wed 29/01/2025

Theatre Reviews

A German Life, Bridge Theatre review - Maggie Smith triumphs again

aleks Sierz

Maggie Smith is not only a national treasure, but every casting director's go-to old bat. Now 84 years young, she is our favourite grande dame, or fantasy grandma.

Read more...

Pah-La, Royal Court review - complex ideas, wild storytelling

aleks Sierz

Theatre can give a voice to the voiceless – but at what cost?

Read more...

After Edward, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - delightfully risky

Rachel Halliburton

A loo with fuschia-pink carpet to catch splashback; an Archbishop of Canterbury who’s in it for the skirts; a gobbing Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.

Read more...

Wilderness, Hampstead Theatre review - stark portrait of modern divorce

Laura De Lisle

“We don’t love you any less.” A natural sentiment to express to your child when you’re separating from your partner, but the very fact of saying it plants doubts in the child’s mind as to whether you really mean it.

Read more...

Top Girls, National Theatre review - dazzlingly perceptive classic

aleks Sierz

Caryl Churchill is a phenomenal artist. Not only has she written a huge body of work, but each play differs in both form and content from the previous one, and she has continued to write with enormous creative zest and flair well into her maturity. Now in her 80th year, she can look over her shoulder at a back-catalogue which is stuffed full of contemporary classics, and a handful of masterpieces.

Read more...

The Crucible, The Yard Theatre review - wilfully over-stirred

Tom Birchenough

The Crucible is a play that speaks with unrelenting power at times of discord, most of all when the public consciousness looks ripe for manipulation.

Read more...

Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, Barbican Theatre review - Cillian Murphy soars and sweeps

aleks Sierz

Wow, what a collection of talent: this show stars Peaky Blinder Cillian Murphy, and Enda Walsh's adaptation, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, is based on Max Porter's award-winning novel of the same name.

Read more...

Fiddler on the Roof, Playhouse Theatre, review – energetic production whips up an emotional storm

Rachel Halliburton

In an age where political, social, and gender norms seem to be in perpetual meltdown, it should be pretty much impossible for a musical that begins with a song celebrating ‘Tradition’ to strike a chord.

Read more...

Local Hero, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh - captivating musical with a harder edge

David Kettle

“Cult” is probably an over-used adjective, especially when it comes to movies.

Read more...

The Phlebotomist, Hampstead Theatre review - thought-provoking dystopian thriller

aleks Sierz

Contemporary British theatre loves time travel — and not just to the past. It also enjoys imagining the future, especially the bad stuff ahead. So Ella Road's debut play, The Phlebotomist, is set in a convincingly coherent dystopia where genetic profiling reigns supreme, and one blood test can fuck up all your life chances.

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

Help to give theartsdesk a future!

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

Russell Howard Live at the Palladium review - feelgood philo...

This special, available for a limited time only, acts as a sort of appetiser for the next leg of a mega tour that started in 2023, and still has...

Album: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Purple Bird

Somewhat astoundingly, The Purple Bird is Will Oldham’s album number 21 using his Bonnie “Prince” Billy alias. A fine set of alt...

Catherine Airey: Confessions review - the crossroads we bear

Anglo-Irish author Catherine Airey’s first novel, ...

theartsdesk on Vinyl 88: Violent Femmes, Ringo Starr, ARXX,...

VINYL OF THE MONTH

Buñuel Mansuetude (Skin Graft/Overdrive)

...

RAM Song Circle, Wigmore Hall review - excellent young music...

After a week of illness, heading out into the Sunday afternoon cold and rain was not something I was overjoyed to undertake. But in the event this...

Album: Gary Kemp - This Destination

If I’d listened to this blind, I would have absolutely no idea who it was by. This isn’t the voice I remember...

Music Reissues Weekly: New York Dolls - Showdown At The Merc...

“A band you’re gonna like, whether you like it or not.” The proclamation in the press ads for the New York Dolls’ debut album acknowledged they...

Presence review - Soderbergh's haunted camera

The camera is the ghost in Steven Soderbergh’s 35th feature, waiting in a vacant house for its buyers, ambitious Rebecca (Lucy Liu, ...