2,878 stories by "Lyn Gardner"
Travel in the back of an ambulance in Plymouth, gamble with real money in Inverness and get planning for the Greenwich and Docklands festival, where all events are freeFor tried and tested s…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonMore buckle than swash, it's as if a first draft has meandered on to the stageWe're in France in 1096. Matthew works on the failing family farm, is at odds with hi…
Ancoats, ManchesterAnu's show rewards a willingness to interact, but the in-depth research isn't translated into a clarity of storytelling Re-creating the terror of slum lifeHome, Manchester…
An explosion in training opportunities offered by drama schools and universities means ever greater numbers of actors and theatre-makers. Are some being sold a pup?Susan Elkin has asked, in …
Regent Trading Estate, ManchesterThe actors and the audience watch each other in Quarantine's delicate and searching show about what it means to be humanQuarantine's latest show the first o…
The commercial sector often slaps on outrageous fees but many subsidised theatres are just as badSo you've sorted your accommodation, browsed the fringe programme, made your selections and a…
Doon Street car park, LondonYou're meant to feel like the hero running free and battling opponents, but the thrills never quite take off The Roof see our gallery of images from the showA re…
We talk about going to see a show, but not all seats come with a good view and the scramble for unreserved seating can leave you exhausted even before the show has begunIt would be nice to …
Somerset House, LondonTears from a miscarriage and bathwater shared by a mother and child are on display in this touching gallery of samplesA human body can be as much as 80% water. We can s…
Peter Brook in Warwick, Chaucer in Bath, clogging in Oldham ... here's a day-by-day guide to the UK's best showsDo yourself a favour and hit Contact in Manchester, where the gorgeous, gaudy,…
Udderbelly, LondonSeven highly skilled acrobats combine dexterity with sweaty, up-close intimacy, but it's sometimes hard to judge what is real and what is stagedBeginning with a sequence of…
Any incoming artistic director faces a challenge especially when the outgoing director was as well respected as Sam Walters at Richmond's Orange TreeIt's often said that in politics and rev…
Ustinov studio, BathLynn Nottage explores the secret history of her great-grandparents in this play about a seamstress who longs for love Lynn Nottage: Intimate Apparel and what lies beneath…
Jane Fonda on trial, zombies and an all-male Wuthering Heights ... These Edinburgh shows caught my eye along with work by Bryony Kimmings, Duncan Macmillan and Chris Thorpe. What will you b…
The London international festival of theatre draws great and brave talents from around the globe but the staff also deserve applause for this mammoth eventDuring the 2012 London internatio…
Barbican, LondonPlayful piece by Berlin collective based on Shakespeare's tragedy uses actors' real fathers to tender and honest effectWhere did King Lear go wrong? In this playful, thoughtf…
The Yard, LondonTold through a series of 17th-century maxims, Phoebe von Held's show brings an air of paranoia to the new Anxiety arts festivalAs the saying goes: "Just because you're p…
Hampstead theatre, LondonThese riffs on the story of Japes come across as a writing exercise but the cast give an acting masterclassThis quartet by Simon Gray adds three variations to his 20…
One blogger described the casting as 'ludicrous', but Nadia Albina says her physical disability helped her performance in Secret Theatre's showThere was a day in the runup to the opening of …
Ron Athey's oddly moving performance art piece makes us stare at our own mortalityAt first sight, the intricately tattooed naked male body trapped on the metal rack could be a corpse. Hooks …
An Inspector Calls and Blood Brothers are on the GCSE syllabus. I'd add some Polly Stenham and Caryl ChurchillSo Arthur Miller's The Crucible will no longer feature on the English Literature…
Orange Tree, London David Mamet's Squirrels captures moments of comedy, but it's Caryl Churchill's Joke that gets the biggest laugh in these productions from two up-and-coming directorsThe O…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonDavid Mercatali's adroit staging of Dalton Trumbo's novel is full of pain and rage Johnny Got His Gun: adapting the 'unstageable' anti-war novelBrass bands were pl…
Hampstead Downstairs, LondonWhat is forgiveness, asks Nicholas Wright's tense true-story play, in which a psychologist interviews an apartheid assassinThere is a moment near the start of Nic…
For me, theatre-going companions need to have an open mind and not talk about the show too much in the intervalA close friend of mine is the kiss of death at the theatre. It's become a bit …
