From Gypsy to Harlequinade and The Moderate Soprano, London's theatres are awash with shows about showbiz. Are they a valid celebration of the power of art, or just for self-indulgent luvvie…
Chancellor Caryl Churchill, foreign secretary Gore Vidal, defence minister David Greig … Ahead of the National Theatre's revival of Harley Granville Barker's explosive play, Waste, Mark La…
New projects at the National Theatre and Chichester Festival theatre substantially rework the material of two great authors, raising questions of fidelity and freedomIf there is an afterlife…
Measure for Measure has been staged three times in London this year. It goes to show just how resonant its themes of sexual licentiousness and twisted democracy are today " especially in Rus…
Lifetime achievement in music theatre acknowledges Lansbury's prolific career in theatre and film spanning seven decadesPeople like to pass landmark birthdays in meaningful places, so it see…
Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, joins Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet and Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight in my top 10 films based on the Stratford playwright's worksPr…
The jokes were dated and non-PC, the delivery perfectly timed: for one night only, the showbiz survivors teamed up to create a piece of theatre historyWith the two performers having a combin…
The secretive immersive-theatre sensation is back for another sellout run. It's an uplifting and unsettling experience " think Disneyland meets DismalandAt the curtain call for Agatha Christ…
Tipping the Velvet has opened to less fanfare than her Benedict Cumberbatch production, but Turner seems to prefer it that wayThe last time the theatre director Lyndsey Turner opened a produ…
Doctor Foster, Suffragette, Game, Splendour … hits keep on coming for Abi Morgan and Mike Bartlett. The success of these British playwrights comes from transcending the limits of both stag…
Last year, with the referendum imminent, playwrights turned their hand to the subject of Scottish independence. This year the big issue is IsisIn Scotland, Labour has largely been replaced b…
Edinburgh festival has a long tradition of taking on leaders and legislation as dramatic subject matter and this year sees performers' satire as sharp as everWho is the odd one out among Ton…
Gilded Balloon, EdinburghHenry Naylor's impressive work tells the story of a modern-day British jihadi bride in Syria and a Victorian bluestocking in Afghanistan " and manages to conjure com…
Gilded BalloonAn amoral anti-love story about the sexual abuse of a Spanish immigrant in Scotland is challenging, and begs the question: what shall we as viewers do?The title will make Anglo…
Pleasance Dome, EdinburghBizarre miscasting and stodgy dialogue scupper this account of a meeting between the master illusionist and the Sherlock Holmes creatorIn the teeming marketplace of …
Assembly George Square Studios, EdinburghJim Cartwright's raucous, lively study of living for the weekend has the feel of another crossover work from the author of the Rise and Fall of Littl…
Underbelly Potterow, EdinburghMargaret Ann Bain sculpts her body and voice to become a cast of dozens in this story of an East German woman forced to take over her dead husband's identity Re…
From radical reinventions of the proscenium arch, to productions that march outside of the theatre altogether, the boards of the British stage are dissolving under a wave of innovationFootba…
Actor defied early rejections from drama schools to become one of Britain's most exciting stage names, winning plaudits for her roles as well as her personalityIt is a mark of the boldness a…
The Oresteia starts with a child sacrifice " and then gets darker. But it managed to cheer me up even more than the tremendously funny Rules for LivingDoes theatre, as the Greeks believed, h…
After a painful failure with Spider-Man, Taymor has bounced back with stage and now film versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Here she talks about why there are still few female directors,…
Patrick Marber has scored a hit with The Red Lion at the National Theatre. Here's a first XI of stage dramas inspired by the beautiful gameAlthough football is England's most popular team ga…
New York's theatre community put aside tribal loyalties to crown British stars Helen Mirren, Richard McCabe and Alex Sharp at this year's Tonys' Alex Sharp and Helen Mirren head roll-call of…
A Streetcar Named Desire is one of several landmark works that failed to win best play at past Tonys ceremonies. Which other classics have been snubbed at prizegivings?A remarkable 34 of the…
Both the National and Bush theatres are putting on plays with sweary titles this year. But how will they promote them? And what should journalists call them? Continue reading...