Royal Exchange, ManchesterSimon Armitage's modern mastery of Homer is impressive even if Lily Cole's Helen is not but this production lacks a personal touch You have to admire the skill and…
Shaftesbury theatre, LondonRichard Eyre's joyous production of this 1954 show has an exuberance comparable to that of his National Theatre Guys and DollsIt's a big leap from the Minerva in C…
The play that burned down the Globe theatre in 1613, after a stage cannon ignited the thatch, is a potent farewell to this seriesIt seems strange to end this series of favourite Shakespeare …
The Shed, LondonChinese-American playwright David Henry Hwang uses humour to look at the implications of being racially hyphenated in this peach of a playWhat exactly is racial identity? Doe…
This stormy staple of the Shakespeare canon has appeared in many guises. But the great Giorgio Strehler's Italian version is our critics's top pick. What's your favourite version?I've experi…
Nuffield, SouthamptonThree Noel Coward triple bills in one day might sound daunting, and some of his less admirable attitudes are all too apparent, but this epic show still contains some mas…
Barbican, LondonFiona Shaw is brilliant as the mother of Jesus, and juggles other characters, in an ingenious adaptation of Colm TóibÃn's novella Fiona Shaw on the power of tragedyI ca…
This is a searing study of jealousy and a moving account of transformative magic. What's your favourite version?Where to start? The modern theatre loves The Winter's Tale, most recently seen…
Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonLaudable performances and stage design save the RSC's contemporary makeover of this 16th-century true-crime dramaMuch as I welcome the idea of a Swan season …
The 2001 staging at Shakespeare's Globe, with Mark Rylance tackling a trio of roles, gave clarity to this convoluted playNot a play for rationalists. Dr Johnson wrote of its "unresistin…
This once-unloved play has become both a study of asylum seekers and a show for kids. It still has a potent theatrical magicBen Jonson thought Pericles "a mouldy tale", and few hav…
Laurence Olivier on stage and Ralph Fiennes on film are Michael Billington's favourite versions of this magnificent playI've loved this play ever since I was a revolting Roman citizen in a p…
Nicholas Hytner's production in 2012 turned this unfashionable play into a bitter fable about our credit cultureTimon, wrote Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail, "tends to be dismissed as o…
Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins impressed as lovers embroiled in the sex and politics of this play. But which other double acts have ruled as Shakespeare's power couple?I've been accused of n…
Paul Scofield, Derek Jacobi and John Wood all excelled in what Kenneth Tynan called a "flawed pyramid of a play". Which other actors have been every inch a king?I have a confession to make. …
From Willard White to Adrian Lester, modern theatre has yielded some terrific Othellos but none more so than Chiwetel EjioforWho should play Othello? In Britain, the last white men to do so…
Once regarded as salacious, Shakespeare's tale of seduction and the abuse of power has proved a natural fit for modern timesThere was a time when this play was considered too indecent for mo…
Finborough, LondonJean-Jacques Bernard's exquisitely poignant tale of a summer romance in the French countryside is brilliantly performed by Hannah Murray and Barnaby Sax"The theatre is…
The tale of a poor physician's daughter who cures a king and claims a husband as reward sits well with modern gender politics. Here are my favourite stagingsThis supposedly unloved comedy of…
Wyndham's, LondonAndrei Konchalovsky's use of film and sexually explicit gestures doesn't always work well on stage, but there are compelling performances in this Russian double bill Andrei …
Lyttelton, LondonHoward Davies brilliantly handles Seán O'Casey's blend of Dublin realism and expressionismSeán O'Casey's tumultuous play has always posed a problem: how to reconci…
In honour of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, we're recalling our favourite stagings of his plays. This tragedy has come into its own in today's war-weary times, yielding many f…
To mark the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth we're choosing our favourite versions of his plays. Here's a handful of the finest Hamlets 45 Hamlets for Shakespeare's 450th birthday i…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonJames Graham's new play under the direction of Josie Rourke is rich and adrenalin-fuelled but lacks a real intellectual tussleJames Graham's new play deals with the b…
Orange Tree, RichmondThis lively revival of Boucicault's play starts promisingly, but his assault on speculative capitalism soon turns into a convoluted comedy about aristocratic marriageA k…