Thoresby Lawns, Nottinghamshire: It was a rough night for the Northumberland Theatre Company, with an audience member suffering a medical emergency that emptied the auditorium and delayed th…
The Old Rep, Birmingham: I love this angry and beautiful play. It says everything about the transforming power of theatre and its essential role in society. Max Stafford-Clark's own com…
The Playhouse, Nottingham: There's artifice in town and artlessness in the countryside in Giles Croft's nicely understated production at the Playhouse. The characters look and beha…
Kilworth House Theatre, Leicester: Helena Blackman, runner-up in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Maria quest, gets to play the role at last and does it sublimely. There are echoes of Anne of Gree…
Royal Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon: Words are almost inadequate to describe this glorious piece of theatre, commissioned for the World Shakespeare Festival. It explodes on to the RSC sta…
Nottingham Playhouse: Here's the next best thing to being on holiday in Southwold, with its iconic beach huts and storybook lighthouse. The creators of CBeebies' popular live-actio…
The Hippodrome, Birmingham: I think they should scrap the opening ceremony for the Olympics and just have BRB perform David Bintley's new ballet, Faster, based on the games' motto …
The Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon: Jude Owusu gives voice and passion to Cinna the Poet in the fifth in Tim Crouch's series of plays exploring Shakespeare's minor characters. He's…
Kilworth House Theatre, Kilworth, Leicestershire: There aren't many outdoor venues that can accommodate a tennis court and a croquet lawn as part of the set, but this is Kilworth House …
Curve, Leicester: Gulliver's Travels is a weird and uncomfortable story on many fronts, a satire that shows human nature at its most base and disgusting. Read the full review
Curve, Leicester: I don't think there's a single moment in Philip Ridley's highly acclaimed play when the two characters, Man and Woman, take their eyes off each other. They s…
Curve, Leicester: Michael Morpurgo's absorbing tale of the enduring relationship between a boy and a lion translates exquisitely to the stage in this adaptation. Like all the best child…
Guildhall, Derby : You wonder in the opening minutes where Tyrone Huggins' two-hander is going. It doesn't immediately grab. But it becomes wholly absorbing, a beautifully crafted …
The Hippodrome, Birmingham: A double bill of Daphnis and Chloe and The Two Pigeons makes for a feast of colour and passion, a canvas of events exuberantly danced by an energetic company. The…
The Hippodrome, Birmingham : Two words get uttered in this warm and tender ballet from David Bintley, a production with a feelgood factor that is almost off the scale. They are 'By gum…
New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme: The hallmark of Northern Broadsides' comedy is mischief, and the company pulls out all the stops for this 20th anniversary production. Played in the round…
Derby Theatre, Derby: Pete Meakin tackles the problematic ending of the Shrew full on, inviting an open-mouthed audience to view Kate's capitulation to Petruchio in a very different lig…