Young Vic, LondonIn a bravura display, Piper lays bare the soul of a woman who is unable to have children " even if Simon Stone's update is less powerful than Lorca's original playThe Austra…
David Hare's versions of Platonov, Ivanov and The Seagull, now at the National Theatre in a superb production by Jonathan Kent, leave you exhilaratedI have spent many all-day sessions in the…
St James theatre, LondonA snapper falls under the spell of a Mephistophelian PR man in Mike Dyer's energetic story, which takes a turn for the absurd despite some decent songsThe Faust legen…
Theatre Royal Haymarket, London The pop singer brings verve and musicality to the glamorous enigma, with admirably conflicted support from Matt Barber " it's Truman Capote's story itself tha…
Lyttelton, LondonThe women are exceptionally strong in this production of O'Casey's great Easter Rising drama, which draws out the complex humanity of its charactersI found it took time to g…
Palace theatre, LondonIt's convoluted, but the latest expansion of the Potter universe is thrillingly staged, with time travel and age-old quests given a dash of post-Freudian guilt"Keep the…
Ireland's international festival has shown the merits of merging different art forms while reawakening enthusiasm for a much-reprised Beckett classicThey were dancing in the streets last wee…
Leisureland, Salthill, GalwayThe playwright embraces a new form of category-defying theatre in a story of love and oppression that echoes Orwell's 1984No Galway international arts festival s…
Minerva, ChichesterAnne Reid and James Bolam star in Beaton's dark comedy about fracking that becomes an outright plea for direct actionAlistair Beaton's forte is topical satire. His most re…
Park theatre, London Anne Archer plays the actor and activist in a drama that revisits the consequences of Fonda's visit to North Vietnam in 1972Terry Jastrow's play speculates on what happe…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonRay Rackham's musical brings us three Garlands at different periods of her life and deals with the causes and the symptoms of the star's declineI once said that I'…
Producer Cameron Mackintosh turned the West End musical into a global franchise. And he's not finished yet. New shows are opening round the world, new theatres are being purchased ... the em…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonFiasco's inventive, vigorous version of Stephen Sondheim's modern fairytale doesn't entirely mask the problems of James Lapin's convoluted bookFiasco Theater'…
Arcola, LondonHicks confirms his gift for exploring unbalanced minds in this riveting adaptation of the Russian author's novella, directed by John TerryWhen Nancy Harris's adaptation of Tols…
Royal Court, London Matt Smith gives a fine performance but this movie industry satire is unbalanced by one character's eruptionThere is a long history of theatrical satires on the movie bus…
Barbican, LondonRobert Lepage's wry and haunting 1991 piece about various brands of addiction was inspired by two great artists, and it lives up to their brillianceRobert Lepage has revisite…
Young Vic, LondonThe ordeal of 13 Syrian women is powerfully re-created through horrific personal testimony and heartbreaking nostalgiaIt seems faintly obscene to slap star ratings on a show…
Barbican, LondonCardboard Citizens' remarkable version of the TV drama was followed by a fiery discussion in which Loach condemned the government's 'conscious cruelty'Can art change anything…
Theatre Room, LondonThis two-woman update of Life Is a Dream is brilliantly performed and looks at the Spanish play from a fresh perspectiveThis two-woman version of Calderón's Spanish cl…
In exposing our leaders' fallibility, it's natural to invoke Shakespeare but that crowns them with borrowed grandeur. A better reference point would be Dryden's brand of mock-heroic satireAt…
Bush Hall, London Melissa Bubnic's song-filled attack on the City of London is played with great brio by an all-female cast but stops short of landing a knockout blowMelissa Bubnic's play, j…
Donmar, London A lost world of showbiz exiles is evoked through powerful monologues, hauntingly delivered by Stephen Dillane, Gina McKee and Ron Cook Brian Friel's magical play can be seen i…
Almeida, LondonThe fierce intelligence of the Almeida, Headlong and Nottingham Playhouse's spin on George Orwell shines through - but the play contributes to a worrying theatrical trendIt is…
From Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' to Macbeth's 'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow', Shakespeare's lines present an infinity of choicesEarlier this month, I took part in a fascinating discu…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonRay Fearon and Tara Fitzgerald give feverish performances but this production has an aura of perverse oddity " why do the Macbeths have a child?Iqbal Khan's produc…