★★★★ ART, THEATRE ROYAL BATH Three men fall out over a painting in a very French comedy Male friendships buckle as egos clash, with a resonance for today's culture…
James McArdle is immense as Stoppard's true romantic When it was first produced in 1982, The Real Thing was a turning point for Tom Stoppard, the play that added to the existing perc…
Award-winning new writing is full of mystery and metaphor, but a bit too literary I live in Brixton, south London; in my street, for many years, a pair of trainers were up in the sky, hangin…
A wealth of musical talent keeps this gig musical afloat The signs in the Peacock's foyer warn that this show features "very loud music". Exactly what Janis Joplin fans want to hear. This is…
From meta-theatrical mayhem to dreams of freedom and escape in three shows from the Fringe's closing days L'Addition, Summerhall ★★★★ÂÂ
★★★★ SHIFTERS, THE DUKE OF YORK'S THEATRE Winning and witty 21st century love story Only the third West End written play by a black woman will not be the last Pete…
Jewish gangsters and ice-cold adolescents in two strong shows at Summerhall REVENGE: After the Levoyah, Summerhall ★★★★★ÂÂ
Patrick Barlow's brand of silly still delivers a sly Hitchcock spoof Before the Plays That Went Wrong and the multi-role six-hander Operation Mincemeat, there was Patrick Barlow's adaptat…
Two solo shows merge poetry, rap, spoken word and theatre to compelling effect Ã’ran, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★ÂÂ
★★ THE FABULIST, CHARING CROSS THEATRE Plenty of ambition, but achieves very little Beautiful music, but curious decisions in scripting and staging sink the show On opening ni…
Boys playing girls playing boys in two joyful queer shows at the Pleasance Dome Ni Mi Madre, Pleasance Dome ★★★★ÂÂ
A troubling take on the climate emergency and a pile of suitcases containing tall tales in two intimate shows at Summerhall Bellringers, Roundabout @ Summerhall ★★★★Å
The Globe stretches the theatrical experience with this bilingual BSL production More surely than any other London stage, the Globe has opened up our theatrical perspective on different lang…
★★★★ THE BIRTHDAY PARTY, USTINOV STUDIO, THEATRE ROYAL BATH Landmark play revived to shock and surprise all over again Jane Horrocks garners the laughs in a very d…
Debut two-hander explores a gentle love story of two practicing Muslims At one point, in John Fowles's 1977 novel The Magus, the guru character in the story compares sexuality before and af…
Roy Williams and Clint Dyer's protagonists rage against the limits of their lives Two boys in east London, one Black, one white, grow up together, play pranks at school, then decades later h…
One-man play about a sporting great, and a hot topic served cold Adam Riches: Jimmy Summerhall ★★★
Unexpected twists in relationships mark out two dramas at the Traverse Theatre The Sound Inside, Traverse Theatre ★★★★★
Mental health and food form the themes behind two strong dramas at the Traverse Theatre In Two Minds, Traverse Theatre ★★★★ÂÂ
The National's finely acted staging of Steinbeck's grim classic is a tough watch It's a brave company that embarks on a staging of John Steinbeck's award-winning 1939 novel The Grapes of Wra…
French "hybrid memoir" comes blazingly alive onstage in London The title sounds as if we ought to be in for an evening of Virginia Woolf, and, indeed, one of the astonishing women on view (…
★★★★★ FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, REGENT'S PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE As entertaining and poignant as ever, 60 years on Unique venue adds a new dimension to canonical mu…
Michael Bennett's 1975 hit has plenty of pizzazz but not enough emotional oomph A Chorus Line reigned supreme on Broadway from 1975 to 1990, a bold, bare-bones piece that for once put musica…
Two strong Fringe shows merge truth with fiction - to very different ends The Mosinee Project, Underbelly Cowgate ★★★★ In May 1950, a small US town awoke to hamme…
★★ FRANKIE GOES TO BOLLYWOOD, SOUTHBANK CENTRE Small town girl makes good in Bollywood, then takes on the patriarchy Bhangra-inspired musical let down by storyline and singing…