2,436 stories by "Michael Billington"
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…
Hampstead theatre, LondonDoes anyone remember Noël Coward's Mrs Wentworth Brewster? She was the widow, celebrated in the song A Bar on the Piccola Marina, whose heart, at her husband's fu…
Adelphi theatre, LondonLawrence Kasdan has recorded his surprise at the idea of his screenplay for the 1992 movie, starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, being used as the basis for a m…
A lecture about overpopulation and climate change turned out to be the unlikely highlight of a year that also featured an intriguing Russian invasionThe most momentous theatrical performance…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonI don't think we should get carried away and start arguing that single-sex Shakespeare is the only way forward. But, like Mark Antony, Phyllida Lloyd is a "shrewd con…
Finborough, LondonThe Papatango New Writing festival last year came up with Dawn King's mesmerising Foxfinder. Even if this year's winner is more conventional, Louise Monaghan's play st…
Royal Court, LondonTwo years ago, EV Crowe made a disturbing debut with a play called Kin, about 10-year-old bullies at a posh girls' school. Now she comes up with a longer but less startlin…
Swan, Stratford-on-AvonAny production of Pushkin's 1825 play is haunted by gigantic shadows. First there are the Shakespearean tragedies and histories, especially Macbeth and Richard III, wh…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonAlthough it famously flopped on Broadway in 1981, this Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical has been re-evaluated in fine British revivals at Leicester Hayma…
