Shakespeare North Playhouse, PrescotA cast of deaf, disabled and neurodivergent actors throw new light on the star-crossed lovers in Graeae's uneven yet often thrilling show Actors appear, o…
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughA 'sprightly comedy' isn't all it seems in this beautifully performed drama, which the playwright directs On one level, Alan Ayckbourn's 90th play is a spr…
Barn theatre, CirencesterMarie Jones's 1996 hit play is given a spectacular, Hollywood-style makeover by her son Matthew McElhinney, though the momentum of the drama suffers Throw a stone in…
The Mill at Sonning, ReadingA fine ensemble cast deliver plenty of laughs and more in Robin Herford's terrific production of the playwright's intertwined tale of three couples Reviewing the …
Ustinov Studio, BathDirector Richard Jones tries to capture the menace felt by the play's first audiences, but the result is overmannered Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party was almost univer…
Williamson Park, LancasterAndrew Pollard turns Lewis Carroll's classic into a delightful quest, tirelessly acted and cleverly designed We are sitting in a wooded dell, ranged on felled tree …
Watermill theatre, NewburyThere are somersaults, pivots and tumbles aplenty in this gleeful tribute to the 19th-century circus showman turned politician Barnum dances a tightrope between con…
Black Box; Town Hall theatre, GalwayA family reunion unravels with viciousness and humour in Mark O'Rowe's new play. And Garry Hynes's searing direction makes Beckett new Since it launched i…
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonSheridan's comedy of manners is given an all too knowing makeover in Tinuke Craig's fitfully amusing new production Richard Brinsley Sheridan's …
Tron, GlasgowA couple stop at nothing to secure their first home in Johnny McKnight's deliciously fast-paced production of Philip Ridley's Faustian black comedy The theme underpinning Philip…
A two-year celebration of the centenary of James Joyce's Ulysses culminates in a women-led, cross-border, multidisciplinary festival dedicated to the novel's main female character On a green…
Leeds PlayhouseOpera North brings shimmering music to this gorgeous and crisply choreographed co-production, which preserves Shaw's critique of the British class system Some have called it "…
Watermill, NewburyCalum Finlay's fast-moving comedy about the composer and her struggles to be recognised is pitch-perfectly performed Felix is working out an idea at the piano. What does hi…
Live theatre, NewcastleStewart Pringle's new play set in Northumberland in 1553 has the bones of something great, but at present teeters on parody Newcastle's Live theatre is 51 this year. U…
Belgrade theatre, CoventryThree women push themselves beyond the local swimming pool and into the unknown in Siana Bangura's buoyant, enlightening new play Three women "in their prime", a sw…
The Other Place, Stratford-upon-AvonThe RSC's European premiere of Sanaz Toossi's Pulitzer prize-winning play tailors its intriguing characters a little too neatly Daniel Evans and Tamara Ha…
York St John University, YorkFootsbarn Travelling Theatre's Twelfth Night and a Turkish Macbeth rubbed shoulders with manga, memoir and a Ukrainian scratch show at this boundary-defying fest…
Dundee RepMorna Young's new adaptation, directed by Finn den Hertog, captures the earthiness of rural life in early 1900s Scotland, but it needs to dig deeper In front of a backdrop suggesti…
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeA first-rate cast delight in controlled chaos of the highest order in Conrad Nelson's seamless revival of Richard Bean's hit play A couple on the stairs behind m…
The Studio, Edinburgh, and touringThe fifth of Rona Munro's James plays fails to develop an interesting premise about a hidden romance A dark stage is lapped by flickering candles. Here, fou…
Leeds Playhouse and touringThe company's trademark fusion of live performance and digital wizardry doesn't quite hang together in a radical take on Mary Shelley The structure of Mary Shelley…
Cast, DoncasterElvi Piper's fine revival of Boff Whalley's 2014 musical comedy about three sisters on a pit village frontline in 1984 is full of humour, drama and lived experience Boff Whall…
Shakespeare North Playhouse, PrescotHistorical novelist Philippa Gregory has fun reframing the notorious Richard III and the women in his life in her first play From a hole in the stage, a v…
Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonSamuel Barnett and Victoria Yeates harmonise as the composer and his 'assistant' in a production that sings under the direction of Erica Whyman Erica Whyman,…
Birmingham RepA university bhangra dance team is torn apart by cultural differences, seamlessly expressed through music and movement, in this zinger of a show Councillor Liz Clements cried l…