Nottingham PlayhouseA 1970s-style sexing-up of Thomas Middleton's 17th-century play fails to throw much new light on the textThomas Middleton's 17th-century tragedy pivots around the dilemma…
Wild Woods, BradfordA former M&S food hall is the setting for this imaginative vision of a struggle for survival after a global plagueFreedom Studios specialises in "new plays in unusual…
Tron, GlasgowThe detached acting in Rob Drummond's horror-flecked melodrama render it less than the sum of its partsSet in a present that could be any time, on a remote Scottish farm that co…
Everyman, LiverpoolShakespeare's early satire on romance gains little from being transported into the swinging decadeDirector Nick Bagnall and composer James Fortune take Shakespeare's early…
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, AberystwythThis Welsh/Breton co-production has a fine cast but suffers from prosaic writing and a dramatically challenged translation app"The past is another country…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterHeavy-handed direction mars this prize-winning play about the challenges faced by young people at the bottom of the heapKatherine Soper's Bruntwood prize-winning te…
Town Hall theatre, GalwayMartin McDonagh's bitter-humoured play of thwarted dreams is as powerful as ever, performed 20 years on by the company who premiered itIt looks at odds with itself, …
Sheffield CrucibleThe effect of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor slicing one another with lines as sharp as flensing knives in the 1966 film version of Edward Albee's 1962 play is still e…
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughA playful cast brighten Alan Ayckbourn's 1987 dystopian comedy, which stresses the value of other people to our livesAs playwright and director, Alan Ayckb…
Dundee Rep, and touringJohn McGrath's influential play about the history of the Highlands lives up to expectationsTry as you might not to let it happen, there are times when personal prejudi…
Lyceum, EdinburghLars Eidinger plays Shakespeare's arch-villain with gleeful, knock-kneed energy in Thomas Ostermeier's productionBernard Shaw famously compared Richard III to a Punch and Ju…
Almeida, LondonThe interests of a London 'awareness-raising festival' for the Congo and the realities of life there collide in Adam Brace's intelligent and funny playWhen I first said I was …
King's theatre, EdinburghJames Thiérrée's performance piece contains a glorious coup de théâtre but exists in a closed world without dramaWhat The Toad Knew and how or why he knew it i…
Minerva, ChichesterJohn Galsworthy's 1909 drama of industrial woes still resonates in a fine revival by debut director Bertie CarvelA sound montage of news items and politicians' statements …
Grosvenor Park Open Air theatre, Chester Theatrical joy and magic are summoned, but the caveman of Clive King's novel is sadly dehumanisedMaybe it's because it feels a bit like a circus - wi…
York Theatre RoyalThe classic detective mystery gets the Victorian music hall treatmentFor many years now, Damian Cruden has directed the merry anarchy that is the York panto (written by and…
Chichester Festival theatreJulian Fellowes and Cameron Mackintosh's reworking of HG Wells has the production values but lacks rounded charactersHit-makers Julian Fellowes (writer of Downton …
Theatre by the Lake, KeswickBroad 60s comedy and sharp millennial political drama share a venue as the Cumbrian rep company ends an eraIt began life in 1952 as a "Blue Box" " a mobile theatr…
New Wolsey theatre, IpswichShakespeare veteran Trevor Nunn finally tackles the Bard's much-loved comedy " and in some styleA Midsummer Night's Dream was the first Shakespeare play the 12-yea…
Williamson Park, LancasterDespite some tinkering with the plot, this adaptation of Tolkien's 1937 classic is ultimately rewardingSuddenly, two suns hang on the horizon, blazing, burnished go…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterSimon Bent's adaptation of Howard Jacobson's hilarious novel is charming and well acted but lacks dramaIn Howard Jacobson's hilarious, award-winning, semi-autobiogr…
New Wolsey theatre, IpswichTrevor Nunn's staging is triumphant, the acting finely judged, but the British Raj setting has some conceptual flawsA Midsummer Night's Dream was the first Shakesp…
Home, ManchesterAnu recreates the 1996 IRA attack in Manchester as promenade theatre relying on audience imagination to fill in the gapsOn the stage of the main auditorium is a lorry, hazard…
York Minster, York Mike Poulton's adaptation of the medieval plays, performed for only the second time inside the Minster, mixes the mundane and the divine to sparkling effect"Why pick on me…
Birmingham Repertory theatreThe second play from Bruntwood prize winner Gareth Farr breaks the silence around the struggle to conceive in an affecting wayJess describes the silence of absenc…