Open Air theatre, Regent's Park, LondonMichelle Terry is riveting as Shakespeare's wartime king in a production that emphasises how roleplaying is integral to monarchyAside from Hamlet, I ca…
Hampstead theatre, LondonEdward Snowden-a-like Andrew is visited by two shadowy WikiLeaks employees in Mike Bartlett's intelligent new play, exploring the 2013 revelationsMike Bartlett's pla…
Royal Court, LondonMega-fame and limitless cash can turn a man into a monster, and Simon Stephens's new play excellently evokes its hero's spiritually shrunken worldNo one will be surprised …
Almeida, LondonDavid Cromer's cooly observant narrator leads a radically reworked version of Thornton Wilder's classic that taps into collective folk memoryWe are used to seeing old plays gi…
New Wolsey, IpswichThe verse is handled with microscopic precision as Nunn relocates Shakespeare's comedy to a world of diplomats and cocktails where Theseus becomes a white-suited Mountbatt…
Finborough, LondonNeil McPherson pays tribute to Charles Hamilton Sorley in a beautifully orchestrated production with songs by Schubert and George ButterworthRobert Graves considered Charle…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonAn updating of Gorky's play loses the moral ambiguity surrounding its female protagonist and makes little sense uprooted from its historial contextMaxim Gorky's pl…
Versatile actor and writer often called upon to play toffs and bumbling clericsThe actor Jonathan Cecil, who has died of pneumonia aged 72 after suffering from emphysema, spent much of his …
Almeida, LondonIn Rupert Goold's production, Fiennes sacrifices some of the character's irony while Vanessa Redgrave softens the often scolding Queen MargaretRupert Goold's production begins…
Prince Edward theatre, London Impressive stage magic, a gold-dripping design and a party-loving genie make this energetic adaptation of the animated movie a wicked treatImagine a Christmas p…
Adelphi, LondonTransfers can be tricky. But Richard Bean's updated version of Goldoni's comic classic seems, if anything, even funnier than it did at the National. The text has been shortene…
A political radical, as an actor he excelled at playing tortured establishment figuresCorin Redgrave, who has died aged 70, was both a formidable actor and a strenuous political activis…
Barbican, LondonHuppert is a treat but even she struggles to make sense of a production that is at times close to insufferable Continue reading...
Chichester Festival theatreFiennes gives an accomplished performance in an elegantly mounted production of Terence Rattigan's uneven playWe associate Terence Rattigan with domestic drama. He…
Gielgud, LondonPeter Morgan struck box-office gold with his movie The Queen. He's likely to do so again with this play based on the private weekly audience given by the monarch to the prime …
Lyttelton, LondonTerence Rattigan's powerful portrait of emotional turmoil in postwar Britain is beautifully played " if only the sound effects weren't so disruptiveTerence Rattigan's best p…
Productions of new plays by Tracy Letts and Rebecca Gilman confirm the Windy City is a hotbed of exciting new dramaNew York gets all the attention but in my experience Chicago is just as vib…
Barbican, LondonCumberbatch has a gift for suggesting Hamlet's essential decency, but visual conceits take the place of textual investigation in this frustrating stagingAfter all the hype an…
The West End's preview practice dates back nearly 50 years. As it stands, the outdated system works against the public interestWhen does Harry Potter and the Cursed Child actually open? The …
Charing Cross theatre, LondonThom Southerland opens his Charing Cross tenure with his brilliantly staged revival set aboard the doomed linerThe disaster-musical seems an unlikely genre, but …
Apollo, LondonThis evocative chamber piece, based on LP Hartley's 1953 coming-of-age novel, is done with taste and style but never quite soars Is LP Hartley's 1953 novel a good subject for a…
Tug of War, a gripping take on the history plays with protest songs from Leonard Cohen and Nina Simone, is rocking Chicago. The woman behind it says torture and invasion never felt more rele…
Chichester Festival TheatrePeter Shaffer's spectacle of Mozart's mediocre rival distorts historical reality but remains compelling and stylishly presentedFew living dramatists write big star…
The American playwright's masterpiece, an explosive story of sexual repression, has suffered at the hands of directors and censorsGiven that it is Tennessee Williams's best play, it is surpr…
Minerva theatre, Chichester Strindberg's Miss Julie is well directed, but it's Shaffer's dark comedy that illuminates in this contrasting double billAugust Strindberg's tragedy Miss Julie an…