Salisbury Playhouse Four short plays set corrupt Russians, a African president and free-market dystopia against our rights, suggesting Magna Carta may be due an update"Does Magna Carta mean …
Victoria Palace, LondonTurning small-scale movies into big musicals is a treacherous business. It failed with The Full Monty, which lost all of its gritty truth when musicalised. But Billy E…
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, LondonI suppose there are two ways to approach this mega-musical: either as a paid-up Tolkien aficionado or as a wide-eyed newcomer. Having dipped only briefly int…
Finborough theatre, LondonThis inventive production of a Yiddish classic takes potshots at the corrupting power of moneyThis astonishing theatre's latest discovery is a Yiddish classic by Da…
Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London Nicola Wilson's debut drama gives affecting snapshots of one woman at different points in her mental decline, but too many facts stifle the emotional imp…
The dream of a national theatre has happily come to pass, not only in England but in Wales and Scotland, too. But is regional theatre under threat as a result?I was very struck by something …
Chichester Festival theatreSeeing Platonov, Ivanov and The Seagull in a single day unforgettably charts Chekhov's progress from farce to melodrama to a new symphonic realism Sir David Hare h…
Orange Tree, RichmondPaul Miller's impressively cast production throws more light on nervous British masculinity than even the playwright may have intendedTerence Rattigan's 1936 hit has sur…
Tricycle, London Tartuffe transplanted to the deep south is full of jet-fuelled prose and raucous hilarity but the original play's target " blind faith " emerges unscathedHaving relocated a …
Birmingham Rep theatreTanika Gupta's lively adaptation, with music by Ben and Max Ringham, retains the novel's resonance and zestMeera Syal is, in some ways, the victim of her own success. H…
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonThe American playwright's 1922 drama, given its UK premiere, suffers from its sentimentality and characters driven by rage and rancourI've often quoted a dictum …
Young Vic, LondonStrong performances power Joe Hill-Gibbins' inventive production as it brilliantly captures the eternal conflict between flesh and spiritThere are no half measures in Joe Hi…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonDirected with flair by Dominic Cooke, Christopher Shinn's polemical play demolishes the myth that we live in a cosy world of sexual toleranceChristopher Shinn's fierc…
He has always been compared to Laurence Olivier. But, as his star-laden season opens at the Garrick, can he now outdo him as actor-manager " and save the West End? One thing I know about Ken…
Wyndham's theatre, LondonKenneth Cranham and Claire Skinner are superb in Florian Zeller's moving play that takes you inside the mind of a man with dementiaFlorian Zeller's play has enjoyed …
Rose theatre, KingstonMemories of Peter Hall and John Barton's original 1963 conflation are banished in refashioned plays for our own divided ageI am old and lucky enough to have seen the or…
Almeida, London Rachel Cusk's updated version of Euripides's tragedy is wild and witty but dilutes the tragedy by eschewing the violenceReimagining the classics is fine. There is, however, a…
Friel, whose death has been announced, was never a writer to be pigeonholed. He leaves a vast variety of personal and political plays, as well as beautiful translationsBrian Friel, who has d…
Everyman, LiverpoolThis timely adaptation has a Europhobic prime minister, Odysseus as a politician turned migrant " and a dead pig jokeLast year, Simon Armitage boldly gave us a version of …
Finborough, LondonFrom a soldier grappling with shellshock to a study of miners' wives, this selection of northern dramas brings the early 20th century aliveBetween 1908 and 1917, Annie Horn…
Lyric Hammersmith, LondonPerformed by a fine ensemble, this adaptation of the picaresque novel is a good night out and a rousing tribute to feminist principlesLaura Wade's adaptation of Sara…
Arcola, LondonBarney Norris's poetic, character-driven portrait of a changing Hampshire seizes your interest and never lets goAll good dramatists carve out their own territory. After an awar…
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonMarina Carr showcases her fascination with outsiders in this emotional and intelligent take on a classic " with contradictory consequencesMarina Carr, in plays s…
Print Room at the Coronet, LondonEliot's baroque drawing-room drama presents a couple's faltering relationship as a spiritual trial, echoing his own troubled marriageOnce a popular West End …
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonGregory Doran's imaginative production, in which the action is played out on a largely bare stage, allows the words to weave their spellShakespe…