Liverpool's finest on childhood ambition, the perils of being a father, playing the bad guy, and his love for his hometownWhen you decided to leave school at 16 and become an actor, did you …
Young Vic, LondonPlatitudes eclipse some fine performances in Peter Brook's postscript to his epic MahabharataBattlefield is unmistakably Peter Brook's work: as clear as a signature. It feel…
Hampstead theatre, LondonA great cast fail to connect in Edward Hall's stagey production of a Pulitzer-winning study of griefIn 2010, Rabbit Hole was made into a slick but touching film, sta…
Temporary theatre at the National theatre, LondonSophie Melville is phenomenal as a struggling young woman who finds love… brieflyAt the National's Temporary theatre, a girl walks on to a …
The actor on Oldham Street, Manchester, the magic of Slow Club, a friend's brilliant memoir, British feature film Radiator and Lemn Sissay's poetryJulie Hesmondhalgh is best known for her aw…
A new era is dawning at London's Tricycle theatre under Indhu Rubasingham, its first new artistic director in three decades. Her inaugural play " starring Adrian Lester, and written by his w…
The comedian and campaigner on great theatre, David Eagleman, the brilliance of Radiohead, TED talks and a thriller you just can't put downActor, writer and television presenter Ruby Wax has…
Hampstead theatre, LondonTom Stoppard's rarely performed spy thriller revels in double-agent puzzles and particle physicsWhen Tom Stoppard closes one door, he opens another. Then he goes bac…
Dorfman theatre, London Shawn's challenging new play lurches gleefully from cosy cafe reunion to a bad-dream debate about targeted bombingsThere could hardly be a more appropriate moment, wi…
Lyttelton, LondonRoger Michell directs a fine cast in Harley Granville Barker's once scandalous playHarley Granville Barker's Waste was banned in 1907 for its scandalous content. Henry Trebe…
Garrick theatre, LondonKenneth Branagh is tremendous in a magical The Winter's Tale, though Judi Dench isn't half bad either…The curtain has not yet gone up, but the tinkling of a musical …
The actor on a lost classic by novelist Elizabeth Harrower, Todd Haynes's Carol, the punk spirit of artist Maria Lassnig and the dirty, energising energy of Captain Beefheart's Clear SpotBen…
She can turn her hand to everything from hard-pressed housewife to glamorous diva, but her latest role will challenge even Lesley Manville's formidable talents. Here, she talks to Kate Kella…
The actor talks about the psychology of Lady Macbeth " and feelings of guilt closer to homeSamantha Spiro suggests, when we meet on a summer afternoon at the Globe theatre, that rehearsal is…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonDominic Cooke's spirited direction of Christopher Shinn's play explores victimhood and gay stereotypingThe play opens in a conference room where there is a circle of …
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…
The playwright's invigorating memoir takes aim at reviewers, modern parents and Cambridge, but reserves its harshest and most revealing words for its authorYou can see why David Hare has not…
Shakespeare's Globe, London By the end of the second play, two bloodbaths down and hoping for a cathartic finish, the viewer is reelingWe have had Robert Icke's celebrated version of The Ore…
Young Vic, LondonEelco Smits performs much of the show naked " a risk that pays off in a chamber piece about vulnerabilitySimon Stephens's Song From Far Away is one of the saddest plays I ha…
Old Vic, London Rob Brydon is outstanding as a Welsh teacher at the end of his tetherThe play is the thing that will catch the conscience of…. parents at the school gate. Tamsin Oglesby's …
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…
Lyttelton, LondonA young tutor sets hearts aflutter in Patrick Marber's witty, elegant and mercifully truncated update of TurgenevTurgenev ruefully admitted that A Month in the Country was …
With catchy music, fantastic design and great performances, the ebullient musical looks sure to be a hit " but it dodges the hard shotsPhoenix, LondonThis was a week in which two girls got a…
Park theatre, LondonNick Darke's taut and viciously comic three-hander is a comic treatNick Darke died 10 years ago but his comic, grotesque, fearless imagination lives on. And it is Darke's…
Park theatre, London An unsensational attempt to analyse how Savile got away with abuse on such a scaleAs the Jimmy Savile story has unfolded, one of the strongest feelings has been outrage …