thu 24/07/2025

Theatre Reviews

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Hung Parliament review – choose-your-own whodunnit

Laura De Lisle

I’ll admit, I’ve never been a fan of murder mysteries. Patience is not one of my virtues; if I can’t work something out in 30 seconds, I’m liable to give up, and whodunnits tend to need a bit longer than that.

Read more...

Barnes' People, Original Theatre Company online review - intriguing quartet of monologues revived

Tom Birchenough

The four monologues that make up Barnes’ People were filmed in the grand surroundings of the Theatre Royal, Windsor, and that venue's atmospheric spaces (now deserted, of course) seem to tell a sad tale of their own, one that chimes rather appropriately with the mood of some of them.

Read more...

The Color Purple - at Home, Curve online review – life-affirming musical retelling of Alice Walker's novel

Rachel Halliburton

This production of The Color Purple is an extraordinary testimony to the fact that many of the 20th century’s most joyous forms of music – jazz, ragtime and of course blues – had their roots in misery and oppression.

Read more...

Hymn, Almeida Theatre online review - highs and lows of a soulful brother bonding

Tom Birchenough

Contact without touch: among the many readjustments that the pandemic has brought to theatre, its demands that restrict direct contact almost to nothing must be among the most testing. We have learnt much about how rigorously any new production – for now, only live-streamed – must be prepared: the regular testing in rehearsals, the two-metre distancing, the repeated cleaning of props.

Read more...

All On Her Own, Stream.Theatre online review - a vivid monologue on bereavement

Rachel Halliburton

This stunningly delivered online monologue from a bereaved widow to her husband feels simultaneously incredibly timely and very dated. At this time of lockdown it is chilling to wonder how many rooms across the world contain individuals with only ghosts for comfort.

Read more...

Romeo and Juliet, Palace Theatre, Manchester online review - futuristic and timely

Heather Neill

The story of Romeo and Juliet is well known, worth revisiting endlessly and always relevant. But there is another story here: the making of the piece using innovative digital technology including CGI, to keep actors and creative team safe in a pandemic.

Read more...

Good Grief, Platform Presents online review - a little more, please

Laura De Lisle

Good Grief, a new show from American screenwriter and playwright Lorien Haynes, can’t work out what it wants to be. It’s billed as an “online filmed production”.

Read more...

Shook, Papatango online review - strongly acted, but depressingly predictable

aleks Sierz

Film is the new theatre – this we know, but does the distance imposed by the change of medium increase or decrease the impact of the story?

Read more...

Love in a Wood, Jermyn Street Theatre review - stars gather remotely for a lively online presentation

Heather Neill

Swaggering rakes, posturing fops, sexual intrigue, illicit encounters, wit, artifice, wigs, fans and beauty spots - these are familiar ingredients of Restoration comedy. It is a louche world where the word "mask" is associated with naughty goings on under cover of darkness rather than health worries, and where social distancing and restraint have no place.

Read more...

Peter Pan: The Audio Adventure review - the perfect bedtime story

Laura De Lisle

The blurb for Peter Pan: The Audio Adventure, Shaun McKenna’s new adaptation of JM Barrie’s classic, tells us, with a...

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

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
The Human League/Marc Almond/Toyah, Brighton Beach review -...

Today gradually blossoms from unpromising beginnings. LouderUK’s On The Beach event series takes place throughout the summer and runs the gamut...

A Moon for the Misbegotten, Almeida Theatre review - Michael...

Michael Shannon's long legs reach to the stars - or perhaps one should say the moon - in the Almeida's hypnotic revival of A Moon for the...

Album: Alice Cooper - The Revenge of Alice Cooper

Great (and not so great) bands reforming, either in the studio or in the live arena, is something of a trend at the moment. However, who would...

Burlesque, Savoy Theatre review - exhaustingly vapid

"It all starts with a snap," or so we're told early in the decidedly un-snappy Burlesque, which spends three hours borrowing shamelessly...

Tosca, Clonter Opera review - beauty and integrity in miniat...

At first sight, it seemed that Clonter Opera’s decision to tackle Tosca this year might be a leap too far. Its once-a-year complete...

Album: Paul Weller - Find El Dorado

Paul Weller occupies a strange place in the cultural sphere. Especially since he was adopted as an elder statesman of Britpop in the mid 1990s, he...

BBC Proms: McCarthy, Bournemouth SO, Wigglesworth review - s...

It started like Sunday afternoon band concert on a seaside promenade, a massive ensemble playing it light. But while there were several too many...

theartsdesk Q&A: writer and actor Mark Gatiss on 'B...

Having played Sherlock Holmes’s politically involved older brother Mycroft in the BBC’s hit crime series Sherlock...

Ballard, Prime Video review - there's something rotten...

Following the success of its screen version of Michael Connelly’s veteran detective Harry Bosch, starring Titus Welliver,...