2,436 stories by "Michael Billington"
Royal Court, London Continue reading...
Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonAlthough this is the third of Martina Cole's bestselling crime thrillers to be presented at this theatre, it is my first acquaintance with her work. While…
Hampstead, LondonAfter plays about Anne Boleyn and Abelard and Héloïse, Howard Brenton is turning into the history man. But I have no complaint about that, since he has chosen the best m…
Belgrade, CoventryAll great dramatists stake out their own particular territory; the problem with William Inge, who had four Broadway hits in the 1950s of which this was the last, is that he…
The National Theatre of Scotland has scored a coup by appointing the hugely talented Laurie Sansom as its new boss. Now, how about putting a Scot in charge of the Edinburgh festival?It's soo…
Odéon, ParisLuc Bondy's production of Harold Pinter's Le Retour (The Homecoming) offers a radically fresh perspective on the play, without destroying its essential fabric. It helps that Bon…
Tricycle, LondonIndhu Rubasingham makes a strong start to her tenure at the Tricycle with this new play about the pride and prejudice that greeted the pioneering African-American actor Ira A…
A critic once described Alan Bennett as 'England's cultural teddy bear'. As his new play, People, prepares to open in London, Michael Billington argues that he is a more complicated " a…
Jermyn Street theatre, London'It is a text written to come out of the dark," said Samuel Beckett of this radio play first broadcast by the BBC in 1957. But, although not conceived for the st…
Rose, KingstonArthur Wing Pinero's 1893 play was a late-Victorian theatrical landmark, so it's good to see it given one of its increasingly rare outings. In the end, this piece of Anglicised…
Olivier, LondonI have little doubt that this 1625 play about saints and sinners by the Spanish monk Tirso de Molina is a masterpiece, but it would sit more easily in a smaller space, and Bij…
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsIt is fascinating to see Tennessee Williams's tremendous play so soon after Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, which has just been revived in London. Both…
Lyric Hammersmith, LondonSubject to obscenity charges in the US and banned in Britain for 16 years, Eugene O'Neill's 1924 play once enjoyed a scandalous reputation. But, although the Lyric's…
Lyttelton, LondonDespite one of those first-night technical glitches that seem to happen a bit too often at the National, this is a fine revival by Tom Cairns of Howard Barker's tremendous p…
Royal Court, LondonSometimes a play can be too compressed for its own good. Where her new full-length play Love and Information displays Caryl Churchill's dazzling gift for the elliptical, t…
Duchess, LondonJonathan Lewis's play, set in a military hospital in 1984, was rapturously received when seen at Derby Playhouse in 1995, and then at London's Donmar. Catching up with it…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonRacine in English? It always poses a problem, but we're getting steadily better at it. And director Josie Rourke and translator Alan Hollinghurst come up with a radic…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonHas anyone noticed the link between this once-famous 1892 farce by Brandon Thomas and Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot? What happens to the Jack Lemmon charact…
The American playwright's masterpiece, an explosive story of sexual repression, has suffered at the hands of directors and censors Continue reading...
The American playwright's masterpiece, an explosive story of sexual repression, has suffered at the hands of directors and censorsGiven that it is Tennessee Williams's best play, it is surpr…
Minerva, ChichesterHow do you play Noël Coward's famous comedy? For its verbal musicality or its emotional reality? Overstress either and the play suffers. Jonathan Kent's revival gets th…
Unicorn, LondonThis moving, 75-minute play by David Greig tells the true story of Janusz Korczak who, in the second world war, created an orphanage for more than 200 children inside the Wars…
Harold Pinter, LondonAlan Ayckbourn's brilliantly intricate comedy, first seen in Scarborough in 1984 and then at the National, sits uneasily in the West End. It demands a company, a sense o…
Prince of Wales, LondonThere is a good musical to be written about the Beatles, covering their artistic achievements as well as the internal friction that led to their breakup. Unfortunately…
This French production swathes Strindberg's naturalistic tragedy in nonsensical Gallic chicI am all for radical rethinks of the classics. London, for instance, boasts few better evenings tha…
