This venue's annual festive classic is seasonally joyous, but its writing is frankly patronizing This Dickens classic is an annual treat, or a Christmas trial " depending on your point of v…
★★★★ [TITLE OF SHOW], SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Two decades on, this meta-musical retains its charm Revival of New York show lifts the spirits Not just a backstage musica…
Despite anticipating disaster, this mesmerising voyage is full of hope Picture this: framing the stage are two pearlescent clouds which, throughout the performance, gently pulsate with flic…
New play about young black men and cryptocurrency is sadly predictable Cryptocurrency is like the myth of El Dorado " a promised land made of fool's gold. Despite its liberatory potential, …
★★★★ BURNT-UP LOVE, FINBOROUGH THEATRE Ferocious three-hander finds love too hot to handle Super writing and acting jolts us out of complacency Mac is in prison for …
The latest in Forced Entertainment's 40 years of experiment is a thought-tickling farce Can experimental theatre survive the decades? This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Forced Enter…
The 'Emily in Paris' star surrenders to cliche - or does she? The Catalan capital has given its name to a famous number in the Stephen Sondheim musical, Company. And here it is lending geog…
Rajiv Joseph's play pitting beauty against duty gets an impressive staging It's 1648 in Agra, and an excitable young guardsman has come up with an idea: a giant flying platform that he calls…
HELP TO GIVE THEARTSDESK A FUTURE! Support our GoFundMe appeal Support our GoFundMe appeal It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk…
Hanif Kureishi classic gets a compulsively comic makeover from Emma Rice Hanif Kureishi's 1990 novel The Buddha of Suburbia begins like this: "My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman …
★★★ HOW TO SURVIVE YOUR MOTHER, KING'S HEAD THEATRE Jonathan Maitland writes of his mother, but should we laugh or cry? Lots of heartache, but a strange void where the hear…
Kubrick's humour doesn't always detonate as it should in Armando Iannucci's version Even by Stanley Kubrick's standards, Dr Strangelove went through an extraordinary evolutionary process. Af…
Richard Bean's new work play revisits the Hull fishing industry of the 1970s "Don't take a piss in the house of a woman you have made a widow." The mixture of earthy comedy and tragic pain i…
★★★★ THE FORSYTE SAGA PARTS 1 AND 2, PARK THEATRE Epic adaptation falls away a little, but still packs a punch Joseph Millson leads a super cast in a classy produ…
Ibsen's pitiless take on the 'life lie' is another triumph for Norwegians in Notting Hill "I think this is all very strange," declares 14-year-old Hedvig Ekdal at the end of The Wild Duck's …
★★★ AUTUMN, PARK THEATRE Adaptation of Ali Smith's acclaimed novel drifts when it should bite Promising production, beautifully acted, slides into side plots and confusi…
A magnificent Adrien Brody leads a moving production by Justin Martin There is star casting, and there is casting the right star " not the same thing. The Donmar's new production, The Fear o…
★★ LAND OF THE FREE, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Good timing, but clunky structure and plodding pace limits appeal A president shot, as a divided country seeks political solutions Str…
Zinnie Harris's modern take robs the play of its tragic potential John Webster's sour, bloody tale of brotherly greed and vice has been updated by the playwright Zinnie Harris, who also dire…
Nathan Englander probes a divide in modern Jewish identity; Patrick Marber directs An incendiary play has opened at the Marylebone, the adventurous venue just off Baker Street. Bigger houses…
★★★ KNIFE ON THE TABLE, COCKPIT THEATRE London teenagers pulled into gang culture's world of drugs, knives and misery This is exactly the kind of play that should be…
Mark Strong and Lesley Manville are the powerhouse heart of Robert Icke's adaptation How many times does a politician survive wave after wave of attack from rivals, surf the waves of fickle …
Lorraine Hansberry classic is both a historical gem and a play for today Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is not only the first play by a black woman to premiere on Broadway, back i…
The American dramatist on bringing 'The Fear of 13', and its Oscar-winning lead, to the Donmar I turn 36 this year, while living in London and rehearsing my new play The Fear of 13 at the D…
★★★★ THE LEHMAN TRILOGY The rise and rise and rise of an iconic Wall Street institution - and its collapse  Sensational stagecraft elevates familiar tale o…