Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonSet around a poker table, this entertaining play lays bare the emotional inadequacies of men as fathers, sons and friends Poker faces: Patrick Marber's plays a…
Birmingham RepTestimony from writers covering conflicts in Iraq, Bosnia and Liberia forms the backbone of this unconventional show Lyn Gardner on truth and fiction in theatre The women who t…
London WondergroundThe slinky Australian cabaret diva inflates the Southbank Centre's spiegeltent with comically choreographed disaster Read our Meow Meow interview hereThe coolest cat is ba…
Verbatim plays are lauded, but they are no more true as theatre than fiction, or even a combination of both: it's story that mattersOne of the errors that verbatim theatre often makes is to …
Caravan, BrightonThe tensions of family life are powerfully realised in a gender-swap dance of love, anger and regretThere are four people on stage. One pair is a real-life mother and daught…
Omnibus theatre, LondonThis retelling of the story of the last woman to be publically hanged in Dorset has some lovely elements, but leaves its characters underdevelopedIn 1856, Martha Brown…
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsBennett's Leeds-set 1980 flop is more misanthropic than his usual fare, and this revival does not overcome its flaws An A-Z of Alan Bennett Alan Bennett at 80:…
Corn Exchange, BrightonThere's a brutal beauty in Vanishing Point's admirable analysis of those who need care and those who provide itThe title of this latest piece from Vanishing Point, one…
Shows such as King Lear and the choreographer Olivier Dubois's Tragédie can be punishing to watch, but that's what makes them interestingAlan Bennett recently said that one of the things th…
Mercury, ColchesterPatrick Knowles swaggers as the misogynistic, womanising factory hand at the centre of this adaptation of Alan Sillitoe's 1958 novel"Screw the world" is the mott…
Ever sat through Godot expecting he's going to turn up? Or been surprised that Nora slams that door? You may not be aloneImagine living in a world where, as you watch a classic play for the …
Theatre 503, LondonBoyzone's Keith Duffy stars in this revival of Billy Roche's 1988 play, the powerful story of a life without prospects or tendernessBoyzone band member Keith Duffy may be …
The Chimerica playwright's latest project is surprisingly light on words, as she reworks a 'very dark, very cruel' Virginia Woolf tale of broken relationships with the choreographer Ben Duke…
Arcola theatre, LondonComedy duo Totally Tom play an unusually young pair of tramps which may bring new audiences to Beckett's play, but doesn't entirely convinceThere is nothing new about …
A play unsuitable for insomniacs, a musical sequel to The Tempest and a futuristic sound installation the maverick theatre group's 10th anniversary season pushes new boundariesBattersea Art…
Old Red Lion, LondonRage, suppressed emotion and family secrets in a Moscow flat provide the setting for this uneven but sharply funny playWho couldn't love a play that includes the line &qu…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonLucy Bailey's returning revival of this vicious, bloody tragedy is still ingeniously disturbing, and much more than just a splatter festNasty, but oh so very, very…
Arcola theatre, LondonSudha Bhuchar's unhysterical account of a schoolgirl caught between her mother and father and society pays dividends The Molly Campbell abduction scandal: from custod…
The Arts Council is almost certainly the biggest funder of original plays in theatreland. Isn't it time commercial producers took more responsibility for pushing things forward?Is something …
His play The Last Days of Troy stars a supermodel, explores Iraq and considers the sexual excitement of war. It's a risk worth taking, says Simon ArmitageIn the poet Simon Armitage's new pla…
Curve, LeicesterThis show based on a sermonising Victorian story has a fatal mix of blandness and mawkishnessVictorian morality is alive and well, and has been given an all-singing, all-danc…
A cleverly constructed one-on-one piece that takes place in a bathing hut becomes a chain of performancesThere has been plenty of discussion recently about the distribution of theatre in the…
Brighton festivalMedals pinned on chests suddenly resemble blood-splattered gunshot wounds in Dmitry Krymov's vivid and visceral play Dmitry Krymov on creating Opus No 7: 'Chaos is a magnet'…
Minerva, ChichesterLike the man in her most famous poem, Not Waving but Drowning, Wanamaker's Stevie Smith is all covert signalsShe stands before us, stooping slightly, in a shapeless red pi…
Brighton Dome studio theatreMani Soleymanlou's one-man exploration of his Persian heritage has a few nice stories, but suppresses too muchThe title is intriguing: it could refer to the fact …