sat 27/09/2025

Theatre Reviews

Edinburgh Festival 2018 reviews: Ulster American / Cold Blood

David Kettle

Ulster American ★★★★ 

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The Importance of Being Earnest, Vaudeville Theatre review - Sophie Thompson triumphantly tackles the handbag challenge

Heather Neill

Any actor playing Lady Bracknell must dread the moment when she (or, indeed, he) has to deliver that unforgettable line about a significant piece of hand luggage. Since Edith Evans's wavering, vibrato, multi-syllable version of "a handbag?", audiences have waited to see how it will be dealt with this time.

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Othello, Shakespeare's Globe review - André Holland shines, Mark Rylance pursues laughs

Laura De Lisle

Claire van Kampen has a history of providing roles for her husband, Mark Rylance. He starred in her critically acclaimed Farinelli and the King three years ago, and now she directs him as Iago in the Globe's production of Othello, with Moonlight actor André Holland as the eponymous general.

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Home, I'm Darling, National Theatre review - Katherine Parkinson in career-best form

Matt Wolf

Add Katherine Parkinson to the top rank of theatre performers in a town where talent abounds.

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King Lear, Duke of York's Theatre, review - towering Ian McKellen

Heather Neill

Jonathan Munby's production starring Ian McKellen, first seen last year in Chichester and now transferred to the West End, reflects our everyday anxieties, emphasising in the world of a Trump presidency, the dangers of childish, petulant authoritarianism. And while King James I was keen to...

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Exit the King, National Theatre review - vivid, brilliant production that somehow leaves you feeling empty

Rachel Halliburton

The image of a raging, narcissistic tyrant, convinced that he can crush even death into oblivion, has all too many resonances these days.

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Spamilton, Menier Chocolate Factory review - fun if overstuffed

Matt Wolf

If it's possible to have somewhat too much of a good thing, that would seem to be the case with the British premiere at the Menier Chocolate Factory of Spamilton.

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Pity, Royal Court review - whacked-out and wearing

Matt Wolf

The apocalypse arrives as a series of collegiate sketches in the aptly-named Pity, the Rory Mullarkey play that may well prompt sympathy for audiences who unwittingly find themselves in attendance.

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Allelujah!, Bridge Theatre review - hilarious but dark, darker, darkest

aleks Sierz

The NHS is us. For decades our national identity has been bandaged together with the idea, and reality, of a health service that is free at the point of delivery.

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A Monster Calls, Old Vic - wild, beautiful theatre that beguiles and bruises

Rachel Halliburton

A raw pagan vitality animates this extraordinary story about a teenage boy wrestling with tumultuous emotions in the face of his mother’s terminal illness.

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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.


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