2,878 stories by "Lyn Gardner"
Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonAn unremarkable, middle-aged man addresses the audience from a farmhouse kitchen nestling in a grassy glade: "When I cast my mind back to the summer of 1936  
Ustinov, BathNew Yorkers Janine and Adam appear to be successful and happy, living in a tasteful apartment and with a son at private school. He's an architect; she's running her own startup.…
Vampires in Dundee, Pinter's The Birthday Party revived in Manchester, great circus in London " it's a good week for theatre in all its many manifestationsScotlandThe big news this week is t…
Recent productions have shown what British East Asian actors are capable of " is it a turning point?I asked earlier this year why East Asian actors and playwrights didn't have a larger prese…
This enjoyable comedy confronts a taboo, that not every woman is in love with her baby, and that work can beat motherhoodThere is a moment towards the end of Hannah Patterson's enjoyable and…
Park theatre, LondonThe under-representation of east Asian actors on British stages received overdue attention late last year after criticism of the RSC's casting of the Chinese play, T…
Spectator reviewer Lloyd Evans says his colleagues do theatre a disservice by raving about mediocre shows. Do you agree?I think it might have been Alan Bennett who once charmingly referred t…
Open Air theatre, LondonHarper's Lee novel, set in Alabama during a Depression when poverty and racism walk hand in hand, is one of the great stories about growing up. For many of us, the ta…
Norwich Playhouse"Can you tell me your life story?" The question has been asked before in theatre, not least in Improbable's improvised show, Lifegame. But it's never been asked and staged i…
As funding cuts push theatres to the brink of financial viability, managing risk becomes paramount. Can we do it intelligently?At last year's press conference at London's National theatre, w…
BAC, LondonJosephine and her friends Boris and Sistahl are putting on a play. When they do the real thing there will be a Viennese orchestra, a revolve, a smoke machine and even a real audie…
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsSherlock Holmes is depressed. Still suffering physically and mentally from his encounter with Moriarty on the Reichenbach Falls, he is refusing to take on any …
The Pulse Festival is full of goodies in Ipswich, Nicholas Wright's Vincent in Brixton begins the summer season in Keswick, and Chris Goode is in Bristol and PlymouthScotland and Northern Ir…
Ticket prices are rising and household budgets are squeezed. If you could get a refund if you hated the show, would you be inclined to go more often?A night at the theatre can feel like a bi…
Nuffield, SouthamptonFrom Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park to David Mamet's Race " soon to hit the UK " American theatre is currently much concerned with racial tensions. Like Clybourne Park, B…
Royal Court, LondonWhen the actor Billie Whitelaw was first given the script for Not I, legend has it she told Beckett: "You've finally done it, you've written the unlearnable and you've wri…
Theatres often seem to programme the same old repertoire. Tell us about the lost gems you would like the chance to see on stageIf you wanted to see Strindberg's Miss Julie over the last year…
London WondergroundLast summer the sexy and stylish circus show Cantina raised the heat on London's South Bank. Now the producers behind that show have returned with a new piece, but it is n…
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…
Audiences are increasingly fed up about bad behaviour in the theatre " and they are taking the law into their own hands Continue reading...
Sherman, CardiffA theatrical bouquet to Dorothy Squires, the hugely successful postwar Welsh singer who ended her life penniless and back in the Valleys, Meic Povey and Johnny Tudor's biogra…
Find out who ate all the pies in Titus Andronicus at the RSC in Stratford, and don't miss the 12 hour everyday epic, Life and Times, as part of the Norfolk and Norwich festivalScotland and N…
Oval House, LondonEve is 13 and she lives in the dark. She never ventures from the room at the top of the big house, which she calls a castle. Outside is dangerous. Inside there are stories:…
London has acquired a new theatre in the form of the Park in north London. But do we need another venue " and will it thrive?The UK's newest theatre, the Park, opened last night in Finsbury …
Brighton Dome StudioIt begins with an advert on a community noticeboard that promises "crime pays," but this two-hander, inspired by actor Angela Clerkin's experience as a solicitor's clerk,…
