West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsIn his understated way, Ian Brown has done tremendous things during his decade as artistic director at West Yorkshire Playhouse. His departure later this summe…
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsMiss Hannigan, the orphanage overseer from hell, tantalises her charges with hope: "Today, you're not getting hot mush"; then dashes it with vicious glee: "You…
Theatre Royal, York; and touringSex between a 12-year-old girl and a fortysomething man. This is the subject of David Harrower's 2005 play, explored through a dialogue between the pair meeti…
Hull Truck, HullThe poster (weirdly featuring an image of a faceless young woman wearing nothing but her underwear and sheathed in see-through plastic) proclaims in big letters: "Yerma by Fe…
Royal Exchange, Manchester In a 2004 Guardian article celebrating CP Taylor's "unique contribution to British theatre", his fellow playwright, the late Alan Plater, described Good as "a…
Derby theatre, DerbyThe jewel-like precision of David Wood's adaptation is immediately apparent: LP Hartley's oft-quoted opening line to his 1953 novel is subtly but significantly altered. "…
Liverpool PlayhouseThe gangster Alberto Ui is a connoisseur of violence; just like his real-life counterpart, Adolf Hitler. Bertolt Brecht's play charts the rise to power of both. Fictional …
Lowry, SalfordLike East Is East (his 1990s stage and screen hit), Ayub Khan-Din's latest work is set in his native Salford. A large, rumbustious family is again at the heart of his story. Al…
Stephen Joseph, Scarborough Fans of Hot Fuzz, the hilarious buddy-cop, bloodfest movie, know how fine is the line separating neighbourhood watch from Armageddon. In Alan Ayckbourn'…
Theatre Royal, WakefieldBroken time is a resonant phrase in the history of rugby. The game initiated at the English public school of the same name in the 1820s was played by amateurs. Then, …
Citizens, Glasgow; Tramway, GlasgowStunning sets are a feature of National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) productions and Colin Richmond's design for Men Should Weep is no exception. An enormous …
Octagon, BoltonBefore writing this play Stella Feehily interviewed a great many people connected to the aid business. The lively but muddled result feels like a series of set pieces strung t…
Viaduct, HalifaxOut of the howling wind emerge three young women wearing bonnets tightly tied and shawls chest-clutched; in their midst a young man, wild-haired, booted, waistcoated and jack…
Hull Truck, HullThe idea of "a play, a pie and a pint" began as a lunchtime filler at Ã’ran Mór in Glasgow in 2004 and now features at other theatres and as an occasional tea-time spec…
Theatre by the Lake, KeswickThe contrast could hardly be greater, between the view from the theatre cafe out across the sunset-tipped ripples of Derwentwater and the steel-doored room w…
York Theatre RoyalFrom its first appearance on 27 December 1904, the appeal of JM Barrie's story about "the boy who wouldn't grow up" was intergenerational. Children relished its adventures;…
Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough Anton Chekhov's characters, like so many of their compatriots these days, it seems, are relocating to these shores. This autumn, his Three Sisters will be…
The Lowry, SalfordFour years ago, performance artist Marina Abramović, born in Belgrade in 1946 and still very much alive, invited the celebrated American director Robert Wilson to co-cr…
Pavilion theatre, ManchesterEven with a tight brown casing of women's support underwear pulled on over his trousers, constricting flesh and cloth so that it looks as if a couple of sausage d…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterGreg Hersov's clear, fast-paced, witty and occasionally wacky production is not, in fact, part of this year's Manchester international festival but the Royal Exchan…
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughThe Stephen Joseph is one of the best of those undervalued national treasures " our regional theatres, all fighting hard to keep our communities provided w…
Murrays' Mills, Ancoats, ManchesterA practical problem imaginatively resolved " Charles Dickens would have approved. The Library theatre's old home is being renovated; its new home won't be …
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughEven good actors have their limits. Sarah Parks excels at down-to-earth roles (crusty old Badger in Wind in the Willows; Linda in Corrie). So what made dir…
Royal & Derngate, Northampton, then on tourSet in 1912, this is a slight but well-constructed story of a prodigal daughter's brief return to the home of her country doctor father, her hopes …
Crucible, SheffieldIt's almost 50 years since Samuel Beckett's genre-defying play had its world premiere at the Cherry Lane theatre, New York " a venue Bob Dylan played around that time. Int…