Southwark Playhouse, LondonThis telling of David Holthouse's quest for revenge on the man who raped him as a child works less well on stage than on the radio or in journalismSome stories nee…
TraverseSome plays go together like fish and chips; other pairings are less obvious, but the effect is explosive. Neither is quite the case with this intelligent, finely written and acted bu…
Hug | Cuttin' It | The Truth | Faith Healer | Funny GirlPolyphonic singing has the ability to make it feel as if you are being massaged by sound, and Verity Standen uses it to brilliant effe…
The Doctor Who star could have played it safe when he returned to theatre. Instead he joined an ensemble creating a show from scratch in rehearsals. Career suicide? Not at all When Matt Smit…
Christopher Haydon is stepping down as the AD of London's Gate theatre after five years in the post. Finding the right time to move on is vitalHow long should an artistic director stay in po…
The Yard, LondonEncounter's bad-taste comedy is weird, macabre and totally over the top but it's grounded in emotional truthThe horrible Wormwood parents in Roald Dahl's Matilda have nothing…
Lyric Hammersmith, LondonImprobable's Lifegame, a cross between This is Your Life and a madly inventive improv game, is all heart, but with a mighty whack of skill thrown in, too. The premis…
St James Studio, LondonA sex-obsessed cop chases an investigation all the way to a burlesque dive in a preposterous, nastily misogynistic show that quickly runs out of steamSince the success…
Posters for fictitious stage extravaganzas have been pasted around Glasgow " the project would have thrilled Howells, a master of theatre's infinite possibilitiesWander around Glasgow this s…
Syrian refugees re-imagine Euripides in Oxford, a festival organised by under 25s kicks off in York and the acclaimed Young Chekhov trilogy arrives at the NationalQueens of Syria, a re-imagi…
Soho theatre, LondonPhoebe Éclair-Powell's promising story about a poor, single mother is fuelled by genuine rage and plenty of compassionMedea is shorthand for bad parent and monstrous …
The Merchant Of Venice | Needles And Opium | Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour | The Flying Lovers Of VitebskActing alongside his daughter Phoebe, Jonathan Pryce is the real draw in this reviv…
Hare's condemnatory 2004 drama feels positively Shakespearean in its account of the tragic consequences of our leaders' personal ambitionsA few hours before the publication of the Chilcot re…
The Vaults, LondonAn engaging performance from Hannah Norris holds this atmospheric drama together but the audience is still left in the darkThe young woman welcoming us on to the aeroplane …
Performed by Belgian teenagers, The Hamilton Complex forces us to adjust our worldview. In the UK, adult anxieties are stifling children's cultural experience"As a kid I never got to decide …
Diversity is key to ensuring a new generation shape theatre's future. But endless development isn't enough " new plays must be put in front of audiencesThe theatre industry is eager to incre…
Jonathan Pryce brings Liverpool his Merchant of Venice, Geraldine Pilgrim takes flight in the Lake District and Syrian refugees stage Euripides in London Continue reading...
Beyond Caring | The Deep Blue Sea | Titanic | 1984 | The Taming Of The ShrewAlexander Zeldin's devised piece is set in a meat-packing factory where a quartet of workers on zero-hours contrac…
Theatre Royal, Bath Sparkling bons mots and Samuel West's fine performance as a self-obsessed matinee idol fail to disguise the deep unpleasantness of this farceBath's annual summer love aff…
From the sheep in the NT's As You Like It to the bunnies in the Watermill's Watership Down, actors have excelled at the difficult task of depicting all creatures great and smallAs the Waterm…
Bristol Old VicThe generations are at war in this stunningly timely tale of political turmoil, with West delivering an intelligent performance as Shakespeare's tragic rulerIf you want eviden…
Top girls in the financial world are the focus of a musical show drawing on David Mamet and Peggy Lee. Its writer and director talk about female antiheroes, how they were inspired by Cate Bl…
Watermill, NewburyMunro's adaptation of Richard Adams' classic novel is performed by a cast who prove that there's much more to playing rabbits than bouncing aroundRona Munro has come a long…
The Hamilton Complex explores our attitudes towards girls on the cusp of adulthood and uses adolescence as a metaphor for society's uncertaintyIn 1971, the British photographer David Hamilto…
Theatre has found all sorts of lively ways to represent death " it's been done with butchered cabbages and even bright pink blancmangeBugsy is back in town. I mean Bugsy Malone, Sean Holmes'…