The Riverside Studios in Hammersmith has just begun its schedule of five original plays which run from now until summer 2027. Kicking-off with writer director Andy Sandberg’s portmanteau-titled AFFLUE...

Mike Bartlett’s 2013 play BULL was first presented at the Crucible’s studio space in Sheffield before transferring to the Young Vic’s equivalent for another short run. More than a decade on and the fo...

It’s inevitable that any attempt to mount a production of WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF will draw comparisons with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s 1966 movie. Here, instead of attempting to emu...

Few theatre productions can boast the pedigree of THE STANDARD OF LIVING which opened last evening at Theatre Royal Haymarket. Based on the life of economist John Maynard Keynes and written by James G...

In a world seemingly intent on destroying itself, two sisters whose communication ‘lapsed’ for a period of 7 years, come together. But why? Let the onion peeling begin. The Urmetazoan at Hampstead The...

In an homage to the shipbuilders of his Wallsend youth, Sting, formerly of The Police and for the past forty years a solo artist, has created THE LAST SHIP which officially opened at The Theatre Royal...

Portuguese politics and a dystopian return to populist Fascism in the land of Salazar, forms the oft-amusing but ultimately uncomfortable premise to CATARINA AND THE BEAUTY OF KILLING FASCISTS which h...

Back in October 2025 the Critics’ Circle awarded Tilda Swinton the prestigious Rose Bowl for Distinguished Service to the Arts, which was presented at an exclusive luncheon at the National Liberal Clu...

It’s been 35 years since the movie of THELMA AND LOUISE was released into cinemas — shocking and wowing audiences in equal measure. That same year, Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the US Supreme Cour...

Josh O’Connor’s much anticipated return to the stage after a decade, was a brooding and bloody affair at the Almeida this week as he took on the role of Joe Bonaparte in Clifford Odets’ fifth play GOL...

Apparently based on personal experiences, the pre-amble to Max Wilkinson’s play, makes hyperbolic claims to be an epic new drama about love, loss and laughter, offering hilarious highs and devastating...

KIMBERLY AKIMBO — As an example of musical theatre froth, this has to be one of the best. New York’s latest transfer to these shores has taken-up residence at Hampstead Theatre, and I am pleased to re...

With over 70 documented adaptations, including more than 20 movies, TV mini series and a multiplicity of stage productions, Charlotte Brontë’s JANE EYRE must surely rank as one of the most recognised ...

Fresh from unbridled success at Edinburgh’s Fringe, comes the latest potential big thing from the producers who brought you Fleabag, Baby Reindeer and Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder! So, how does CRY...

Almost exactly a year ago, I found myself seated next to Cate Blanchett at the Almeida Theatre. We were both there for the opening night of Alice Birch’s sprawling, poetic and often uncomfortable expl...

It’s been nearly two years since Tamzin Outhwaite first delivered her Beverly — the nightmarishly domineering suburban housewife at the centre of Mike Leigh’s ABIGAIL’S PARTY. Since then, the Stratfor...

In Matthew Warchus’s final season as Artistic Director at The Old Vic, it’s a pleasure to see that the schedulers have found space to include Alan Ayckbourn’s excruciating comedy about an infidelity w...

Having the courage (or temerity, depending on your viewpoint) to reinvent a long-established musical like CATS can be something of a poisoned chalice. Drew McOnie the artistic director of Regent’s Par...

Anyone whose juvenile trajectory encompassed a substantial chunk of the 1980s, will remember being wowed on first hearing the opening funk pattern of Ain’t Nobody by Rufus and Chaka Khan. Its unmistak...

Matthew Bourne’s fresh, vibrant, sexy and dangerous THE CAR MAN has been dusted-off and has begun a 5-week run at Sadler’s Wells, playing until 29th August. Matthew Bourne's THE CAR MAN. The Company. ...

TAO OF GLASS — is it pretentious? Most assuredly. Fortunately, for the most part, it also happens to be bloody marvellous. Tao of Glass - Photo Johan Persson

Watching a play written by Sarah Kane is one of those trials by a thousand cuts which every theatre critic is required at some time, to endure. Whether the individual reviewer (or indeed, audiences in...

Originally devised, written and performed by Micheál Mac Liammóir for The Gate Theatre Dublin in 1960, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR deliberately aimed to present Wilde through an unashamedly Irish le...

When Aeschylus’ familial tale of adultery and reciprocal, intergenerational murder was first performed in the Spring of 458BC, it must have resonated with its Athenian audience precisely because the c...

THE JONATHAN LARSON PROJECT — Project by name, project by execution. The show which says and does exactly what it says on the tin and serves as a reminder of what we lost when 35 year old Larson, the ...

Three young Muslim men meet regularly at their local shisha lounge. They smoke, talk shit and generally share their dreams and hopes for the future. Omar Bynon in Blue Mist at Theatre Royal Stratford ...

As national treasures go, you cannot fault Maureen Lipman. She’s been playing quirky, garrulous, comedy sidekicks (complete with the inevitable side order of pathos), for just about as long as anyone ...

The long awaited opening of Sam Ryder’s stint in JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is finally upon us. I went along to the London Palladium to assess whether his performance is grounds for crucifixion, or if the...

Joe (Russell Tovey) cuts quite a dash in his police issue tee and combat trousers, but being stuck at a desk with a phone headset on temporary assignment as a call handler is clearly not his idea of r...

A full ten years after my twenty-something Hellenic-adventure to the lost lands of Arcadia ( — the Peloponnese Peninsula in Greece to you), where I was on the hunt for some hot loving, Tom Stoppard ch...

In Richard Nelson's new play which opened this week at Hampstead Theatre, a light is shone on the peculiar idiosyncrasies of Franklin D. Roosevelt's home arrangements in advance of King George VI and ...

As you enter the cool, air-conditioned environs of the Dorfman Theatre for a performance of new musical PRIDE, you're greeted by a screen which fills the expanse of the stage front. Projected onto it,...

This must be the fourth or fifth occasion on which I have had the pleasure of watching Adrian Lester perform on stage. His versatility and consummate professionalism have always impressed - whether it...

Cajoling busy theatre reviewers to come into the West End on a Sunday evening with the promise of a lively, sports-themed, possibly vulgar, one-man play, (the title of which incorporates the word "ars...

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS — Continuing an impressive run of classic contemporary American plays, the Old Vic’s latest dusting-off is more a gender-realigned imagining of David Mamet’s early 80s real estate ...

It's summer in London and the capital's open air theatres are coming into their own. Barmy humid weather, demands barmy humorous drama, so what better at the Globe than Shakespeare's bounty of barbs M...