2,444 stories by "Michael Billington"
Olivier, LondonWe are at the hub of a modern seat of power. As we hear the whirring sound of a helicopter overhead, frantic desk-wallahs pass urgent messages ever higher up the chain of comm…
Open Air theatre, Regent's Park, LondonThis musical had the misfortune to receive its British premiere on the night in 2003 when America invaded Iraq. Now revived by Timothy Sheader, it…
It's never been a better time to be a young playwright " but are we missing out on older voices?It's a great time to be a young dramatist. Theatres are hungry for your work. The media love t…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonOne important aspect of the Globe to Globe season is its appeal to expatriate communities. On a hot Saturday afternoon the Globe was packed with Turks, young and o…
Finborough, LondonIt is 10 years since the playwright John McGrath died; 46 since this play was last seen in London. Both the man and his work are honoured in this superb revival by Robert H…
You could easily make up a men's 11 of playwrights passionate about the game and directors, too, are often cricket nuts " so what's the appeal?With the summer game getting into its…
Alan Ayckbourn, a playwright with a remarkable ability to take the national temperature, is reviving his landmark 1972 play to mark its 40th anniversary"It is difficult to find a bright mome…
Almeida, London I find myself wondering what Matthew Dunster's new play is really about. Is it a satire on the perils of TV fame, a study of the fragility of friendship, or a didactic warnin…
Duke of York's, LondonWith even a Tory attacking the "arrogant, posh boys" who run her party, now seems a good time to revive Laura Wade's 2010 play.It has undergone a good deal of revision …
Hampstead theatre, London"Will it run?" people asked when they first heard that the celebrated 1981 movie was to be adapted for the stage. That question seems to have been answered by the ne…
For decades, Britain ignored European, African and Asian theatre. But do we now have an uncritical acceptance of anything foreign?Do we in Britain suffer from theatrical xenophobia? I used t…
As playwright Arnold Wesker turns 80, he talks about his early successes, his later battles " and the day he tried to flog his entire oeuvre for £10,000'I don't feel I'm known as a playwr…
Chichester festival theatreHugh Whitemore has written a play about something that sounds eerily familiar: a legally dubious British invasion of a Middle Eastern country run by a militaristic…
Savoy, LondonAmerica's Danny DeVito and Britain's Richard Griffiths join forces in this joyous revival of Neil Simon's 1972 comedy about a pair of superannuated vaudevillians. But what makes…
Vaudeville, LondonJoe Orton's final play, unrevised at the time of his death in 1967, is a hard one to get right, since it combines manic farce with non-stop social commentary. That doesn't …
Cottesloe, LondonThere's room for more than one play about American suburbia. But, after the brilliance of Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park at the Royal Court, which dealt with the intersection…
Lyric Hammersmith, LondonI am normally wary of futuristic fables, since they brook no disagreement: we can't challenge the writer's experience with our own. But Edward Bond's piece, set…
Aldwych, LondonThe nostalgia market gets a further boost with the arrival of this amiable stage version of the celebrated Astaire-Rogers 1935 RKO musical. The evening can be quickly summed u…
Lyric Hammersmith, LondonPlaywright Simon Stephens has long registered his horror at the heartless world of commodified sex we now inhabit. Given the current headlines, you could s…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonThis is the third Polish Macbeth London has seen in recent years, and there is yet another to come at the Edinburgh international festival. But, while this version…
Finborough, LondonOriginally seen as a BBC Play for Today in 1974, watching Trevor Griffiths's All Good Men makes one painfully nostalgic for a time when TV was unafraid to show serious poli…
Theatre that incorporates the words of real people has never been more popular " and has proved itself infinitely flexible Continue reading...
Theatre that incorporates the words of real people has never been more popular " and has proved itself infinitely flexibleVerbatim theatre, as Will Hammond and Dan Steward point out in their…
Shoreham, SussexThe hottest ticket at the Brighton festival is this 90-minute "meditation on Hamlet" staged by the experimental company dreamthinkspeak. Two years ago they caused a stir with…
Royal Court, LondonMike Bartlett, as we know from plays such as 13 and Cock, can write big or small. In this piece, originally produced by Paines Plough and the Drum Plymouth in 2010, he com…
