832 stories by "Susannah Clapp"
Chichester festival theatreA first-rate Joseph Fiennes saves the day in Terence Rattigan's timid drama based on TE LawrenceThese days a theatre critic measures out her life in the Fiennes br…
Trafalgar Studios, LondonActor/playwright Jesse Eisenberg is terrific as the rich narcissist in a witty and constantly surprising pieceJesse Eisenberg's The Spoils has some of the ingredient…
Lyttelton, LondonHelen McCrory brings steel and gusto to the role of Terence Rattigan's scorned 1950s loverAfter the whirling excitement of her production of A Doll's House, I half-expected …
Dorfman, LondonAlexi Kaye Campbell's new work has plenty of political comment but little to say on the state of present-day GreeceThe theatre, one character proclaims in Alexi Kaye Campbell'…
Young Vic, LondonJoe Penhall's dissection of racism and mental health in modern Britain is still compelling, thanks in part to an outstanding central performanceBlue/Orange does not startle …
Olivier, LondonA new translation of Brecht and Weill's dark comedy fails to hit its satirical targets but still makes for a good musical"Fake it to seem real," a would-be beggar is advised i…
Barbican, LondonA mesmerising production from Katie Mitchell recounts the harrowing legacy of German chemist Fritz Haber as seen by his wife and granddaughterOne of the best things the theat…
Coliseum, LondonA glittering Glenn Close is ready once again for her close-up as Norma DesmondIt is more than 20 years since Glenn Close first starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Bouleva…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterHattie Naylor's beautifully deft adaptation springs Sarah Waters's bestseller on to the stage in a pitch-perfect productionWhat a haunting, unusual thing Hattie Nay…
Garrick, LondonLily James and Richard Madden certainly look the part, but are doomed by their dictionIt's easy to think the famous golden lines, the swift, sad arc of Romeo and Juliet will c…
Young Vic, LondonBenedict Andrews's revival of the Tennessee Williams classic steams off the revolving set of the Young Vic' Gillian Anderson in Streetcar " in pictures' From Anderson to Lei…
Orange Tree, LondonGeorge Bernard Shaw's satirical attack on the divorce laws (and the medical profession) rather outstays its welcomeThe Philanderer, written in 1893, is a prescient play. B…
York Theatre RoyalThis adaptation of the novelist's prescient 1909 short story is impressively nimbleA woman looks into a screen showing the face of her faraway son. Electronic music ping po…
Chichester Festival theatre, West SussexA vivid revival of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus christens a newly refashioned Chichester Festival theatreChichester Festival theatre reopens this summer, n…
Royal Court, LondonAbout half a mile down from the Little Chef on the A14, a giant chats about building Stonehenge. In a Wiltshire glade at dawn, teenage girls tumble bug-eyed and doped-up f…
Andrew Lloyd Webber's resurrected musical features terrific dancing and some truly hideous moggiesThere is nothing subdued and nothing rough about Cats. Nor is there much that looks theatric…
Chichester Festival theatreHugh Bonneville as a whistleblower driven by sibling rivalry shows how Ibsen's play switches emphasis with every stagingHere is Hugh Bonneville, the amiably stuffy…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonEmma Rice's first production as artistic director at Shakespeare's Globe is a glittering, unnerving comic triumphA sitar player sends music pulsing through the act…
Duke of York's, London Kit Harington gets his kit off and Jenna Russell sings Bat out of Hell… but no one profits from this deal with the devilEveryone applauds Jamie Lloyd's determination…
Donmar, London Zoë Wanamaker must choose whether to lose her life or her lover in Nick Payne's thought-provoking follow-up to ConstellationsFour years ago Nick Payne shone new light on th…
Barbican, LondonIvo van Hove takes Henry V, Henry VI and Richard II and mashes them up into a wonderful study of the modern ruling classThe most immediately surprising feature of Kings of Wa…
Dorfman; Temporary theatre; Lyttelton; all LondonRufus Norris's National Theatre is in rude health, with Annie Baker's remarkable The Flick and a verbatim drama about why children join IsisI…
Almeida, LondonLeo Butler's fine new play brings teeming London on to the stage, with help from a set design that's practically installation artLondon in 2016 has made it on to the stage. Vi…
Royal Court theatre, LondonDavid Ireland's shocking new play balances humour and horror, with Stephen Rea superb as an Ulster loyalist suspicious of his 'Fenian' baby granddaughterSome plays…
The Observer's theatre critic remembers one of Britain's most influential playwrights of the postwar yearsArnold Wesker, who died on 12 April at the age of 83, was one of the male playwright…
