Opera House, Manchester; MediaCityUK, Salford; Royal Court, London"What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow." That was true of the record of Purcell's "Nymphs and Shep…
Old Vic; Barbican; Soho, all LondonHe uses his withered arm as a cosh. He lugs along his lame leg, strapped in a calliper, as if it were a giant log. His hump makes him bend not only over bu…
Olivier; Haymarket; Theatre Royal, Stratford East, all London"Peter! Agathon!" bellows the man who will become the Emperor Julian at the people he's talking to. "Julian! Sallust!" yells Medo…
Comedy; Donmar Warehouse; Theatre Royal Drury Lane, all LondonEnclosed but transmitting, composed but aquiver, Kristin Scott Thomas is an ideal Pinter actress. She manages, in the way that s…
Wyndham's; Globe, both LondonHe could have called it "A Lot of Fuss About Fannies". Even if you go to Shakespeare's play without a glossary explaining that "nothing" was Elizabethan slang fo…
Lyttelton; Regent's Park Open Air theatre; Royal Court, all LondonWithin minutes of appearing on stage he's somersaulted backwards over an armchair " and caught (he claims) a nut in his mout…
RSC, Stratford; Olivier, London, Barbican, LondonThe ducats are dollars. The choice of caskets takes place during a bridal game show called Destiny. Shylock delivers his "hath not a Jew" spe…
The Observer's theatre critic chooses the 10 sets that changed the face of modern theatre, from a 1912 Hamlet to Punchdrunk's immersive FaustSusannah Clapp
The Observer's theatre critic chooses the 10 sets that changed the face of modern theatre, from a 1912 Hamlet to Punchdrunk's immersive Faust Continue reading...
Elsing Hall, Norfolk; Halesworth, Suffolk"Compared to this," bellows one of the Queens, "other entertainment will be like standing in fog and in mud." She has an angry point. Dining with Ali…
Southwark; Globe, both London; RSC, Stratford-upon-AvonI've never seen a pool of sweat expand on a stage floor as rapidly as it does in Tender Napalm. And never been in a theatre where the a…
Port Talbot, WalesIn the beginning was the Word. On the street: "Were you in the town centre when John the Baptist tried to get on the escalator?" At the end, there was an image. By the sea:…
House of Detention; Little Angel; Hampstead, all LondonMacbeth is this season's Shakespeare. David Morrissey will soon be strutting and fretting in his old Liverpool haunts and Jonathan Slin…
Cottesloe; Novello; Trafalgar Studios, all LondonLondon Road is the riposte to anyone who thinks "musical" must mean either froth or stodge. Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork's wonderfully sung pl…
Old Vic; Lyttelton, both LondonVowel-torturing upper-class accents; ferocious feelings; a traditional scene performed in an abstract place. Thea Sharrock " who kick-started the Terence Ratti…
Gielgud; Almeida; Cottesloe, all LondonIf candyfloss could be set to music, this is what you'd get. A lovely haze, a puffy sweetness, nothing to bite on. Pastel-coloured balloons are waved; …
Hampstead; Theatre Royal Haymarket; Vaudeville, all LondonEcstasy: by which Mike Leigh means desperation under a candlewick bedspread. His restaging of this 1979 play, originally devised at …
Apollo, London W1; Playhouse, OxfordIt should be the ultimate revival. Noël Coward's 1941 play about the return of the dead is resurrected by the director who has become the diva of the r…
Olivier; Donmar; Barbican, all LondonIn the centre of the Olivier stage is a pale disc like an enormous seed pod. Within it you can just make out a shadowy figure. It pulses, and the theatre…
Tobacco Factory, Bristol; Hampstead; Print Room, both LondonIt rings out clearly as an early stab at Hamlet. It also declares war on a rotten England, a land nibbled away by " it's an ever u…
Comedy, London; Studio, Sheffield Theatres; Royal Court, LondonThere have been reports of one ticket changing hands for £900. Ian (Jerusalem) Rickson's production of The Children's Hour w…
Lyceum, Sheffield; Lyttelton, LondonWith a jaunty chorus of "Down Among the Dead Men", spivs in bowlers close in for the kill. The executioner's blade slices to the sound of plainsong. Figur…
Lyric Hammersmith; Almeida; Bush, all LondonFirst, he had a success with Ghost Stories, still playing in the West End. Now he has adapted Roald Dahl's adult fictions. Jeremy Dyson, of the Le…
Cottesloe; Hampstead; Arcola, all LondonTo celebrate his 80th birthday, Peter Hall has returned to the building he once ran and directed a sweetly autumnal Twelfth Night. His breeches-and-fa…
Bridewell; Theatre Delicatessen; Roundhouse, all LondonFor once a production has earned the description "site-specific". To stage Steve Waters's new play about Olympic swimmers, the Bridewel…