One Cartridge Place, LondonHelena Bonham Carter narrates as a bare-footed audience explore exquisite rooms in this unsettling, grief-soaked journey into the night The immersive adventure beg…
Chichester Festival theatreThe performances are strong and the music is beautiful, but they cannot rescue this convoluted adaptation of Jamila Gavin's award-winning children's novel This ada…
A marathon achievement for its feat of memory, this performance feels like avant-garde cabaret at times Has the solo star-vehicle as epic monologue theatre reached its peak with Eddie Izzard…
Jazz hands and big ballads are out and 'writing about real emotions' is in, as a new wave of musicals exploring body issues, bullying and queer identity hits the capital's biggest stages. Wh…
Royal Court, London Emma D'Arcy, Ben Whishaw and Kayla Meikle narrate and act out Nelson's dark meditations from their own film-making booths in Katie Mitchell's intriguing experiment Maggie…
Duke of York's theatre, LondonThe Spider-Man star and his spikily charismatic Juliet, giving a heroic performance after all the abuse she faced, are perfectly cast in Jamie Lloyd's turbo-sty…
Michelle Terry plays the king as a playfully antic sociopath in a lively production full of effective performances Has there ever been a more contested Richard III? Michelle Terry's self-ca…
The case of a German ballet director who attacked a critic with faeces has loosely inspired a satire about the relationships between creators and critics Among the spikier offerings at this …
Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonThe second, strikingly physical part of Lanre Malaolu's trilogy that began with Samskara explores bereavement with lightness as well as anguish It is hard…
The Other Place, Stratford-upon-AvonFour students in Iran are under pressure to pass their foreign language exams in Sanaz Toossi's gentle comedy that puts discussion above drama and ideas a…
Trafalgar theatre, LondonThe Olivier award-winner returns to her role as an actor in rehab in Duncan Macmillan's brutally powerful play Duncan Macmillan's 2015 play about addiction is a tric…
Hampstead theatre, LondonStrong performances and jibing humour propel this exuberant but flawed revival of Stephen Adly Guirgis's 2014 play about racism in the New York police force This rev…
Nottingham PlayhouseA teenager kills a trainee paramedic with a single strike on a night out in Nottingham in this deftly directed play based on a real story Take note: this is not a play ab…
Southwark Playhouse Elephant, LondonA mix of songs, dance, glitter and camp, this ancient-modern mashup is derailed by bland debates and a convoluted script An ancient Greek love story, this…
Coliseum, LondonHayao Miyazaki's masterpiece is brought to life with imaginative puppetry, wondrous music and moments of delicate poetry Food and cooking feature prominently in the films of …
Royal Court, LondonFour south London girls tell stories during detention at a mosque in Sabrina Ali's play, which ends before we know much about them Four British Somali girls are thrown tog…
Globe theatre, LondonThere's no whiff of stuffiness in a Sean Holmes' production characterised by warm summer euphoria, Elizabethan-era magic and entrancing music The Globe so often comes un…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonNina Hoss stars in a kookily immersive production but the devastating hammer blow of the Russian tragicomedy is not lost in translation It is initially hard to fathom…
Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonEmma Rice directs an ebullient RSC version of the landmark 1990 story of sex, music, class and racism Hanif Kureishi's 1990 debut novel was so cool that its …
Lyric Hammersmith, LondonMax Webster and David Haig's ambitious female-led stage version of the sci-fi thriller is overwhelmed by its own optics This ambitious co-production was always going…
Chichester Festival theatreMike Poulton's adaptation of Philippa Gregory's novel shows how the sisters refuse to be passive victims Wife Number 2 to serial husband, King Henry VIII, first to…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonAdam Scott-Rowley struts, writhes and jiggles his way from ancient Celt to Hieronymus Bosch wretch in this potent cross between physical theatre and performance ar…
Arcola theatre, LondonAndrée Bernard's solo show is a bizarre representation of one woman's love life, minus depth and character development This solo musical opens with a sex scene. A woma…
Shoreditch Town Hall, LondonTalk of street parties, barbecues and book clubs gives way to politics in this work about authoritarianism, colonialism and how history gets rewritten The histor…
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonEmily Burns' modern-day romcom, set on a Pacific island retreat, ramps up the silliness and makes accessible the text's cloud-parting power and …