1,401 stories from theatrecat.com
 MONSTROUS AND MAJESTIC , A NARNIA FOR NOW    How to interpret an old favourite? A Christian fantasy allegory, the world of Narnia, the first of C.S.Lewis' immortal…
BEN DOWELL REVIEWS: A bright, socially withdrawn teenager called Evan is desperately lonely, taking comfort in the internet and not much else. He has a crush on a girl from his school, but c…
BEN DOWELL AND DAUGHTER POP WITH PLEASURE AT ITS PEP.. It has floated in one the chilly autumn breeze like a much-needed blast of summer sunshine. Yes, this Mary Poppins is as supercalifragi…
A BIG APPLE ROMANCE WITH CRUNCH     How romantic New York is to the British heart! From Superman to Friends we seem to know it, from Elf and 34th Street (not to mentio…
NORTHERN GUEST REVIEWER HELEN GASKELL TIRES OF THE RELENTLESS GRIT…  A family of five, scattered across the North of England, are brought together by tragedy. The play shows a pict…
ARROGANCE, ANGER ,  INDIA'S SHAME   Hema's is a house of women now. The old grandmother is in bed below the tall screen doors , feeding crows who move shadow-s…
GUEST CRITIC BEN DOWELL DOES NOT HAVE A GOOD NIGHT OUT  What a strange evening this is. Young director Tinuke Craig has taken Maxim Gorky's 1911 play (there was a revision in 1935 but…
RENAISSANCE RUTTING,  VENUS AND  VANITIES  Sandro Botticelli, he makes clear to us at the start, plans to tell his version. He's Dickie Beau: skinny and swaggeringly queeny…
​​IT TAKES TWO​​…​  Here's a sharp eyed little gem about coupledom and the wary, fretful road towards parenthood in an age of easy contraception …
TWO CURATORS, ACROSS EIGHTY YEARS   The little Swan , a jewel-box of a theatre, often sees the new plays the RSC does best: immaculate technique and careful clarity elucidating c…
INSPECTOR GOOLE, BACK BACK ON THE ROAD  Below, edited, is my original London review of this remarkable production. This new tour deserves to be marked, though:  r…
A COOL EYE ON SHATTERED LIVES     Of all the well known flaws of our criminal justice system, one of the most glaring is how badly it fits women " though they are…
THE DARK AND THE CRAZY    This is " for us anyway " the first production in the Trump era of this savage musical: a revue reimagining of all the attempts, successful …
PEOPLE OF THE BLITZ  Sarah Waters' best novel, evoking lives during and after the London Blitz,  was told backward in time. It is much the same way, indeed, as we meet real…
THE LOW DISHONEST DECADE…  It's always intimate, the Jermyn,. We're in an autumn garden, apples on the ground and fading roses on the wall;  birdsong, and a tea table set…
A COLLIDING WORLD    Couldn't miss this: for two years as a teenager (Dad in the Jo'burg Embassy)  I lived alongside the frightened, arrogant paranoia of white South A…
15 CHARACTERS OBJECTING TO AN AUTHOR..  The Jane Austen industry never flags, in tribute or in parody. You can barely throw a bonnet without hitting an Austentatious improv,Å
KING JOHN WAS NOT A GOOD MAN…   Maybe we should stick to AA Milne's version?  "King John was not a good man He had his little ways  And sometimes no one spoke to him For day…
GLOBAL AND GENDER POLITICS IN PERFECT MINIATURE    A glass conference-centre in the host nation France; a visiting US President avid for airstrikes after a terrorist outra…
GUEST REVIEWER BEN DOWELL SAYS HANKS FOR THE MEMORY , AND BRAVELY FACES THE WEIRDNESS  This is a lavish revival of the 1996 musical version of the 1988 Tom Hanks fantasy comedy, complete…
THIRTY YEARS LATER AND STILL FURIOUS: HEDDA'S BACK     Last night, while Parliament spiralled into disorderly, resentful confusion and Mr Bercow dramatically put an end to him…
OLD TIMES, OLD  SORROWS: BEFORE THE RAINBOW  With Parliament in uproar upriver , the NT hit a luckily apt moment to stage Simon Woods' first play and promote it as a "w…
GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI SWOONS OVER SWASHBUCKLING AT GRIMEBORN Director Emma Jude Harris "couldn't believe her luck" when she discovered Cabildo, the only opera by pioneering com…
BITTERLY BRITISH    It was a good mix of ages in the Curve audience, so perhaps a public service to remind the rising generation, awash in Brexindignation, that Ut…
GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI FINDS JOPLIN TROUBLINGLY FUN Scott Joplin was rightly proud of Treemonisha, an opera for which he wrote both libretto and score; it was never fully staged in …
