1,284 stories by "Arifa Akbar"
Available onlineDanny Sapani and Adrian Lester strike up true chemistry in a poignant friendship drama that wears its racial context lightly
Danny Sapani describes this play about an oddbal…
Available onlineCovid guidelines and clunky camerawork sadly undermine the ebullient performances in this digital adaptation of Alice Walker's modern classic
It felt auspicious when the lega…
Available onlineHarriet Walter, Cherylee Houston and Sharon D Clarke star in the second collection of shorts in Graeae's series of dramas
The second instalment of Graeae theatre company's se…
Available onlinePeter Barnes's spellbinding play about class as seen by a Buckingham Palace footman is the pick of these four single-handers
Most of Peter Barnes's people in this quartet of …
Our new series profiling theatre talents continues with a sparky, award-winning writer-actor committed to making her industry more inclusive
For as long as Amy Trigg can remember, she wanted…
Available onlineJanie Dee stars as a newly bereaved Hampstead widow in this poignant, ventriloquising monologue by Terence Rattigan
"I despise middle-aged women who talk to themselves at th…
Available onlineSam Tutty and Emily Redpath star in an ambitious new version of Shakespeare's play created with digital wizardry
The warring houses of Montague and Capulet are living in a "n…
In our new series profiling exciting theatre talents, the actor-writer remembers lessons from Phyllida Lloyd and rapping in Molière
The nation's theatres may be dark, but in a new series of…
Mike Bartlett, Alan Ayckbourn, Adjoa Andoh and other top theatre-makers reflect on why listening to drama is perfect for our times
In the first lockdown, many noticed how the roar of traffic…
Available onlineJoseph Potter summons enough characters to fill the stage in Philip Ridley's dark comedy of manners about family dysfunction and wasted talent
Philip Ridley's interest in the…
Adjoa Andoh, who plays Lady Danbury in the show, admires the creativity, zest and collective spirit of tribute songs
Bridgerton, the Regency-era TV smash that sparked a virtual water-cooler …
Available onlineThe easygoing reminiscences of three women reveal depths of turmoil and heartache in Mark O'Rowe's deftly written triumph
Three friends meet around a table to catch up on eac…
Available onlineFrancesca Forristal and Jordan Paul Clarke's show supplies sharp satire on influencer culture, but doesn't dig into bigger issues
A computer cursor clicks on the instruction…
Research exposes sustained levels of gender imbalance across theatre, film and TV, with fears that it will be worsened by pandemic
Gender inequality across the theatre industry is of rising …
Available onlineThe National Theatre's pantomime paean to London feels a little too bright in the current climate, but its naughtier denizens " including a goth Queen Rat " shine
Christmas m…
As the industry faced turmoil, there were triumphant stagings of classics by Sarah Kane, David Mamet and Alan Bennett " and bold new experiments
More on the best culture of 2020 Continue re…
Available onlineThis MR James ghost story has been rethought as a suspenseful tale for the Covid era, with a standout performance from Tamzin Outhwaite
This supernatural thriller is based on…
Available onlineOlivia Williams voices Rafaella Marcus's story of a woman in a house who has only bumps in the night for company
There is nothing quite like a festive haunting to see us into…
Bad films can spawn kitschy, cult devotion, as Linus Karp demonstrates in How to Live a Jellicle Life
As London's theatres prepared for tier 3 closure last night, some of us spent our last …
Dominion theatre, LondonThis delightfully staged concert has West End ritz, Disney schmaltz and an East End music-hall heart
On paper, a high-octane staged concert of Charles Dickens' Christ…
Theatre Royal BathRosie Sheehy and Jonathan Slinger are captivating in David Mamet's 1992 two-hander about a university student and professor in a battle of power, privilege and consent
An …
From a weather room to dating in the bar, the theatre is inviting audiences to experience 'editions' of a weekly paper staged in its building. Our critic gets an exclusive look
From an alley…
Almeida theatre, LondonDevised with the company, this is a bold but rough-hewn and perplexing production lifted by soothing music
'This is not a corona play," the production notes state. It …
Hampstead theatre, LondonThis revival of Harold Pinter's two-hander about a pair of Beckettian hitmen raises questions for the age of strongman politics
There is an "amusing story" about the…
Bridge theatre, LondonSimon Russell Beale stars in an economical Dickens adaptation that reminds us of the richness of live theatre
What has made this Victorian tale of child poverty, stalki…
