2,436 stories by "Michael Billington"
Aldeburgh, SuffolkTwo short new plays skilfully compress stories of cultural power in Boko Haram-ravaged Nigeria, and an agile and eloquent mountaineering romanceNow celebrating its 10th yea…
Young Vic, LondonHunter is a strutting minister one minute and the emperor's pillow-bearer the next in this shrewd and resonant account of Haile Selassie's fall from graceThis is not the fir…
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonOliver Ryan and Sandy Grierson share the roles of the doctor and the demon in Maria Aberg's darkly inventive, richly psychological productionIt is fascinating to…
Hampstead theatre, LondonBeth Steel's play about the 1980s Latin American debt crisis is staged with a hurtling energy that propels us through the intricacies of international bankingBeth St…
Regent's Park, LondonFollowing stage versions of works by William Golding, EL Doctorow and Harper Lee, this novel-hungry venue now brings us a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in time f…
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London This imagined encounter between Jesus and a crazed Roman emperor is deeply flawed but is given a strong, clear productionYou have to go back to Shaw's Saint J…
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonGregory Doran's Arthur Miller production skilfully contrasts a bitter old man with his dapper younger self, as Harriet Walter touchingly reveals…
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonAntony Sher is unbearably moving as the volatile king, in Gregory Doran's stellar production full of standout performancesThis year, we may be e…
Royal Shakespeare TheatreIt works. That's one's instant verdict on the transformed Royal Shakespeare Theatre. And it succeeds precisely because it feels new and strangely familiar. The old a…
Found 111, LondonNiamh Cusack and Matthew Lewis are part of a quartet of characters whose unfulfilled lives throw them together in Owen McCafferty's play about infidelityOwen McCafferty, in …
He was one of theatre's most daring stars, whose best films bear witness to a talent many never had the chance to see on stage' Picture from the past: Dalà paints Olivier in 1955It's a sh…
Garrick, LondonBranagh is highly watchable as the music-hall veteran Archie Rice, but John Osborne's portrait of a collapsing culture is undercut in a misjudged productionKenneth Branagh has…
Park theatre, LondonJB Priestley never reconciled the comic and serious elements in this 1931 play, which gives a glimpse of what Auden dubbed 'a low, dishonest decade'Can drawing-room comed…
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonBlanche McIntyre's RSC debut underscores the erotic strangeness of Shakespeare's jointly authored final play " but doesn't solve all its problemsThirty years ago…
Almeida, LondonAdam Brace's ambitious show addresses the paradox of celebrating a country's culture while ignoring its political realitiesYou have to admire the ambition of Adam Brace. In hi…
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-on-AvonWhat to do with this endlessly problematic play? Directors such as Peter Zadek and David Thacker set it in the stock exchange. But Rupert Goold, a…
Minerva, ChichesterJohn Galsworthy's play about industrial action at a Welsh tinplating firm, directed by Bertie Carvel in his debut, is more than a century old, and as relevant and vivid as…
Finborough, LondonThe award-winning playwright uses YouTube as a medium to explore body anxiety and racial tension in this punchy two-handerBola Agbaje has written a number of very good play…
Old Vic, LondonThe team behind Matilda the Musical reunite for a clever, eye-catching show based on the Bill Murray movieMusicals based on hit movies are two-a-penny, but this one comes with…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonThom Southerland directs the European premiere of this musical about an Everyman's dilemma, but it's too detached from the wider story of AmericaIt is a shock to r…
This year's crop of Dreams " taking in Blitz spirit and colonial India " shows how Shakespeare's comedy is fertile ground for infinite interpretation. But it is Benjamin Britten's opera vers…
Traverse theatre, EdinburghRoss Dunsmore's play is strong on compassion, but it raises questions that it fails to answer about a society that drives people to the brink Related: Edinburgh fe…
Traverse, EdinburghRochelle Bright's 'play with songs' starts out as a promising love story but despite vigorous performances and a lively band it never quite bloomsSubtitled "a play with so…
King's theatre, EdinburghJohn Tiffany's superb production stars Cherry Jones as a woman who clings tenaciously to the memory of her aristocratic past Related: From Black Watch to Harry Potte…
★★★★/★★The Lyceum, EdinburghWe're Peeping Toms for Vanishing Point's riveting but disastrous dinner party, but the company's media critique, The Destroyed…