2,436 stories by "Michael Billington"
Barbican, LondonRobert Lepage made his name internationally with The Dragons' Trilogy, created in 1985. Now he returns to the subject of the cultural collision of east and west in what he ca…
Crucible, SheffieldDavid Hare's play gets richer with time. Acclaimed in 1990 for its accurate portrait of a Church of England in crisis, it now seems a perfect metaphor for British ins…
Jerwood Vanbrugh, LondonA special fascination attaches to the early work of celebrated dramatists: you invariably get a first sketch of their lifelong obsessions. This youthful Noël …
Print Room, London"Can't a ghost story reveal insights into human nature?" Alan Ayckbourn asked before this play's 2002 Scarborough premiere. The answer is that of course it can: one has onl…
Orange Tree, RichmondNo one could accuse this theatre of ducking the Arab-Israeli conflict. A year ago it staged an absorbing play, Ben Brown's The Promise, about the Balfour Declaration of …
Royal Court, LondonClimate change drama is the new growth industry. But, while the National's Greenland is entirely issue-driven, Richard Bean's new play uses characters to explore ideas. Th…
Comedy Theatre, LondonThere's only one question to which everyone wants the answer: can Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss cut the mustard? The short answer is that they prove as potent a co…
Crucible Studio, SheffieldA three-play David Hare season kicks off with a revival of his 1978 study of the lies and disappointments of the postwar world. And, even if I'd like to see the pla…
Young Vic, LondonWhen it first appeared in 2007 Tanya Ronder's adaptation of DBC Pierre's prize-winning novel was somewhat overshadowed by a shooting on a Virginia campus which eerily echoed…
List of contenders accurately reflects the dominance last year of acting and directing over new writingNo great shocks in the list of this year's Olivier award nominees: it reflects, pretty …
Finborough, LondonThis is a rediscovery: a 1950 play by Emlyn Williams that provides an exciting suspense-drama, a portrait of the Jekyll-and-Hyde existence of a successful novelist and a me…
The Gallery Soho, LondonIt makes total sense to present Neil LaBute's 10-year-old play in a chic Charing Cross Road gallery. His theme is the nature of art and the moral responsibility of th…
Lyttelton, LondonHow on earth do you dramatise climate change? The best answer so far was Steve Waters' double bill, The Contingency Plan, which approached the vast topic through personal re…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterSchool plays are all the rage. Vivienne Franzmann's piece, joint winner of the 2008 Bruntwood Playwriting Competition, anticipated the vogue in its exploration of t…
High ticket prices are fuelling this rise in box-office takings, and London theatre can't just rely on spin-offs and musicalsI'm always cheered when the theatre is doing well. And, on the su…
King's Head, LondonMatthew Bugg has written the book and lyrics, composed the score and also directed this late-night chamber musical. While I admire his energy, I wish he could have found a…
Bush, LondonSteve Waters was the first dramatist to comprehensively tackle global warming with The Contingency Plan. He is now ahead of the pack in confronting the subject of so-called "free…
Lyric, HammersmithJeremy Dyson, who co-wrote the Lyric's long-running Ghost Stories, has now adapted five of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected. The result is something of a mixed bag. One…
Jermyn Street, LondonYou don't expect to find a Rattigan "world premiere" in the dramatist's centenary year. In fact, this is the original version of a play produced in 1944 under the title …
Noel Coward, LondonSponsored by Roman Abramovich, Moscow's Sovremennik Theatre arrived in London for a brief nine-day residence. The largely Russian-speaking first-night audience also greete…
Almeida LondonThe Almeida has a strong track-record in producing American plays. And it was of one of its favoured sons, Neil LaBute, that I was reminded watching this astute, acerbic and ri…
Hampstead Theatre, LondonWith the NHS facing its biggest revolution in 60 years, now is the time for a play about the realities of hospital life. But, while Nina Raine follows up her Tribes …
Cottesloe, National TheatreThis is Peter Hall's fourth production of Shakespeare's most beautiful, opal-like comedy. And, even if it cannot efface golden memories of the one he did at Stratf…
White Bear, LondonThe textbooks all tell us that postwar British theatre, prior to the Royal Court revolution of the mid-1950s, was as arid as the Gobi desert. But a popular myth, lately den…
Bush, LondonThere is a long line of plays about educational no-hopers, from Barry Reckord's Skyvers to Nigel Williams's Class Enemy. While John Donnelly's new play, which kicks off a Bush sc…
