sat 16/11/2024

Theatre Reviews

Smoke, Southwark Playhouse review - dazzling Strindberg update

Gary Naylor

A play’s title can be an almost arbitrary matter – there’s no streetcar but plenty of desire in that one for example – and it might have crossed Kim Davies’ mind to call her play Ms Julie, since it is a reimagining of August Strindberg’s 1888 masterpiece, Miss Julie. 

Read more...

Titus Andronicus, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - notorious play hits and misses

Gary Naylor

If All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida have earned the sobriquet "‘problem plays", what price Titus Andronicus? Does a director seek out a Saw vibe for the horror? Do they go for a deadpan Spinal Tap’s disappearing drummers for the demises?

Read more...

2:22 A Ghost Story, Lyric Theatre review - Cheryl makes an impressive stage debut

Helen Hawkins

The set of 2:22 A Ghost Story is open to the auditorium when we arrive and locates us at once in gentrification-land. We are in a slick kitchen with white chevron tiling, new units and an obligatory island; big skylights loom overhead and outsize glass doors lead to the back garden - and the foxes. Their mating screams will terrifyingly punctuate the action, at maximum decibels.

Read more...

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, Harold Pinter Theatre review - cool cast chills the drama

aleks Sierz

Culture which arrives from the margins to the mainstream is a classic phenomenon.

Read more...

Two Billion Beats, Orange Tree Theatre review - lively, but overly idealistic

aleks Sierz

Do the right thing! But doing the right thing isn’t easy – especially if you are a teen. And a female teen who is being pressurised by your mother and your school teacher. It takes courage to make the best decisions, it’s scary and it’s hard.

Read more...

Othello, Lyric Hammersmith review - Frantic Assembly's high-energy take on the Moor

Helen Hawkins

Frantic Assembly’s Othello, originally co-developed with the Lyric in 2008, is back in its third iteration, and it’s still not exactly the play you studied at school or saw other companies perform. In some ways, that’s all to the good.

Read more...

Sound of the Underground, Royal Court review - loud and triumphantly proud

aleks Sierz

Ever been to a queer club? You know, drag cabaret night at Madame Jojo’s, or the Black Cap or Her Upstairs. No? Well, not to worry – the Royal Court’s latest provides a fabulously extravagant simulation of the experience with its staging of Sound of the Underground, a play written by Travis Alabanza – whose classic Burgerz is coming to the Purcell Room in March – and directed by his co-creator Debbie Hannan.

Read more...

Noises Off, Phoenix Theatre review - much revived classic farce gains in poignancy

Gary Naylor

There’s a chance – a slim one – that you haven’t seen Noises Off, Michael Frayn’s farce about a farce that, as legend has it with The Rocky Horror Show, must surely be going up somewhere in the world every day.

Read more...

Charlie & Stan, Wilton’s Music Hall, review - a beguiling fantasy about two silent comedy greats

Helen Hawkins

Imagine what would have happened if the young Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel were cabin-mates on a transatlantic liner. The Told by an Idiot company did just that, and the result is this show, a return visitor to the International Mime Festival, now bearing awards. 

Read more...

The Unfriend, Criterion Theatre review - dark comedy is (largely) audience-unfriendly

Laura De Lisle

We all have that friend. The person you met on holiday and couldn’t shake off. You added each other on Facebook, but they posted so much you’ve quietly unfollowed them. You can’t quite bring yourself to unfriend them, though.

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...

Gladiator II review - can lightning strike twice?

It has been nearly 25 years since Russell Crowe enjoyed his Oscar-winning finest hour as Maximus in...

Bob Dylan, Royal Albert Hall review - cracked ritual from ro...

Will Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour ever come to an end? Two years on from the last UK tour, he’s returned, with substantially the same band, once...

The Elixir of Love, English National Opera review - a tale o...

Sparkling Italian comic opera might have been just the tonic at this time. Trouble is, the bar was set so high recently by Wexford Festival Opera’...

Maddaddam, Royal Ballet review - superb dancing in a confusi...

Valiant souls who have recently read the Margaret Atwood trilogy on which this new Wayne McGregor piece for the...

ARK: United States V by Laurie Anderson, Aviva Studios, Manc...

Picture this: framing the stage are two pearlescent clouds which, throughout the performance, gently pulsate with flickering light. Behind them on...

The Sound Voice Project, Linbury Theatre review - an art ins...

What does it mean to have a voice? And what does it mean to lose it? Those are the questions the award-winning Sound Voice Project has explored –...

Joy review - the birth pangs of in vitro fertilisation

Marie Curie excepted, movies about female scientists remain scarce, not just because STEM careers and Nobel Prizes still favour men. Now comes the...

Wolves on Road, Bush Theatre review - exciting dialogue, but...

Cryptocurrency is like the myth of El Dorado – a promised land made of fool’s gold. Despite its liberatory potential, it frequently attracts...

Album: Linkin Park - From Zero

The return of Linkin Park has been a long, winding path. The seven years since Chester Bennington's passing have swirled with speculation over...