★★★★ OTHELLO, SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE Ola Ince makes compromises but gains much in return with her terrifyingly relevant production An Othello for our times, our c…
Lemn Sissay's adaptation of the Franz Kafka classic is just too wordy Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" is a novella whose cultural resonance has echoed loudly down the years. As a modernist me…
★★★★ BRONCO BILLY THE MUSICAL, CHARING CROSS THEATRE Accept the show's unambitious intentions and you'll have a wonderful ride With additional musical numbers, the…
Ingenious twists can't give Sam Holcroft's play a vital sense of danger Take dollops of Orwell and Kafka, with a sprinkling of Pirandello for a lighter texture, then bake. That could be the …
New play about three sisters is full of energy, but also a bit too populist for me The National Theatre is meant to represent the whole nation " and not just the metropolitan middle classes.…
Bartlett Sher's intelligent reading is gorgeously staged and winningly performed The giant crinolines are back, and the winsome little royal children with miniature temples on their heads, a…
★★★★ THE MOST PRECIOUS OF GOODS, MARYLEBONE THEATRE A story of love's triumph in an ocean of hate An account of one family's near-destruction in the Holocaust give…
Neil Simon's 1968 play allows for fun, yes, but also sadness Sarah Jessica Parker's screen renown as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City has made a London event out of the West End revival …
Zoe Cooper's queer reading is a tonic: clever, funny and seriously silly What Zoe Cooper has concocted in her loving rewiring of Jane Austen's first completed novel looks at first sight like…
London transfer for the Royal Shakespeare Company's riotous comedy Western At its best theatre is a seducer. It weaves a magic spell that can persuade you, perhaps against your better judge…
Gothic excess mingles with more modern themes in a one-man transformation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Evil walks among us. But it doesn't arrive courtesy of mad scientists, bubbling …
★★★★ KIN, NATIONAL THEATRE The power of physical theatre to tell the story of migration Unconventional and thrilling, this Gecko Theatre project will live long in …
Forgotten play by the author of Tom & Viv is realistic, but lacks dramatic focus British Theatre abounds in forgotten writers. And in ones whose early work is too rarely revived. One su…
★★★ THE GOOD JOHN PROCTOR, JERMYN STREET THEATRE Witch Hunt play fails to fly An overdue response to 'The Crucible', but very much rooted in its place, if not its time I…
Poltergeist activity in the suburbs remains earth-bound Reports of supernatural events are always met with either willing belief or dismissive scepticism. The "camps" generally don't have mu…
★★★★ 1979, FINBOROUGH THEATRE Comedy-drama set in 1970s Canadian politics proves much more interesting than it sounds! There's fun and profundity in the thick of Otta…
The National Theatre fielded hit after hit, and smaller venues scored as well Wait, and your wishes are answered. That seemed to be the case during the theatre year just gone, following on f…
Jonathan Spector is a Stoppard fan, but might Mamet have been better? How do you make a play out of Stalin's defecting daughter Svetlana, the psycho-economic theories of Daniel Kahneman and …
Jack Thorne's backstage Gielgud-Burton 'Hamlet' drama is full of compassion Plays about the theatre tend to go down well with audiences. Why wouldn't they? The danger is that they become too…
Les Enfants Terribles can't work their usual magic at the QEH There are probably two distinct audiences for the latest adaptation from Les Enfants Terribles, The House with Chicken Legs: the…
Nina Raine's revival of Tom Stoppard's 2006 epic rocks, but also stumbles There is a song by Syd Barrett, founder member of Pink Floyd, called "Golden Hair". It's on his album The Madcap Lau…
Monsters of ego clash in David Ireland's demolition of posturing theatre types David Ireland's Edinburgh Fringe hit Ulster American is essentially a play about a play that a Hollywood big…
The Netflix hit broadens its beguiling story with this thrilling, high-powered stage production Stranger Things has shown us over four seasons that the alternate dimension known as the Upsid…
Grit, authenticity and raucous comedy in a five-woman soccer show You can keep your Cinderellas, your Aladdins, your wannabe Lord Mayors of London. The way forward with Christmas shows is cl…
Beautiful Elvis Costello songs and stirring music underpin a fine adaptation There's a touch of Dr Zhivago about director PaweÅ‚ Pawlikowski's screenplay for his 2018 film Cold War. It…