2,444 stories by "Michael Billington"
St James, LondonJean Webster's 1912 novel about an orphan girl and her mysterious benefactor has cast a long shadow. It spawned a Broadway play and several movies, including one in which, ra…
Noel Coward, LondonYou could hardly have a greater contrast than between the stolid Uncle Vanya that has just opened at the Vaudeville and this mercurially brilliant import from Moscow's Vak…
Vaudeville, LondonHow do you play Anton Chekhov today? After the liberating unorthodoxy of the Young Vic's Three Sisters, we are back to normal with Lindsay Posner's production of Uncle Vany…
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonShakespeare's great revenge comedy gains immeasurably from being staged in modern dress. But, while other directors have opted for the materiali…
Royal Court, LondonLucy Kirkwood's new play is bright, sharp, funny and 80 minutes long. And, while one can never legislate for length, I found myself craving more: I wanted to see Kirkwood,…
From the Woman in Black to killers in thrillers, theatre has plenty of characters that shock " but it takes Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth to well and truly terrify ' Spoiler alert: this blog re…
Crucible, SheffieldShelagh Delaney's play, the work of an unknown working-class 18-year-old from Salford, was a big hit in 1958 and became a source of inspiration to a new generati…
Royal Court, LondonI spy a danger for the theatre in a new form of chic exclusivity. Because everyone wants to see Jez Butterworth's first new play since Jerusalem and because space is limit…
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…
