Donmar Warehouse, LondonBased on interviews with residents of small-town Pennsylvania, Lynn Nottage's play vividly describes the betrayal and resentments of striking female factory workers i…
Almeida, London Joe Hill-Gibbins' stripped-back production delivers a forceful royal downfall, but leaves little space to explore the power plays behind itSimon Russell Beale was born to pla…
A gender-switch Company got Sondheim's blessing, Sam Mendes probed the doomed Lehman dynasty and Austen had a sparkling rewrite. But the year belonged to Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins fac…
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonA searing central performance flips the gender dynamics as Shakespeare's study of greed gets a ravishing revivalShakespeare's embittered satire, notoriously, sho…
Royal Court, LondonA deputy head's historical deeds trouble his retirement in this tense drama starring Alun Armstrong, Nicola Walker and Maggie SteedFor the second time in a week on stage, …
Orange Tree, RichmondSelina Cadell stages an enterprising production of Congreve's convoluted restoration comedySelina Cadell is on a one-woman mission to preserve Restoration comedy. Having…
Old Fire Station, OxfordA masterfully written generational clash lies at the heart of this timely story rich in insight, poignancy and optimism It is a quite a coup for this bustling arts ce…
Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonCharles Perrault meets Doctor Who in this lively production about a cockney martial-arts princess who travels through timePantomime survives by being infi…
Hampstead theatre, London There are vibrant performances in this new version of the Russian masterpiece, directed and written by Johnson Terry Johnson has directed his own new version of Che…
Royal Exchange, Manchester Raz Shaw's riotous revival of Mel Brooks's musical meisterwerk offers as much fun as you'll find on a stage this ChristmasMel Brooks's 2001 musical, like the movie…
Royal Court, London Ellie Kendrick livens up her inventive debut with astrophysics and ancient Greek myth " but it could use more concrete argumentEllie Kendrick's hour-long debut play celeb…
Vaudeville, LondonKit Harington and Johnny Flynn are good, if slightly mismatched, as the brothers in Sam Shepard's haunting playYou can see why Kit Harington and Johnny Flynn were drawn to …
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonWith a cast of three playing multiple characters, this is an energetic telling of the cadaver-supplying criminalsYou learn something new all the time. I had alwa…
Finborough, LondonMairi Hawthorn really gets her teeth into the titular heroine in Aimée Stuart's 1940 play that creaks with age at timesCinderella stories are all the rage at Christmas. Th…
Print Room at the Coronet, London The novelist's 2005 drama opens up arguments about assisted death and the point at which life ceases to have meaningMany of the great American novelists " H…
Olivier, LondonThere are some cracking songs in Rachel Chavkin and Anaïs Mitchell's haunting journey through the underworldThis is a show that escapes easy definition. With music, lyrics …
Harold Pinter theatre, LondonGreig shows nothing is now beyond her range while Evans's physical comedy is a delight as this short-drama season highlights Pinter's fascination with marital so…
Hampstead theatre, LondonIfeyinwa Frederick's debut play about three friends on holiday veers from comic to serious in a flashThis is a debut play by Ifeyinwa Frederick about three Essex-bor…
Minerva, Chichester In Laura Wade's bold and playful adaptation of Austen's unfinished novel, the mutinous characters threaten to take control of the dramaI would seriously urge anyone plann…
Theatre 503, London A Florida zoo curator befriends a British bat enthusiast in Lily Bevan's engaging pair of interwoven monologuesLily Bevan is a talented writer-performer who has previousl…
Kiln, LondonStephen Sharkey adapts Smith's immigrant tale with zest but struggles to contain the novel's dizzying temporal leaps Adapting Zadie Smith's phenomenal novel for the stage is like…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonIman Qureshi's award-winning play examines Islamic attitudes to same-sex relationships with grace and dignityEvery year the Papatango New Writing prize comes up wi…
Finborough theatre, London Six dead men do not want to be buried in Irwin Shaw's expressionist but schematic anti-war play from 1936You can applaud a play's intentions without enjoying its e…
Royal Court, LondonGenerational friction, slavery laws and police protocol all come under scrutiny in a stirring three-part study of oppressionAs she showed in her plays hang (2015) and trut…
Orange Tree theatre, RichmondThis revival gains an eerie topicality, yet its ingenious study of moneyed hypocrisy makes it truly timelessBy an extraordinary quirk of fate, Martin Crimp's 198…