Southwark Playhouse; Globe, London; Norwich CathedralThere is nothing theatre likes better than an unhappy marriage, and this makes Sebastian Barry's The Only True History of Lizzie Finn (fi…
Lyttelton, London; Playhouse Studio, Liverpool; Young Vic, LondonIt is with disbelief that one discovers that The Last of the Haussmans is actor Stephen Beresford's first play. It is a knock…
Hampstead; Duke of York's; Almeida, LondonRunners surge endlessly along a white beach, and it is this victorious image, from the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, that continues to blaze in the mi…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonIf all the theatre in Georgia comes anywhere close to the standard of the Marjanishvili company, then the job of theatre critic there must be the most covetable in…
Vaudeville, LondonMadness is as madness does in Joe Orton's 1969 farce What the Butler Saw, and by the end it's straitjackets all round. We're in a psychiatrist's consulting room (with …
Arcola, LondonDennis Potter regarded this as his best play. But be prepared for unrelenting bleakness, and the darkest of laughs: a scoop of the blackest treacle. London has been enjoying an…
Cottesloe; Lyttelton; Southwark Playhouse; all LondonIn 1957 Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, by Errol John, a young Trinidadian, won an Observer drama contest. The task was to write a play set afte…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonThe fun starts, in Lindsay Posner's triumphant production of Mike Leigh's best-known play, before Beverly has even sorted out the nibbles, as we inspect Mike …
Noël Coward theatre, LondonGoing to Howard Davies's glorious production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever is like being invited to an irregular house party; the relief is that, unlike the hap…
Eve Best is famous for her role as glamorous Dr O'Hara in Nurse Jackie. But she made her name in Jacobean theatre " and she is back in London for moreEve Best has just walked into an unprepo…
Lindsay Duncan talks about tackling Noël Coward's 1924 farce, Hay Fever, his most challenging play"I've never seen it," exclaims Lindsay Duncan. We are talking about Hay Fever, one of NoÅ
Harold Pinter theatre, LondonAlan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends (1974) was his first play to experiment with almost no action " it is funny but there is reason not to laugh. The play is not onl…
Lindsay Duncan on playing the lead in Noël Coward's Hay Fever"I've never seen it," exclaims Lindsay Duncan. We are talking about Hay Fever, one of Noël Coward's greatest hits, which he…
Nuffield, Southampton; Young Vic; Vaudeville, LondonI watched Romeo and Juliet in the company of several Southampton school parties " bracing myself for a noisy night ahead. But Headlong, a …
Chocolate Factory, LondonWe are inside cyberspace, at the court of emperor Charlemagne and in a 70s musical " complete with some of Bob Fosse's original choreography remastered by Chet Walke…
Imogen Stubbs on why confronting death on stage has made her want to live life to the fullImogen Stubbs has such a youthful face " almost to a Peter Pan degree " it seems far-fetched that sh…
Harold Pinter theatre, London It's fitting that the new Harold Pinter theatre opens with Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden: the play was dedicated to him. It was first …
Thanks to The Hour, playwright Abi Morgan has enjoyed an incredibly prolific year. Next up, a Thatcher biopic starring Meryl Streep, a Steve McQueen film about sex and a play about GodAbi Mo…
Duke of York's, LondonThere is a wonderful moment in Backbeat when John Lennon (Andrew Knott) and Paul McCartney (Daniel Healy) are working on "Love Me Do" and John is tinkering to turn an o…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonSaul Rubinek was eavesdropping in Greenwich Village when he realised that giving advice had become an industry. It was 1977 and he was aware that not only was…
It's 30 years since Deborah Bull joined the Royal Ballet, and became a dazzling star of her generation. Here she talks about discipline and dreams " and her debt to Billy Smart's circusIt is…
Crucible, Sheffield; Cottesloe; Olivier, both LondonFor fans of the television series The Wire, it is impossible not to be on patrol, trying to spot detective Jimmy McNulty in Dominic West's…
Chichester Festival Theatre; Almeida; Hampstead, LondonSchools are a natural subject for theatre and film " from The History Boys to Harry Potter. Every classroom is a stage of sorts. And te…
The Waking the Dead star on 'gruelling' Arthur Miller, Antony Sher and being a demon mimicTara Fitzgerald's career divides into two types: broken women (she made her name as an award-winning…
Arts, London WC2No wonder Dr Johnson slept badly " he drank enough tea to sink a galleon: "The fragrant leaf, I drink it at all times and at all hours. I have been known to drink up to 14&nb…