2,444 stories by "Michael Billington"
Young Vic, LondonAfter Benedict Andrews's radical update of Chekhov's Three Sisters , we now have another sibling trio on stage at the Young Vic. This time, the sisters symbolise Yoruba godd…
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonThis is the RSC's fifth revival of this play in the last 15 years. Such over-familiarity may account for the fact that Lucy Bailey's new product…
Nicholas Hytner wants to know what should be included in the NT's anniversary celebrations. From No Man's Land to Stuff Happens, here are my top picksAt his spring press conference on Wednes…
Wyndham's, LondonFor a convivial chap, Simon Gray was oddly preoccupied with loneliness. And in this play, first seen in 1981, he takes his fascination with the English sense of detachment t…
Lyttelton, LondonSimon Stephens has a way with women. His Harper Regan (2008) was a memorable play about a mother who abandons her family. And in Port, first seen at Manchester's Royal Excha…
'Where have all the kitchen sinks gone?'Is our theatre now inescapably middle-class? I ask because I recently took part in a debate on Radio 3's Night Waves about the upsurge in working…
Almeida, LondonYou can see Henry James's masterly, much-adapted short novel either as a classic ghost story or as a study in sexual hysteria. But Rebecca Lenkiewicz's overheated new version,…
Hampstead, London Continue reading...
Hampstead, LondonI predict a big success for Amelia Bullmore's comedy, which has moved assuredly from Hampstead's downstairs space to the main stage. It connects emotionally with the audienc…
Tricycle, LondonDawn Walton has had the bright idea of staging this Eclipse production of Don Evans's 1982 American play as if it were a live TV show. If there are occasional sitcom contriva…
Royal Court, LondonPolly Stenham is our theatre's expert on dysfunctional families. After 2007's That Face and 2009's Tusk Tusk, she now brings us a third play about sons, mothers and the da…
Arts theatre, LondonYou somehow don't expect a play set in a state penitentiary in the American south to come from the pen of a drama teacher from the English north. But Richard Vergette is …
Trafalgar Studios 2, LondonI can see why the 1942 French novella by Vercors, on which this play is based, made a great movie: Philip French called Jean-Pierre Melville's 1949 film a "claustr…
Finborough, LondonIain Finlay Macleod's 70-minute play is a lament for the slow death of the Scottish Gaelic language. It's a rich subject, but Macleod's story is too cryptic to sustain the …
Orange Tree, RichmondIs there anything funnier in the history of farce than the central act of this 1896 Georges Feydeau play, originally entitled Le Dindon? The comic highpoint comes w…
Mayfair Hotel, LondonWhen it comes to the magical manipulation of cards, the American Ricky Jay is the past master. Although our own Steve Truglia is not yet in that league, this entertainin…
St James Theatre, LondonIn the last week I've seen a witch being incinerated, dead cats served up as filling for a giant's sandwich and now a girl's toes cut off with a meat cleaver. After t…
Nirvana, four-letter words and staging straight out of Beckett " there was nothing expected about Benedict Andrews's production of Chekhov. It was all the more brilliant for itIt shouldn't h…
Trafalgar Studios 2, LondonA play about about a half-crazed married couple locked together in splenetic isolation may not seem ideal fare for Christmas. But Titas Halder, as director of the …
Lyttelton, LondonI sometimes feel I know Alan Bennett's family almost as well as my own. But, although these two "recollections" contain material that will be familiar to readers of Bennett'…
Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonThese days, pantomime thrives in London's east, rather than west, end; and this cherished Victorian theatre, situated close to the Olympic stadium, h…
Royal Court, LondonNo one could accuse the Royal Court of offering us a piece of feelgood escapism for Christmas. Instead, they have come up with a challenging new 110-minute play from Marti…
A new V&A archive shows that while in some ways theatre changed unrecognisably between 1945 and 2010, some things remain toxically the sameGallery: 65 years of theatre " in 10 picturesWhat h…
Noël Coward theatre, LondonMichael Grandage could hardly have made a better start to his five-show West End season than with this joyous revival of Peter Nichols's 1977 play with music. W…
Tricycle theatre, LondonScan the schedules and you find'll versions of The Arabian Nights cropping up all over the UK. This particular one, by Mary Zimmerman, was first seen in Chicago in&nb…
