The play that burned down the Globe theatre in 1613, after a stage cannon ignited the thatch, is a potent farewell to this seriesIt seems strange to end this series of favourite Shakespeare …
Wilton's Music Hall, LondonThere are some striking performances in this musical about an explorer stuck underground, but too many of the lyrics are incomprehensibleA musical about a hero tra…
Young Vic, LondonThe director's new work based on the ancient text is one of aesthetic beauty and great skill, if less convincing as a parable of our times Three decades ago, Peter Brook's p…
Theatre Royal Haymarket, LondonCooper commands the stage as the Restoration rebel John Rochester in Stephen Jeffreys' portrait of debauchery and self-destructionDominic Cooper follows in the…
Shakespeare's Globe, London EastEnders actor Maddy Hill brings gutsy toughness as the heroine of this refocused Shakespeare adaptation, but Matthew Dunster's violent setting seems at odds wi…
Garrick, London This 1950s courtroom drama is an efficient piece of entertainment but is beginning to show its ageReginald Rose's script has had an incredibly long life. It first surfaced on…
Royal Court, LondonPerformed by an excellent cast, Suzan Lori-Parks's trilogy about the US civil war is riddled with Homeric allusions and seamlessly incorporates songs into the action Relat…
Prince Edward theatre, LondonThe opposing forces of communism and capitalism carry strange visual echoes in this production by Laurence ConnorSo how does Boublil and Schönberg's musical sta…
Rose, KingstonJohn Malkovich's immaculately staged version of Zach Helm's clever play about drug dependency and genius doesn't quite escape its sentimental conclusion John Malkovich is renow…
Theatre Royal HaymarketIt's a sign of how much our theatre has changed that Beckett's masterpiece, once seen as a subversion of West End theatre, now occupies one of its iconic temples. But …
Wyndham's theatre, LondonSean Mathias's production shows the comedy and bleakness in the story of a pub potman invited to a writer's luxurious homeWhen Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart joine…
Tara theatre, LondonTara's new theatre is an enticing venue for this adaptation of a medieval tale, with topical lessons, about lovers manipulated by religious ideology This vital multicultu…
Theatre Royal, BathClare Higgins and Tim Pigott-Smith trade blows with relish, but Adrian Noble's revival brings little fresh insight to Albee's classicWhen Peter Hall ran the Bath summer se…
Lyric HammersmithThis strongly cast British/Australian collaboration is a pleasure to watch but glibly assumes the strains of domestic life are the same the world overThe fraught family has …
The film, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, led Edward Albee's play to be remembered as a boozy marital slugfest. But it is as much about America itselfEdward Albee occasionally …
A new tranche of Harold Pinter's letters, written to lifelong friends, has been made public. We take a first glimpseHarold Pinter was a born letter writer. In later years his commu…
Apollo, LondonTruth versus illusion is the great theme of American drama: think of O'Neill, Miller and Williams. And, since it lies at the core of Edward Albee's ritualistic 1962 drama, it i…
Almeida, LondonTragedy, we are often told, is dead: an impossibility in an age that believes all problems are socially remediable. But Edward Albee has boldly defied convention by writing an…
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonA cavalier meets his match among strong women in Loveday Ingram's carnivalesque production of Aphra Behn's 17th-century comedyAphra Behn is acclaimed as the firs…
Donmar, LondonTennessee Williams's play is so inexhaustible that it is always worth seeing. With Rachel Weisz playing Blanche DuBois there is also no doubt this production will be a popular …
Young Vic, LondonAlthough this modern update of Tennessee Williams's play isn't always plausible, this is a powerful production'Anderson is utterly compelling' " Susannah Clapp's reviewAmeri…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterMaxine Peake excels as Blanche Dubois in a nightmarish production of the Tennessee Williams classicMaxine Peake is not automatic casting for the role of Blanche Dub…
Orange Tree, RichmondZoe Cooper's skilful and touching account of an unlikely teenage friendship brings to mind The Catcher in the Rye Zoe Cooper's play, co-produced with Farnham Maltings an…
National Theatre, LondonYou can see Tennessee Williams's Blanche DuBois in one of two ways: as an embodiment of the poetic spirit destroyed by crude reality or as a southern snob tragically …
Jermyn Street theatre, London Before writing children's classics, Milne was a popular dramatist. His 1922 comedy about eloping lovers gets an excellent revival by Nichola McAuliffeLondon's s…