Theatre Reviews
Preludes, Southwark Playhouse review - journeying into the mind of RachmaninoffThursday, 12 September 2019
Where does music come from? That’s the vital question posed to Sergei Rachmaninoff in Dave Malloy’s extraordinary 2015 chamber work, as the great late-Romantic Russian composer – stuck in his third year of harrowing writer’s block – tries to relocate his gift. Read more... |
A Doll's House, Lyric Hammersmith review - Ibsen tellingly transposed to colonial IndiaThursday, 12 September 2019
Newly arrived from a much-lauded stint at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, Rachel O'Riordan has undertaken to make "work of scale by women" during her time as artistic director of the Lyric. What better place to start than with Ibsen's once-shocking heroine, her story reimagined by prolific playwright Tanika Gupta? Read more... |
Torch Song, Turbine Theatre review - impressive return for Harvey Fierstein's seminal gay dramaMonday, 09 September 2019
London’s latest theatre opening brings a stirring revival of Harvey Fierstein’s vital gay drama, which premiered as Torch Song Trilogy in New York at the beginning of the 1980s, the playwright himself unforgettable in the lead... Read more... |
Chiaroscuro, Bush Theatre review - music, sweet, sweet musicSaturday, 07 September 2019
Identity politics has been around for decades. Read more... |
Anahera, Finborough Theatre review - blistering family drama from New ZealandSaturday, 07 September 2019
With power comes responsibility. One without the other is sickening -- and both iterations are on show in Emma Kinane's searing new play about a child runaway in New Zealand. Read more... |
A Very Expensive Poison, Old Vic review – bold evocation of a post-truth worldFriday, 06 September 2019
If Russia is, as Winston Churchill once so memorably said, “a riddle, wrapped inside a mystery, wrapped inside an enigma”, then this play is an outrage, wrapped inside a farce, framed by a bittersweet love story. Read more... |
Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation, Royal Court review - brilliant meta-theatrical experienceFriday, 06 September 2019
Playwright and performer Tim Crouch is one of Britain's most innovative creatives, with a big back catalogue of challenging and stimulating stage work. Typically he tells stories about profound loss, while simultaneously questioning the basis of theatrical representation: how is what we see on stage true? In what way is it real? And how can you tell? Read more... |
Falsettos, The Other Palace review - affecting search for the new normalFriday, 06 September 2019
William Finn and James Lapine’s musical – which combines two linked one-acts, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, set in late 1970s/early 1980s ... Read more... |
Hansard, National Theatre review - starry argument ends poorlyWednesday, 04 September 2019
In the current feverish atmosphere at Westminster, with arguments about Brexit becoming increasingly shrill, the time is right once more for political theatre: serious plays about serious issues. Oddly enough, however, while television has effectively dramatized the current crisis, in films such as Channel 4's Brexit: The Uncivil War, theatre seems to take a more oblique approach by setting its stories in the past. Read more... |
The Son, Duke of York's Theatre review - a piercing drama of depressionTuesday, 03 September 2019
A tale of teenage depression and its family resonances, Florian Zeller’s The Son has a devastating simplicity. 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 (...