thu 16/01/2025

Theatre Reviews

Ian McKellen On Stage, Harold Pinter Theatre review - a master relishes the joy of theatre

Heather Neill

Reviewing Ian McKellen's show is, in one sense, like appraising the Taj Mahal or Mount Everest: he too is an awe-inspiring phenomenon.

Read more...

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Trafalgar Studios review - tragi-comic masterpiece

aleks Sierz

Playwright Peter Nichols died aged 92 last month, just before the opening of this starry West End revival of his most celebrated masterpiece. A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1967) is based on his own family experience of bringing up his disabled daughter in the 1960s, and it has the reputation of being one of the most ground-breaking plays of its generation.

Read more...

'Master Harold' ... and the Boys, National Theatre review - timelessly moving

Matt Wolf

Time has been kind to Athol Fugard's "Master Harold"...and the Boys. It's a stealth bomb of a play that I saw in its world premiere production in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1982 and that has been a regular part of my playgoing life ever since.

Read more...

The Watsons, Menier Chocolate Factory review - Laura Wade's inventive new play

Veronica Lee

What a joy Laura Wade's latest play is.

Read more...

Macbeth, Chichester Festival Theatre review - cosmic yet closely crafted

Tom Birchenough

There’s a fine balance between the cosmic and the closely crafted in director Paul Miller’s Macbeth, his first production in the expansive space that is Chichester’s main stage.

Read more...

Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp., Royal Court review - still experimental after all these years

aleks Sierz

At the age of 81, Caryl Churchill, Britain's greatest living playwright, is still going strong. Her latest is a typically imaginative quartet of short plays. Each of them is vividly distinct, being linguistically agile, theatrically pleasurable and emotionally dark, yet all are also united by the common theme of folk tales and strongly archetypal stories.

Read more...

The Thunder Girls, The Lowry, Salford review - all-girl solidarity

Robert Beale

An all-girl rock group from the 1980s meet again, 30 years after an acrimonious break-up brought their shared stage career to an end … and the sparks fly as old resentments resurface and the bitterness of life’s blows emerges. Will their one-time all-girl solidarity overcome their pain and regrets? Will the show end with them back together, belting out their iconic anthem?

Read more...

Two Ladies, Bridge Theatre review - Cvitešić and Wanamaker really rock

aleks Sierz

Are first ladies second-class citizens? Do they always have to stand behind their husbands? What are they really like as people? Questions such as these have inspired Irish playwright Nancy Harris to explore the relationship between two fictional first ladies, each of which bears an uncanny resemblance to a real-life figure. One is clearly based on Melania Trump, the other on Brigitte Trogneux, better known as Mrs Macron.

Read more...

Blood Wedding, Young Vic review - inventive, poetic if over-stretched revival of Lorca's rural tragedy

Heather Neill

Earthiness, lyricism, fatalism, the undeniable force of passion, of ecstatic attraction, known as "duende": these are the familiar ingredients of Lorca's plays set in rural Spain. Blood Wedding, written in 1932, was the first, followed by Yerma two years later and The House of Bernarda Alba in 1936, the year of Lorca's murder by Nationalists.

Read more...

Mother of Him, Park Theatre review – lean domestic drama unsure where it stands

Laura De Lisle

Mother of Him was written a decade ago, but its most prescient moment happens in the first five minutes of Max Lindsay's production at the Park Theatre.

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...

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel, Barbican review -...

Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela took the Barbican by storm last night with a thrilling account of Mahler’s...

Jenůfa, Royal Opera review - electrifying details undermined...

This was always going to be Jakub Hrůša’s night, his first at the...

German National Orchestra, Marshall, Cadogan Hall review - s...

This concert was an effusion of pure joy. Billed as the German National Orchestra, the Bundesjugendorchester (Federal Youth Orchestra), all of...

Chris McCausland, Winchester Theatre Royal review - Strictly...

By all accounts Chris McCausland had to be persuaded to take part in the most recent series of Strictly Come Dancing, which he won with...

Album: The Weather Station - Humanhood

Four of Humanhood’s 13 tracks are short, impressionistic mood pieces. Between 48 seconds and just-over a minute-and-a-half long, they...

Oliver!, Gielgud Theatre review - Lionel Bart's 1960 ma...

Into a world of grooming gangs, human trafficking and senior prelates resigning over child abuse cases comes Oliver!, Lionel...

What's the Matter with Tony Slattery?, BBC Two review -...

In the late Eighties and Nineties, Tony Slattery became one of the most ubiquitous faces on television, appearing regularly on Whose Line Is...

Album: Ethel Cain - Perverts

Ethel Cain’s Perverts is a dark and experimental follow-up to her debut album, Preacher’s Daughter. It takes listeners on a...

Leif Ove Andsnes, Wigmore Hall review - colour and courage,...

Forthright and upright, powerful and lucid, the frank and bold pianism of Leif Ove Andsnes took his Wigmore Hall audience from Norway to Poland (...