West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsUnconvincing plotting and a tension-free narrative hamper this adaptation of Paula Hawkins's novelA woman is missing. In a room, a detective quizzes two people…
York Theatre RoyalJonathan Lewis stars in his own perceptive play about exam pressures within a familyThis timely four-hander explosively explores the pressures of our exam-obsessed educatio…
Everyman, LiverpoolCasting a woman as Othello was a brilliant move, but setting the play in the present day undermines itSince a play is a world of make-believe, gender-blind and colour-blin…
Octagon, BoltonLawrence Till's adaptation of Bill Naughton's short stories makes a fitting final production before the building's refurbishmentWhat is a theatre but a little world where stor…
Sherman theatre, CardiffAn estranged couple's struggle to come to terms with past trauma is hampered by a poor choice of set designBrad Birch's new play charts a series of aftershocks experi…
Octagon, BoltonBuilding on the success of last year's Oliver Twist, Deborah McAndrew again teams up with composer Conrad Nelson to adapt one of Charles Dickens's sprawling novels. Their care…
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeDeborah McAndrew puts an intelligent new slant on a classic novel as Northern Broadsides add extra oom-pahCharles Dickens's 1854 novel of life in a northern Engl…
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsClough's ill-fated tenure at Leeds United is turned into a finely performed, if loosely structured, three-handerIt's a book, a film and a play. Their subject i…
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeTheresa Heskins expertly blends the political and the personal in her version of Elizabeth Robins's 1907 dramaLights go up on the dispatch boxes and mace at the …
Home, ManchesterAnnie Baker's emotion-driven play is not so much Chekhov as RD Laing-litePulitzer prize winner Annie Baker's 2009 play was staged in 2013 by London's Royal Court theatre, in …
The haves and have-nots meet to ramp up Spitfire production in Howard Brenton's lively new playJust over 40 years ago, Howard Brenton wrote the first new commission to be performed in the Na…
Unity theatre, LiverpoolMoral conundrums abound in this 'breath-holdingly taut' tale of an dying millionaire who asks her nurse to end her lifeCarolyn is a 68-year-old multimillionaire livin…
Sherman, CardiffSelf-pity and misogyny meet melodrama in Conor McPherson's 2000 chamber piece about an alcoholic's Christmas Eve search for redemptionDecorations feebly festoon the back room…
Citizens, GlasgowRona Munro's sharply observed portrait of three generations of women caught up in Belfast's violenceA searchlight strafes the auditorium. A girl in a slip trembles out of da…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterFour ramblers discuss Britishness and belonging in Testament's arresting play set in the Peak DistrictIt takes a certain sass to open such a Yorkshire-rooted play i…
Royal & Derngate, Northampton A well-intentioned adaptation of EM Forster's classic lacks complexityEM Forster's 1924 novel explores complex relations among and between Britons and India…
Jacksons Lane, LondonPart of the London international mime festival, this technically accomplished, cross-genre work inspired by animal movements impresses, but lacks definitionSurprising, a…
Storyhouse, ChesterEnid Blyton's gang of young sleuths drop the middle-class trappings in a show that is childlike but never childishOn the approach to the theatre, a young girl walking ahea…
Crucible, SheffieldA superb staging of the L Frank Baum classic works its magic in plain view with picture-book clarityEvery good Christmas show has a transformation scene; The Wizard of Oz …
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsMovement, puppetry, flight and design conjure a dazzling trip to Narnia that makes up for storytelling weaknessesThe auditorium of the West Yorkshire Playhouse…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterRelocated to Harlem, this fine new production of Frank Loesser's classic musical retains a threat of violence under a cartoon-bright exteriorLike the fantastical, h…
Royal Lyceum Theatre, EdinburghA thrilling script and clever set give these ancient tales a dazzling new charmA rustle of sweet papers and expectation in the auditorium. House lights dim. "H…
Curve, LeicesterPaul Kerryson's final show combines picture-book wholesomeness with a message for the darkest of timesIt came as a shock. Maybe it shouldn't have, but it did. After all, The …
Octagon theatre, Bolton A new adaptation and a fresh young cast bring Dickens's classic tale to vivid, chorusing lifeThe set is a simple, timeless cobbled street; costumes indicate the 19th …
The story of Jayaben Desai, heroine of the notorious Grunwick strike in the 70s makes you laugh, feel and thinkAcross the walls of the simple office set runs stencilled lettering: "Grunwick …