read more... |
Leopards, Rose Theatre, Kingston review - a no-thrill thriller about sex and powerThursday, 09 September 2021
Is it a thriller? Is it a character study? Leopards, Alys Metcalf’s two-hander about a middle-aged white charity executive – male – and a young job applicant of mixed race – female – goes under the colours of both, but falls short of either genre. Read more... |
Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Orange Tree Theatre review - a blast from the past with lessons for todayTuesday, 07 September 2021
Even if you miss the play’s title and do not recognise the writer’s name with the heft of reputation that comes with it, as soon as you see the black man and the white woman speaking in South African accents, you know that the tension that electrifies the air between them is real. Read more... |
Rockets and Blue Lights, National Theatre review - strong, but inconclusiveFriday, 03 September 2021
For more than three decades, playwright Winsome Pinnock has been at the forefront of new writing, often experimenting with form as well as documenting the lives of black Britons. Read more... |
Once Upon A Time In Nazi Occupied Tunisia, Almeida Theatre review - flawed theatre but a great experimentTuesday, 31 August 2021
An ageing Nazi, stuffed into a slightly too tight white linen suit, sits at the opposite end of the dining table to a young Jewish woman. Between them is a dish of chicken stew that we, just moments beforehand, have seen her lace with poison. Read more... |
Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury review - dazzling Disney rewriteMonday, 30 August 2021
Bedknobs and Broomsticks has always suffered from not being Mary Poppins, the movie delayed in development and released in 1971 (it is a Sixties film in tone and technology) and always seeming to appear later on the BBC’s Christmas Disney Time programmes, after a bit of Baloo boogieing and a spoonful or two of sugar. It was probably more liked than loved. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: Screen 9Monday, 23 August 2021
The popcorn on offer as you enter the Pleasance’s performing space at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre quickly fills the air with its rich, sugary scent. It’s a smell that sets the scene nicely for a show set in a cinema, but also an aroma that takes on increasingly heavy, cloying, sickly – and inescapable – connotations as Screen 9 progresses. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: StillSaturday, 21 August 2021
Ageing Mick wakes up on Portobello beach with two gold rings in his pocket, and embarks on the bender to end all benders in order to work out what or who they’re for. Young Gilly has a poorly pug named Mr Immanuel Kant, but can’t face having it put down. Gaynor has suffered from fibromyalgia for decades, but must put it aside if she’s to see her newborn granddaughter. Read more... |
Pages
Advertising feature
★★★★★
‘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.
Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.
latest in today
Leeds International Piano Competition Finals, Leeds Town Hal...
It’s easy to forget that what you see in a competition final isn’t always the full story, the jury members’ votes in this case based on what had...
Album: Public Service Broadcasting - Bright Magic
Public Service Broadcasting’s latest addition in their on-going string of concept albums could reasonably be described as an impressionistic...
Anuvab Pal, Soho Theatre review - Empire and Bollywood colli...
Anuvab Pal may be a new name to some UK audiences (although many will know him from the global satirical podcast The Bugle), but he is...
theartsdesk on Vinyl 66: Etta James, BABii, George Harrison,...
As the summer folds away on itself, theartsdesk on Vinyl returns. Beset by backlogs at pressing plants and delayed by COVID, it's...
Reissue CDs Weekly: Help Yourself - Passing Through, The Com...
“Reaffirmation” is the sound of a San Francisco ballroom in 1968. The 12-minute long track opens mysteriously with what might be a Mellotron on...
The Story of Looking review – bedside musings on how and wha...
Mark Cousins, the multi-award winning director...
Podium odes to joy: conductors at the 2021 BBC Proms
They must have been especially overjoyed to be back in front of (or with back to the greater part of) a live audience. But inspiring musicians is...
Rose Plays Julie review - a sombre story of rape, adoption a...
Rose (Ann Skelly; The Nevers) is adopted. The name on her birth certificate is Julie and the possibility of a different identity –...
The Magic Flute, Royal Opera review - all but a guarantee of...
Rarely has the revolving door of opera twirled so efficiently. David...
Album: Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine - A Beginner...
For those amongst you who listened obsessively to the soundtrack of Call Me By Your Name, the idea of an album by cult...