696 stories by "Libby Purves"
COMEDY AS PAIN, PAIN AS COMEDY A late catch-up, this: I was away on press night, so it seemed a good wheeze to dive into the Vaudeville for a matinee on Trumpageddon day. And here ind…
THE AGE OF ECSTASY AND AFFRONT It's not the first time that the idea of a family "intervention" has tempted a dramatist. Why wouldn't it? You've got one character out of contro…
A DIFFERENT AND (ALMOST) GREAT LEAR… This is, of course, “event theatre". Glenda Jackson, aged 80 , after 25 years off the stagedourly battling as a Labour MP, returns to the …
LUKE JONESÂ CONTEMPLATESÂ THE RSC’S ANCIENT BRITONS The first impression of this RSC import to London is messiness. The staging; nipped and tucked from the RSC thrust to the…
A MIRTHFUL MORALITY If Lucy Bailey's wickedly funny interpretation of Milton's moralising work gets another run (make it so!) anyone auditioning should make sure they are one of the parts wh…
AMERICA'S STORY, EVERYBODY'S SONG America's twentieth century belongs to all of us, and its events and themes echo round the world: the rise of corporate power, the racial and …
This is an unusual post, not about any current production, Â and far too long. Â And the latest current reviews are available below, AMADEUS at the top and well worth it. Â Â But t…
ONE OF THE GREAT NIGHTS The old man’s eye is unforgiving, his squat wrecked strength of will cows the vast room as he invokes us – “ghosts of the future" – to …
TUMOURS, RUMOURS, Â A BIT OF HUMOUR The cancer thing finished off another old friend at the weekend, the call coming between the official press night and my getting to Bryony Kimmin…
AN AFRICAN ODYSSEY Not all refugees are in Calais or aiming for here. This enthralling piece from Mark Dornford-May's Isango Ensemble of Cape Town tells another story, an African epic…
NOT A BARNSTORMER. NOT THIS TIME.. About 65 minutes in, the willowy monotone Mona sighingly asks her lover "Don't you get tired of your character? I think I do". So civil is the Natio…
CO-CRITIC Â LUKE JONES, Â VIRTUOUSLY UNLUBRICATED, Â DEPLOYSÂ THE DIPSTICK OF JUDGEMENT.. What I like about the Almeida is that is that the audience smells as if they've bee…
A DEVOTED DIGNITY I was a little wary of this, the last two productions I saw (including the TV one) having left me mildly irritated and almost bored. For all its skill and wit, there…
AMERICA AT A CROSSROADS, 1964 When Teresa May at the Tory Conference quoted the Sam Cooke lyric "A change is gonna come" , many on the left suffered, not unreasonably, a violent conni…
LIVES IN A LUNCHTIMEÂ Having swerved going to the Edinburgh Fringe this year (costs, personal issues, exhaustion , don't ask) I felt I was owed some hour-long daytime sessio…
AFTER THE WAR WAS OVER…SOUTHERN ACCIDIE.. Lilian Hellman – tough, personally unconventional, a liberal ahead of her time – counted this as one of her favourite works. Most …
SEXÂ ANDÂ SOCIALISM:Â Â AN EDWARDIAN ESCAPEÂ The view E.M.Forster sought for his heroine in the novel is more than a pretty Italian backdrop or a Surrey hillside – t…
A SURREAL SPRITZER Â Zurich a century ago: the still centre of a wheel of war, neutral refuge of “spies, exiles, refugees, artists , writers , revolutionaries and radicals…
COMIC DARING, DILDO-JABBING, PHILOSOPHICAL DESPAIR… It is not surprising that theatre falls in love with the Restoration : the stage itself springing back to life after Purit…
OH, WHAT A WITTY, AND PITIFUL, WAR There is greatness in joking at the mouth of Hell; especially if those jokes are part of comradeship, a gift to those alongside. A hundred ye…
GUEST CRITIC LUKE JONES DOWN WID DA SHAKESPEARE Â KIDZ Someone find Mark Rylance and distract him. Take him far from Bankside so he can't see what they've done. Not only are …
AGE, MEMORY, WHISKYÂ AND DEATH… DRINK TO THAT “But you see, its ABOUT being rather bored and baffled. Thats the POINT” said a pleading voice in the interval scuffle. S…
 LIBERATION AND COURTSHIP IN A HEAD-ON CLASH Not long left for Samantha Ellis' knowing, teasing little comedy of modern manners and delusions, and it's well worth a look. It was a …
CHILD PRISONERS OFÂ TERROR The faces of Nigerian Chibok schoolgirls – kidnapped en masse from school or in smaller village raids – haunt the world. Bright teenage…
TWO UP A MOUNTAIN, ONE LOOKING UP IN ANGER From Wales to this easternmost festival Tamara Harvey – newish artistic director of Theatr Clwyd – brings a new play by Elinor Cook. It…
