fri 07/03/2025

Theatre Reviews

The Sunset Limited, Boulevard Theatre review - all talk, no theatre

Matt Wolf

Cormac McCarthy’s two-hander, premiered at Chicago's mighty Steppenwolf Theatre in 2006, has by this point been everything short of an ice ballet: a self-described “novel in dramatic form”, as one might expect from the American author of such titles as All the Pretty Horses and The Road, followed by a film made for TV directed by, and starring, Tommy Lee Jones, opposite Samuel L Jackson.

Read more...

The Welkin, National Theatre review - women's labour is a pain

aleks Sierz

History plays should perform a delicate balancing act: they have to tell us something worth knowing about the past, that foreign country where they do things differently, and also something about our current preoccupations. Otherwise, what's the point?

Read more...

Scenes with Girls, Royal Court review - feminist separatism 2.0

aleks Sierz

Last night, I discovered the gasp index. Or maybe just re-discovered. The what? The gasp index. It's when you see a show that keeps making you exhale, sometimes audibly, sometimes quietly. Tonight I gasped about five times, then I stopped counting – I was hooked.

Read more...

You Stupid Darkness!, Southwark Playhouse review - an intriguing muddle

Matt Wolf

Armageddon would appear to be at the gates in Sam Steiner’s intriguing if ramshackle play, a co-production between Paines Plough and Theatre Royal, Plymouth, that has reached London while still seeming a draft or so away from achieving its full potential.

Read more...

Rags: The Musical, Park Theatre review - a timely, if predictable, immigrant tale

Marianka Swain

“Take our country back!” is the rallying cry of the self-identified “real” Americans gathered to protest the arrival of immigrants.

Read more...

Les Misérables, Sondheim Theatre review - join in our crusade

aleks Sierz

Do you hear the people sing? In recent months, you're more likely to have heard news stories about the longest running West End musical than the actual music.

Read more...

Scrounger, Finborough Theatre review - uncomfortable play tackles disability discrimination

Saskia Baron

Scrounger is no comfortable evening in the theatre, for reasons both intentional and inadvertent. Athena Stevens’ new play recounts her 2016 battle with British Airways and London City Airport, who subjected her to the humiliation of being taken off a flight to Edinburgh because they couldn’t fit her c

Read more...

Magic Goes Wrong, Vaudeville Theatre review - entertaining spoof

Veronica Lee

Mischief Theatre's “Goes Wrong” oeuvre is now well established: broad humour combined with physical comedy and slapstick mishaps.

Read more...

The Tyler Sisters, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs review – raucous celebration of sisterhood

Laura De Lisle

The Tyler sisters start as they mean to go on: bickering. Middle sister Gail (Bryony Hannah) has come home from uni to find that youngest Katrina (Angela Griffin) has stolen her room. “What about Maddy’s? Why didn’t you take that?” Gail snaps. “She’s in it,” Katrina points out. “I am in it, to be fair,” confirms eldest Maddy (Caroline Faber), trying her best not to take sides. “I am actually in it.”

Read more...

Best of 2019: Theatre

Matt Wolf

Political dysfunction and societal distress led many amongst us to the brink this year, so where better than the theatre to find succour if not always solace in the abundantly thoughtful offerings of a creative community as often as not working at full tilt?

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...

theartsdesk Q&A: Oscar-winner Adrien Brody on 'The...

Adrien Brody is on a roll. Following his Golden Globe and BAFTA Best Actor wins for his performance as László Toth in...

A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, ITV1 review - powerful d...

The story of Ruth Ellis’s execution in 1955 has found its own macabre niche in British folklore, and has been been the subject of several film,...

Album: Spiritbox - Tsunami Sea

Within the loud realm of metal, it often exists happily unbothered by the mainstream. And although a metal band going mainstream isn't always well...

Towards Zero, BBC One review - more entertaining parlour gam...

The BBC’s latest “cool” Agatha Christie adaptation has many...

Album: The Burning Hell - Ghost Palace

Cultural references run up the flagpole on Ghost Palace include Deep Purple’s “Space Truckin’” buskers covering Lynryd Skynyrd and Ed...

Mansfield Park, Guildhall School review - fun when frothy, c...

Let’s call it Jane Austen fit for the West End, but with opera singers. The fact that it also serves as a fun ensemble piece for students is also...

Chuck Prophet, Mid Sussex Music Hall, Hassocks review - the...

Forty years ago, Chuck Prophet was the Keith Richards-like guitar hotshot in Green On Red, peers of R.E.M. and among the raw country-punk...

Echoes: Stone Circles, Community and Heritage, Stonehenge Vi...

Stonehenge is about 5,000 years old; three photographic artists currently exhibiting in the visitor centre are all under the age of...