Royal Exchange, ManchesterThis convincing modern-day staging strips away the 19th-century trappings to reveal a story as relevant as ever'Love is a dark and shifty creature. We cannot all li…
Theatre Royal Haymarket, London Hugh Whitemore's witty but dull homage to the quintessentially English poet lacks the cleverness and drama of his Stevie Smith play"Arbitrary and irrelevant" …
Regent's Park Open Air theatre, LondonThis revival of Leonard Bernstein's frothy shore-leave romp is as delicious as ice-cream on a hot summer's dayFrom Strictly Ballroom to An American in P…
The Other Place, Stratford-upon-AvonA funny encounter in the shadow of the Large Hadron Collider and a fractious dinner party feature in a double bill at the RSC's Mischief festivalThe groun…
Albany, LondonInspired by testimony from refugees, aid workers and journalists, Rob Johnston's drama homes in on the streets of AleppoIt took thousands of years to build Aleppo and only a fe…
Underbelly festival, London Flip FabriQue's circus skills dazzle as they deliver 75 minutes of pleasure but the show's sole female performer is reduced to playing a stereotypical roleCirque …
Hampstead Downstairs, LondonMatt Hartley's play about friends caught up in the London housing crisis laces comedy with some tough philosophisingThe streets of London are supposedly paved wit…
Southbank Centre, LondonSiddhartha Bose's multi-generational epic has grand ambitions and a laudable cast but is hamstrung by a meandering plotAfter 70 years of independence, how far has Ind…
Old Red Lion, London An oil-rig worker exiled in Aberdeen comes to terms with parental responsibility in Mark Weinman's odd-couple playJames (Scott Arthur) has exiled himself from his Welsh …
Bristol Old VicWriter Chino Odimba and director George Mann meld ancient and new in an admirable production with first-rate performances The Medea we know so well is the Euripides version, b…
Audiences are increasingly fed up about bad behaviour in the theatre " and they are taking the law into their own handsKevin Williamson's account of his vigilante action against a woman pers…
Gate, London A young Cuban gets an education in race, protest and betrayal from the fugitive Assata Shakur in Kalungi Ssebandeke's imagined encounter'Assata taught me" was the legend that st…
Arcola, LondonAlexandra Badea's fervent, over-simplistic drama is an intertwining set of tales about the victims of globalisation, from Senegal to ShanghaiA Shanghai factory worker (Rebecca …
Young Vic, LondonPhelim McDermott thrusts disability into the spotlight and explores the dark heart of the famous fairytaleMat Fraser is discussing his disability. Assured it was safe, his m…
Brighton festivalA meditative, site-specific piece about maritime lives loses its way as it takes the audience out on a pleasure cruise at duskFive short blasts on a whistle is the maritime …
Park theatre, LondonThe two stars have fun playing cosmetics queens Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden but this clunky, camp show misfiresWatching Miriam Margolyes and Frances Barber slug…
The Yard, London A French teenager and a German boy soldier are unselfconscious lovers in this idiosyncratic fable set in occupied FranceIt's 1944, and teenagers Elodie and Otto are on oppos…
Bush, LondonTessa Peake-Jones and Andrew French star in Barney Norris's quietly affecting two-hander about ordinary lives"I've been alive for so long and I haven't got anything to show for i…
They both create work that is bold and deeply relevant for local communities, so National Theatre Wales and its new artistic director Kully Thiarai are a perfect fitKully Thiarai, the new ar…
Camden People's theatre, LondonLouise Orwin's bold work involves the voices of real women, as well as naked Ken and Barbie dolls, in order to lay bare the politics of female sexuality"What i…
White Bear, London Politics predominates in Paul Mason's frustrating account of the French communard Louise Michel who was deported to New Caledonia in the 1870sDealing with defeat is part o…
Royal Festival Hall, LondonNic Green's alternative party conference draws on Conservatives' soundbites to conjour grief at the destructive power of politicsThe best theatre often has a shape…
Charing Cross theatre, LondonThis new French musical about the teenager who came up with a new system of reading and writing is busy, dizzy and emotionally overwroughtThom Southerland triump…
Reaction is divided to The Drowned Man, Punchdrunk's vast Hollywood promenade show. Has it been overhyped? Or should audiences go prepared to dig deeper for their experience?The reviews are …
You need sensible shoes and a stout heart for this dazzling and exhausting evening inspired by Edgar Allan Poe.Poe-faced ... River Carmalt, Adam Burton and Jack Laskey in The Masque of the R…