2,444 stories by "Michael Billington"
Lyric Hammersmith, London A new version of Woyzeck plays out like a compendium of avant garde cliches, catching little of the desperation that drives Büchner's hero to murderI get the idea …
Royal Court, London A City suit sells his soul in this enjoyable if slightly unsubtle morality tale by Matilda the Musical's Dennis KellyVicky Featherstone's Royal Court regime begins with a…
Royal & Derngate, NorthamptonAyub Khan-Din's adaptation of ER Braithwaite's autobiography features strong performances but could do with more dramaThe most moving part of the evening came a…
Finborough, LondonJB Priestley's tale of a post-nuclear Britain is prescient, with its premonitions of modern life, and quietly passionate about this island's charmsInside that burly pragmat…
Yvonne Arnaud, GuildfordThe Original Theatre Company revives Peter Shaffer's bittersweet 1962 comedy double bill that explores the tension between order and passionThe conflict between dessi…
Mark Ravenhill's take on Voltaire's satire is an extraordinary piece, despite its overwhelming profusion of ideasMark Ravenhill has taken Voltaire's laconically witty satire on 18th-century …
Olivier, London John Heffernan convinces as king in a visually vibrant revival, yet the lyrical beauty of Marlowe's verse is lost in the mixI've argued countless times that "director's theat…
As a theatrical form, farce is infinitely flexible, timeless and revelatory … and several recent shows prove it's ripe for a revivalFarce is in the ascendant right now. We've just had Feyd…
Royal Court, London A well-written ode to community life in London is thwarted by its snapshot formatThis show does what it says on the tin. It consists of 10 five-minute episodes of a soap …
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonJessica Swale's first play leaves you astonished at the prejudices the pioneers of women's education had to overcomeJessica Swale has chosen, for her first play, a…
King's Head, LondonSentimentality sits uneasily alongside the truth in a new musical about the Texan outlaws that fails to deglamorise the killers"They're young, they're in love … and they…
Park theatre, LondonBen Travers' joyous farce creates an alternative universe in which panic lurks just below an innocent surfaceThark at the Park? It has a rhyming inevitability to it. But …
Personal passion meets global political drama in Lucy Kirkwood's exhilarating epic. And it survives the transfer across London with its five-star rating intactTransferring a five-star hit pl…
Theatre Royal, BathThis production of Feydeau and Desvallières' play is diverting, but rarely reaches the dizzying dementia of great farceFor those of us who regard farce as the quintessenc…
Trafalgar Studios, LondonAlexi Kaye Campbell's play reminds us that despite the sexual sea-change in Britain since the 1950s, prejudice is still with usLast Saturday, Whitehall in London was…
The ShedBased on more than 30 hours of interviews, Nadia Fall's production provides a vivid picture of life in a homeless hostelOne virtue of verbatim theatre is that it takes us behind clos…
Sadler's Wells, LondonBy keeping faithful to the Broadway original, the brilliance of this powerful Romeo and Juliet adaptation is rediscoveredThere's nothing radical or revisionist about th…
Stephen Joseph, ScarboroughAlan Ayckbourn may have written funnier plays, but few are more affecting than this Beckett-inspired tale of terrorismWhat astonishes you about Alan Ayckbourn is h…
Lyttelton theatre, LondonRichard Eyre's staging of the lusty Pirandello village comedy is nuanced, yet its Irish accent is ultimately discomfitingThis play by Luigi Pirandello is not what yo…
Donmar Warehouse, London Nick Payne's excellent new play takes us into the world of no-win, no-fee accident cases, as a dubious claimant gives two lawyers the runaroundIf I reveal that Nick …
Open Air theatre, Regent's Park, LondonIs it possible for a musical's numbers to be too familiar? At the preview I attended of Rodgers and Hammerstein's popular classic, several spectators a…
St James's Studio, LondonIn the bowels of this spanking new theatre lurks an intimate performance space, with a well-stocked bar: the ideal setting for this 70-minute, one-man play, written …
Tom Stoppard's fierce, unrelenting opposition to the abuse of human rights makes him the ideal recipient of the Pinter/PEN prizeIn Antonia Fraser's book, Must You Go?, detailing her life wit…
Theatre Royal, BathDavid Haig, like the late Nigel Hawthorne, follows an acclaimed performance in Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III by playing Shakespeare's deranged monarch. But, alt…
King's Head, LondonTV has given us The Vicar of Dibley and Rev, but the Church of England rarely gets a look-in on the British stage. For that reason alone it is refreshing to see Nicola Bal…
