696 stories by "Libby Purves"
CROSS , CRESCENT, CRUELTY, CONFUSION When this "fantasia on the third crusade" picks up momentum and reaches the summit of its oddity – a spectacular, if rather foggy peak – ther…
RUFF TRADE…. Young Shakespeare, a struggling player and playwright, falls for the upper-class Viola de Lesseps, not knowing that she has dressed as a boy to join his cast. She i…
DIVINITY AND DEADLY HATRED Â Â One day someone will put Milton's Paradise Lost on stage and cast Rupert Everett as Satan, the bitter archangel. For now he is Peter Shaffer's Salieri: c…
IN WHICH GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI FINDS MUCH TO ENJOY, AND ONLY A LITTLE TO MOAN ABOUT It is always exciting to have a new Medea, possibly the most controversial of all Euripides' tra…
LOCK, STOCK, AND NO BARRELS OF MALMSEYÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â A credit in the programme for "fish care and health" answers one distracting question about…
FOLLOW THE HERRING, SALUTE THE PAST That early morning cry that woke the herring lassies: women who, through the great days of the Victorian herring fisheries, met the …
BLOOD, POLITICS, RUFFS, AND TOGAS: MUCH TO DELIGHT GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI The Globe audience are still filing in as the Roman rabble break into a raucous, drunken football …
THE GATES OF HELL CREAK OPEN… Â It will haunt the memory for months, this profound, dark-lit, smoke-scented deep-booming production of Arthur Miller's play. In the round arena it cr…
CAN YOU FEEL THE PAIN TONIGHT? NOT A BIT. Miss Saigon rhymes with One Big Yawn, a tiny helicopter wobbles over the stage and the "Viet-numb" cast. A huge-breasted "Matthew Warchus Tru…
AN AMBULANCE RIDE: Â A CITY’S HEARTBEAT Some theatre enterprises are quixotic, site-specific, small-scale immersive and probably economically ruinous. Gotta love them:…
THIRTY YEARS ON: A TRIBUTE TO THE MEN OF THE MINES Down the dark pit, Bible-bred men quote the Book of Job. "He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountai…
ONE PLAY MANY TARGETS – Â CAN BEAN & HYTNERÂ Â HACK IT….? The headlines flash up, perfect front pages on the glass walls which morph from newsroom to poli…
GUEST REVIEWER LUKE JONES ENDURES GLOSSY EMPTINESS AT THE HANDS OF NEW YORK SOCIALITES Ever wondered what happens to Disney princesses when they grow up boring? Adam Bock has. His new play, …
GUEST REVIEWER LUKE JONES GOES ROUND AND ROUND THIS RICKETY BUT FUN CAROUSEL If you have never been to the Arcola, imagine the Donmar’s hip cousin; a small and intimate theatre, but wi…
GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI SEES THE SECONDÂ TWO PLAYS IN THE RSC'S "MIDSUMMER MISCHIEF" SERIES: PROGRAMME B Continuing the exploration of the challenge phrase "Well-behaved women seld…
GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI SEES THE FIRST TWO PLAYS IN THE RSC'S "MIDSUMMER MISCHIEF" SERIES: PROGRAMME A THE ANT AND THE CICADA – Timberlake Wertenbaker Zoe is an artist, living …
IN WHICH OUR GUEST REVIEWER JOHN PETER DOES NOT HAVE A HAPPY NIGHT OUT Tim Crouch has given us a play which is not a play. Â Â It has no narrative: it does not give you a story; i…
BILL NIGHY BACK ONSTAGE: MORE THAN WELCOME Few actors are more instantly recognizable than Bill Nighy, yet his gift is to deploy in faithful service of each distinct part his i…
BY ‘ECK, IT’S BRIGHOUSE ROCKING INTO THE ‘SIXTIES… Never underestimate a young woman in a neat blue dress from anywhere North of Watford. Especially one called…
BRAVO BRAVISSIMO!   OPERA-ROM-COM FROM THE HEART I knew I was going to like this operatico-jukebox backstage rom-com (a whole new genre) when Jenny Stafford – as tremb…
BEAUTIFUL BODIES, JOY IN ACTION In circus tradition feats of acrobatic daring and balance are hyped up by a ringmaster – drumrolls, pleas to keep totally quiet lest you distract…
BART SIMPSON'S LEGEND SURVIVES THE APOCALYPSE: DO WE CARE? A child of the Cold War, I have read post-apocalyptic fiction all my life: from John Wyndham and Kuttner to Nevil Shu…
A KNIGHTSBRIDGE REDEMPTION…. Quotes from critics are always helpful. This one has "Drop dead funny and informative" on its flyer: not from a Spencer or Billington but signed "In…
NUMRICH AS A NIHILIST HOUSEGUEST… It is a universally recognizable moment: an idealistic student home for summer with revolutionary theories and an adored, even more revolutionary, fla…
THE PIG TAKES ON THE PROVINCES, AND WINS Â Â Â I reviewed the West End premiere of this new Stiles-and-Drew musical, directed by Richard Eyre and passionately backed by Camer…
