fri 25/07/2025

Theatre Reviews

What Shadows, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh review - compelling, urgent, unashamedly provocative

David Kettle

You’ve got to hand it to David Greig. The artistic director of Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre has shown quite a knack for surfing the zeitgeist with his programming – and more importantly, tackling urgent political issues in a properly theatrical way.

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The March on Russia, Orange Tree Theatre review – vividly funny amid the bleakness

Ismene Brown

The late David Storey spoke movingly, elsewhere on The Arts Desk, of his sense of overwhelming powerlessness at the challenge of accepting his father’s death. “I was quite racked by his death, and what death had become as an abstraction - in other words, what's my death, what's death itself?” he said.

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The Blinding Light, Jermyn Street Theatre, review – Jasper Britton is fascinatingly febrile

aleks Sierz

Anyone who likes playing “Spot the weirdo” will find themselves instantly at home in Howard Brenton’s new play, which has its world premiere in this West End fringe venue, a stone’s throw from Piccadilly Circus. Its subject is Swedish playwright and writer August Strindberg, and the psychological crisis which he suffered while he was living in Paris in 1896.

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Follies, National Theatre review - Imelda Staunton equal first in stunning company

David Nice

Of Sondheim’s half-dozen masterpieces, Follies is the one which sets the bar impossibly high, both for its four principals and in its typically unorthodox dramatic structure.

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Richard III review - Temple Church venue is the star of the show

Veronica Lee

Temple Church gained worldwide fame when Dan Brown included a major plot point there in his mega-selling novel The Da Vinci Code in 2003, but it has been standing, minding its own business, since the late 12th century.

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Late Company, Trafalgar Studios review - visceral production of Jordan Tannahill's lean, pained drama

Tom Birchenough

Canadian playwright Jordan Tannahill wrote Late Company when he was only 23. It would be an impressive achievement at any age, but it seems all the more remarkable that so stark a dissection of the consequences of a tragedy should have come from so young a writer. Written in 2013, it was his fifth play.

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Loot, Park Theatre review – dizzyingly enjoyable

aleks Sierz

Fifty years ago this month, playwright Joe Orton was murdered by his lover Kenneth Halliwell. His debut play, Entertaining Mr Sloane, had both outraged and delighted West End audiences in 1964, and his follow-up a year later was Loot, which was a flop at first and then a hit when restaged in 1966.

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Knives in Hens, Donmar Warehouse review – Yaël Farber not symbolic enough

aleks Sierz

Hark, is that the call of the earth I hear? In a frenetic urban world, the myth of rural simplicity exerts a strong pull. Surely a simpler life is possible; a more natural rhythm and a slower pace?

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Edinburgh Festival and Fringe 2017 reviews round-up

theartsdesk

Wondering what on earth to choose between as you tramp the streets of the festival? These are our highlights so far.

STANDUP

Athenu Kugblenu, Underbelly Med Quad ★★★ Strong debut hour of political and identity comedy

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Against, Almeida Theatre review - Ben Whishaw is a modern-day Jesus

aleks Sierz

Luke is a Silicon Valley billionaire, a high-tech wizard. And he’s just had a message from God. And what does God say? Well, He says, “Go where there’s violence.” So what does Luke do? He does what he’s been told, and devotes his considerable intellect and his even more considerable resources to solving the problem of violence in our society.

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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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