Theatre Reviews
Education, Education, Education, Trafalgar Studios review - politics and pupils, mayhem and musicThursday, 06 June 2019
It's the 2nd May 1997, the morning after the night that swept New Labour into power. We’re in the staffroom of a school somewhere in Britain and the teachers are jubilant. They've been glued to their TV sets for the results and have shagged and drunk through the night to crawl in with hangovers and pouchy eyes to face the day with a particular brand of frazzled optimism. Read more... |
Wife, Kiln Theatre review - queer epic is joyful and intenseWednesday, 05 June 2019
In one lifetime, the many loves that once dare not speak their names have become part of everyday chatter. But it would be shortsighted to believe that ancient prejudices are easy to overcome, or that change does not run the risk of creating familiar problems. Read more... |
King Hedley II, Theatre Royal Stratford East review - concentrated, enveloping dramaMonday, 03 June 2019
The huge achievement of the last two decades of August Wilson’s life, right up to his death in 2005, was his “American Century Cycle”, in which he charted the African American experience over that time frame decade by decade, its action set largely in the downtown Hill District of Pittsburgh where the playwright grew up. Read more... |
The Starry Messenger, Wyndham's Theatre review - Matthew Broderick gets all cosmicThursday, 30 May 2019
A small-scale Off Broadway venture late in 2009, The Starry Messenger has arrived in London to mark the belated British stage debut of Matthew Broderick, the movie name much-loved on the New York stage. Read more... |
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare's Globe review - a gallimaufry of acting stylesWednesday, 29 May 2019
Need Shakespeare 's Falstaff charm to be funny? Read more... |
Rutherford and Son, National Theatre review - authentic northern taleTuesday, 28 May 2019
Githa Sowerby is the go-to playwright if you want a feminist slant on patriarchy in the industrial north in Edwardian times. Her 1912 classic, Rutherford and Son, has been regularly revived over the past 30 years, and now the National Theatreis staging it yet again, this time with the ever likeable Roger Allam in the title role. Read more... |
User Not Found, The CoffeeWorks Project review - solo play set in a café offers food for thoughtTuesday, 28 May 2019
Who is that slithering on the floor by your foot, or coming to rest by or upon your knee? Read more... |
Berlin: True Copy, Brighton Festival 2019 review - tricksy forgery masterclassTuesday, 28 May 2019
This brilliantly conceived and executed show is about provenance in art. It’s also about our perceptions of the truth. However, it’s a show where it would be churlish to reveal too much of what goes on. Read more... |
Our Town, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review – small-town tale that raises profound existential questionsMonday, 27 May 2019
Our Town was written shortly before World War Two about a small town in America in the years leading up to World War One, yet it makes its extraordinary impact by focusing its lens on details as apparently unexciting as pond-water. Read more... |
The Lehman Trilogy, Piccadilly Theatre review - stunning chronicle of determination and dollarsThursday, 23 May 2019
Mammon and Yahweh are the presiding deities over an epic enterprise that tells the story not just of three brothers who founded a bank but of modern America. Virgil asked his Muse to sing of ‘arms and the man’, yet here the theme becomes that of ‘markets and the man’: a tale of daring, determination and dollars that chronicles capitalist endeavour from the cottonfields of Alabama to the crash of 2008. 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.
Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.
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