For me, this is the most emotional show on the London stage. Why's that? Because it's about Nye Bevan, who as Minister of Health in the postwar socialist Labour government set up the Nationa…
It's election year so the gaze of British theatre turns towards the National Health Service. But, no, this month's plays do not examine the parlous state of doctors and hospitals today, but …
We've all heard of the metaphorical madwoman in the attic, but what about the symbolic unexploded bomb under the roof, tucked away among the junk, accumulating dust and lying quietly undisco…
It's a sign of the times that German director Thomas Ostermeier's West End debut is his production of An Enemy of the People, which has been rep at his Schaubühne theatre for over a decade.…
Nowadays it seems that it's the fringe and Off-West End venues that are keeping the spirit of international theatre alive in London. Whereas much mainstream big-name theatre feels increasing…
In West End theatre, the cliché that nothing succeeds like success keeps the wheels of commerce turning merrily. But just because a show is selling lots of tickets, and has generated loads …
Jane Austen is not just a classic novelist " she's a cultural institution and a national treasure. Since the 1990s there has been an avalanche not only of straight adaptations of her novels …
This transfer of Jack Thorne's hit National Theatre play to the West End has been hailed as meta-theatre on steroids. The St Martin's Lane venue, which was once called the New Theatre, hoste…
The recent news that Russia's Supreme Court has banned the "international LGBT movement", describing it as an "extremist organisation" and raiding nightclubs frequented by gay people, has br…
Playwright Polly Stenham had a meteoric rise with this play, her award-winning 2007 debut which she wrote aged 19 and whose original Royal Court cast featured Lyndsay Duncan and Matt Smit…
Androids no longer dream of electric sheep " instead they inhabit our dreams. Whether it is novels such as Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun or Ian McEwan's Machines Like Me, or films like …
Nobodies who kill somebodies: let's make a list. Okay, there's Lee Harvey Oswald (JFK), James Earl Ray (MLK) and Mark Chapman (John Lennon). But what about the man who shot Mahatma Gandhi? W…
Remember what a first date feels like? Awkward. Exciting. Awkward. Intriguing. Awkward. Difficult. Yes, it's a mixture of emotions, often between the desire to be liked and the frustration o…
Okay, let's start with a definition: it is said that sex is what you have between your legs, and gender is what you have between your ears. Certainly, the emotional experience of falling in …
Success always opens doors. Ever since the HBO drama Succession was lauded as a huge international hit, one of its writers and producers, Lucy Prebble, has been a hot property. Although I pe…
Trauma is the source of identity politics. In the case of African-Americans, the experience of brutal slavery, exploitative colonialism and violent racism are defining experiences in their h…
Climate-change activist Greta Thunberg is great at doing two things: irritating complacent adults and inspiring idealistic teens. In Sarah Middleton's debut comedy, Shewolves, which was firs…
James Graham's Dear England at the National Theatre: Joseph Fiennes plays a mesmerizing soccer manager in this sport-of-the-nation drama The full version of the article James Graham's "Dear…
Peter Morgan's Patriots at the Noël Coward Theatre: award-winning story of Putin's triumph is vivid but unreal The full version of the article Peter Morgan's Patriots At The Noël Cowa…
Can you enjoy a ghost story during summer? Usually the idea of a haunted house suggests images of dark winter nights, thunder and lightning, and howling wolves. These atmospheric factors are…
Imagine yourself in a remote place: it could be a mountaintop, or a lost village, or the Amazon. These are the locations that Simon McBurney and his Complicité theater company take us to wi…
We are watching history being made: after decades of being in the shadows, queer drama is now singing and dancing into the mainstream. Theatre after theatre is staging stories about queer, t…
Is it possible to successfully challenge naturalism in British theatre today? At a time when audiences crave feelgood dramas, uplifting musicals and classic well-made plays, there is very li…
Brian Friel's classic play about the blending of Paganism and Christianity in 1930s Ireland is more than 30 years old " and I remember seeing the original production from Dublin's Abbey Thea…
The popularity of plays that feature trauma is certainly a trend in British theatre today. But is this a good thing? On the one hand, staging stories of sexual assault might offer consolatio…