2,436 stories by "Michael Billington"
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonThe last Macbeth we saw at this venue was a pop-culture Polish production in which the transvestite witches assiduously fellated the hero. No such excesses ta…
In his latest production, Battlefield, the 90-year-old theatre director focuses on a single episode from the great Indian epic that lies at the heart of his careerI'm lucky. I've twice spent…
The cast of King Charles III recently held an Equity meeting about whether to share the stage with an auction winner. Are such sales all in a good cause, or do they set a worrying precedent?…
Union theatre, LondonBertolt Brecht is often thought to be preachy and simplistic, but these plays prove otherwise, offering a complex montage of life in Nazi Germany Brecht wrote this colle…
Finborough theatre, LondonRed-star-crossed young lovers, estranged by a socially stratified regime, attempt to escape oppression in a traditional-yet-original romanceYou wait years for a pla…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonHigh Society meets What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in this look back at a socialite mother and daughter's downfallLike Richard Greenberg's The Dazzle, currently i…
Savoy theatre, LondonWith outstanding leads and fizzing choreography from Carlos Acosta, the classic gambling musical is staged with elanIt seems fitting that the Chichester production of Gu…
Park theatre, LondonTwo siblings in an isolated farmhouse role-play traumatic episodes from their childhood in this flesh-creeping metaphor for colonial declineThis play certainly delivers w…
Comedy Theatre, LondonThere's only one question to which everyone wants the answer: can Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss cut the mustard? The short answer is that they prove as potent a co…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonJosie Rourke directs a fine revival of Christopher Hampton's adaptation, where two jealousy-fuelled aristocrats stumble into the confusions of true loveHas there ever…
Old Vic, LondonDavid Greig's anarchic take on the ecological analogy " where greed increases the need for 'thneeds' " is full of verbal wit and social purpose Related: How the Lorax saved Ch…
Found 111 theatre, LondonThis story of two society brothers turned recluses is an extraordinary real-life American gothic " but the underlying message is quietly troublingThere's a long hist…
Bush theatre, LondonAn unremittingly emotional play focuses on a family torn apart by the British empire's practice of shipping UK children abroad to cover labour shortagesTom Holloway's pla…
Imelda Staunton bustled brilliantly through Gypsy and Shaw's Superman soared. But it's a celebrity hangman who tops our theatre critic's pick of this year's best showsMartin McDonagh's play,…
Imelda Staunton bustled brilliantly through Gypsy and Shaw's Superman soared. But it's a celebrity hangman who tops our theatre critic's pick of this year's best shows Continue reading...
Let's have more black Hamlets and white Othellos - not to mention some Queen Lears.Patrick Stewart does Othello in Jude Kelly's "photo-negative" production in Washington. Photograp…
Hampstead theatre, LondonTom Stoppard's science-meets-espionage thriller makes for an excellent revival, as public savvy catches up with its testing dual structureAttention must be paid to T…
Royal Court Upstairs, LondonTwo starving sisters flee across the border with very different results in this brilliantly designed, superbly disorientating dramaLike Lucy Kirkwood's Chimerica,…
Marlowe, Canterbury Simon Mendes da Costa's lively comedy has fun exploring the etiquette of modern dating for dithering middle-aged men and sexually assertive divorceesHaving undergone a ma…
Wilton's Music Hall, London Roy Hudd plays his first pantomime dame " amid a medley of time-tested jokes and cockney standards " in this witty, warm, unadulterated delightIt comes as a surpr…
Director whose opera and theatre work was enriched by a broad European outlook and interest in new dramaIn an age when mainland European directors are often judged by the extravagance of the…
Young Vic, LondonAnna Maxwell Martin is a cool Lady Macbeth to John Heffernan's neurotic hero, but the relentless physical movement overshadows the text's potencyIf directing Shakespeare is …
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonIt may be a poor man's Gypsy and Barbra Streisand has hitherto owned the role, but this production exhibits real class and Smith is a constant joy to watchThi…
Royal Court, London Real social issues about older women get lost in sensory overload as Penelope Skinner's promising polemic lapses into melodramaNoma Dumezweni has stepped in at short noti…
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonThe queen's relationship with Sarah Churchill (an icily seductive Natascha McElhone) is central to this fascinating, topical production on the last Stuart queen'…
