1,375 stories by "Aleks Sierz"
If any musical can attempt to live up to this title in these troubled times, it must be this show from Graeae, a theatre company whose mission is to champion the work of Deaf and disabled ar…
We are living, I have frequently been told, through weird times. Maybe. But do weird times necessarily require weird art? Do bad times provoke bad art? Well, one of the most unusual response…
The problem with creating theatre in an era of lockdown is that the constraints of working online tend towards a uniformity of creativity
We are living, I have frequently been told, through weird times. Maybe. But do weird times necessarily require weird art? Do bad times provoke bad art?
In his wide-ranging, and widely read, survey of postwar British theatre, called State of the Nation, the Guardian critic Michael Billington sets out his stall: in the introduction t…
This revival of a 2011 HighTide hit, reconceived for streaming, stars Diana Quick and is intimate and quietly moving.
During the lockdown, the best online theatre, more or less, are shows that are specially created for this digital format. Much better than dull records of dramas that might have worked well …
World on fire: The NT Live recording of this classic Young Vic production stars Gillian Anderson and is genuinely unmissable.
Over the past couple of months, theatre reviewing has become film reviewing, and venues all over the country have struggled to make material available for watching online. The biggest instit…
So far, it could be said that the National Theatre is having a good lockdown. Every week, this flagship streams one of its stock of NT Live films, which are always a welcome reminder of the …
Lockdown occasionally spawns some real delights. Like the surprise appearance of a strange creature from the profoundest depths. One of these must be Andrew Scott's superb performance in Sim…
Howard Brenton's docu-drama about the harassment of the Chinese artist is imbued with fresh urgency and relevance.
The megahit NT Live version of this iconic tale of creative hubris features a dynamic acting duo, but it is not perfect.
She's an ordinary young woman, and she really doesn't know what to think. After all, things are way out of control. Out of order. She knows that the natural world is pretty fucked and that n…
Reviewing theatre now means reviewing the film. Knowing that Emma Rice's Old Vic 2018 production of Wise Children, her typically rambunctious version of Angela Carter's last novel, published…
Virginia Woolf's reputation has closely followed British cultural trends: in the interwar years she was a beacon of modernism, austere and difficult; by the 1970s a feminist icon; in the 199…
Emma Rice's version of Angela Carter's last novel is a beautifully bizarre celebration of alternative families.
The BBC film version of a Renaissance rape trial is powerfully resonant, relevant and a riveting watch.
Armchair theatre-lovers rejoice. During the lockdown, the National Theatre is streaming a selection of its past hits for free for one week at a time. These shows, originally filmed as part o…
Gloriously surreal monologue about everyday anxieties in extraordinary circumstances: welcome back the glittering dark!
It's only been a week since London's West End went dark and theatres closed all over the UK, but it feels like months. Really. Like many others, I'm in self-isolation, stressed by working on…
With everyone in lockdown, observing physical if not social distancing, a story about isolation can have a particular resonance. And there are few places in the UK that are as isolated as so…
These shows, originally filmed as part of the flagship's NT Live project, are now available on its YouTube channel. The first is Richard Bean's gloriously silly farce, One Man, Two, Guvnors,…
This touring theatre's new tartan gothic thriller is complex, but also a bit overwrought and conventional.
Your story. Our story. Their story. Just imagine: you're a political refugee, and, having experienced horrible things that happened to your family, you finally, after a lot of trouble, arriv…
