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...
Minerva, ChichesterJeremy Sams directs his own vivacious translation of Jean Anouilh's smart comedy Continue reading...
The UK has become an experimental studio for risk-averse Broadway " but that shouldn't detract from the great British talent nominated for this year's Tonys Continue reading...
Damian Lewis and John Goodman, in American Buffalo, are the latest Hollywood stars to tread London's boards, in a deal that benefits both theatre and film Continue reading...
Recent announcements at the National, the Garrick and the Old Vic show that casting the management is as important as contracting the actors In theatre companies, as in all organisations, a …
As Stoppard and Shaw plays at the National debate the likelihood of God, Shakespeare's King John is revived in a church and the St Paul's Occupy protests are staged, Mark Lawson asks why the…
From Harvey's six-foot white rabbit to Mike Leigh's hard-partying Abigail, some of the biggest characters around never set foot on stage. Mark Lawson raises a toast to absent friendsWith rev…
In the run-up to 7 May, British TV will become a no-go area for plays relevant to the election. Thankfully, theatre has the courage to provide our fix Continue reading...
Stoppard's The Hard Problem became richer when I read the script, but the playtext of Game lessens the experience of the Almeida's unsettling stagingBuy a programme for Mike Bartlett's new p…