Review: Happy Days
Company Teatro Meridional takes to the stage one of Samuel Beckett's masterpieces impeccably interpreted by actress Mónica Garnel
Genre: Theatre 0
Review: Ansioliticamente Falando
An autobiographical mise-en-scène of one's own anxieties projected onto Anton Chekhov's The Seagull which embraces the larger subject of mental health in Portuguese society.
Review: -320°F
If you’ve not seen a Noda production, see it. If you have, see it. It’s still the most intelligent spectacular I’ve seen in recent times.
Review: Wife to James Whelan
It should transfer, though nothing can beat this space for delivery. Outstanding, a must-see if ever there was one.
Review: Much Ado About Nothing
Not only lands in all the right places, it fizzes perhaps more than any Much Ado I’ve seen.
Review: Caterpillar
This is a richly freighted drama: all the issues around loss, abuse, displacement and ideation circle in two-hours-twenty with interval.
Review: 45 Years
Acting and often dialogue still compel in long bursts. It sets a seal on one of the swiftest slow-burn productions I’ve seen.
Review: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
With a re-think more thorough than a new fuel-tank for Priscilla, it’s now an outstanding show.
Review: Jane Eyre
Polly Teale has released the daemons, but Nettie Sheridan’s ensemble has delivered Jane Eyre’s feeling to a pitch remarkable even for BLT. With a twilight and sunny consummation at BOAT, it’s even more outstanding.
Review: Under the Shadow
Far richer than any ghost play haunting the tour circuit, it’s a blistering, scary must-see.
Review: The Beekeeper of Aleppo
It’s important to see it now. It’s none the less real for being fiction.
Review: Are You Watching?
Georgie Dettmer’s voice should be one of the leading dramatists of resistance. Yet more, Dettmer has already much to say about how to live now and next.
Review: Teeth ‘n’ Smiles
As Teeth ‘n’ Smiles ends, we’re left to feel the long withdrawing roar of the 1960s, and the bleaker horizons and disillusion Hare saw by 1975. A must-see.
Review: The Fastest Clock in the Universe
It hasn’t dated. As worthy of our attention as recent Ridley, and rivets us forever. A must-see.
Review: Do Not Attempt This Conversation
Mo Maka’s play though brief is superbly constructed and taut. I can hardly wait for Maka’s next play.
Review: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
This desperate elegy of betrayal, straight from Le Carré’s own hurt, will haunt you with the truth of its despair.
Review: The P Word
A bold yet tender exploration of what it is to be gay, Asian and humane. You come out cheering. A must-see.
Review: Organised: Crime
Got things you need cleaned up on the QT? Angela's Angels - thorough and discrete
Review: Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances
Absorbing and attracted a sold-out brief run. Factually realist, but liminally fantastical, it wields potential for serious sly fun, and real drama.
Review: Wrap Party
A lightning-quick comedy about invisible labour, ambition and class set in a catering van on a film set.
Review: Mother Courage and Her Children
Brecht’s ferocious message that those who seek profit from war are often its victims too is driven home in the weight of dropped bodies, and Michelle Terry’s outstanding performance.
Review: Operation Mincemeat
This is the finest new musical I’ve seen for many years. End of. The hype, the Oliviers and Tony call it right. See it.
Review: Learning to CELEBRATE! When Life Hands You a Dysfunctional Family
An interactive party and one-person show through which Scoggins demonstrates the power inherent in choosing what, when, and how we celebrate.
Review: Quartet in Autumn
Absorbing, a must-see for anyone asking questions of where we begin our endings.
Review: Toast: Stories from the End of the World
Some engaging, lean in science fiction dark comedy theatre
Review: Can’t Kill the Spirit
An earnest exploration of activism and conviction, elevated by moments of genuine historical resonance.
Review: The Dasslers
The Dasslers wields a potential beyond its current limitations – both in this brief production and in its current form. And Radford, clearly setting out his dramatic stall in history’s cross-currents, is a voice to watch.
Review: Wench
Standing ovations for this new behemoth of a piece, performed with complete control by the beautiful and intense Felix Le Freak.
Review: Sherlock Holmes vs Arsène Lupin: A Drag Crime Caper
A legendary detective meets a master criminal . . .
Review: The Love We Think We Deserve
It could grow into something both exceptional and even more necessary.
Review: Godot’s To-Do List, Krapp’s Last Tape
A performance of lessness writ large: a man shrinking from his environment, the memories taking over and kicking Krapp’s mere organic matter out.
Review: Lilla Multipass: Woman (33)
Who can really have the most tote bags to “take down the patriarchy”?
Review: The Dance of Time: A New Black Comedy
Here’s hoping it returns, clearly a play with a future as long as Tom’s is apparently short.
Review: Foal
The Finborough have form with five-star solo shows. This is clearly another flued and sanded with the ferocity of pursuit. Outstanding.
Review: Murder, Margaret and Me
Brave, bold and really worth seeing above much else: even in a busy Festival.
Review: Allegra
As an example of a Peter Quilter soufflé, this is the best of his I’ve come across; and Maureen Lipman gleams with a supreme gravity-defying performance. Irresistible.
Review: Teatro dei Gordi: Visite
As ever, the Coronet and its guests have scored something unique in the British theatre-world.
Review: Are you even Indian?
A British-born Indian woman and an Indian-born man love, spar and dance
Review: When Gary Left Annie (Almost)
A beautifully written romantic comedy with a slightly neurotic, awkward energy that makes ordinary people feel strangely lovable.
Review: Jane Eyre
Polly Teale has released the daemons, but Nettie Sheridan’s ensemble has delivered Jane Eyre’s feeling to a pitch remarkable even for BLT.
Review: Neddy Goes to Glasto
Corrina O’Beirne masters the demotic, the lyrical, the witty and metaphorical, all at once. A must-see.
Review: Ashes and Diamonds
Exceptionally humane, humanly absorbing. It’s always 11.15. Till it isn’t
Review: History has no safe word
A haunting journey through Pompeii, power and the voices that refuse to stay buried.
Review: Flush
Timely, timeless and as real as a selfie you might wish you’d never taken when you look again. 80 minutes blink by, but you won’t miss it. Stunning.
Review: Evangeline
First-rate Fringe music-theatre. Artistic content, particularly songs and verse, as well as direction and acting ensures this will clearly travel. Do see it.
Review: Escaped Alone
It mightn’t quite be the droll, dry Churchill we know, but it’s certainly one we should greet. Absorbing.
Review: Magic
Brave, timeless, and troubled, Magic sometimes refuses to give up its secrets too. Absorbing.
Review: Fate Train
A play not just about Myth. Its about how we carry grief,how stories help us to survive it,and how art can turn something painful into something shared.
Review: Kohlhaas
How far would you go for justice? A gripping solo-performance and a story for our times.
Review: Mind and Breathe
Brecht meets Beckett in this sharp combination of existential exploration and jet black humour
Review: The Final Episode
Two original twists, a fine, fresh writer/performer/director and something I certainly look forward to seeing developed.
Review: Uccelini
A rich, suggestive and above all probing work about how we live with our ghosts so we can live with each other.
Review: Two Halves of Guinness
As a gentle voyage around the frothy half of Guinness we know, and the dark we don’t, it deserves awards, and another tour.
Review: Carmen
A must-see for anyone compelled by ballet; something we’re not likely to see in Brighton for years.
Review: Between the River and the Sea
Recognizing humanity is a mingled yarn mightn’t sound revelatory. Nor what we want to take away. But it’s what we need.
Review: The Waves
A mostly outstanding – and theatrical - adaptation of an almost impossible-to-adapt novel.
Review: The Choir of Man
The Choir of Man brings us joy whilst bursting with talent. But it’s a timely reminder of what’s at stake.
Review: Playhouse Creatures
This version is never done because the all-female five-hander is easier: so do see it. A triumph.
Review: Iphigenia
Pacing is fleet, inexorable, even with those frozen minutes of contemporary video. Unmissable.
Review: Heart Wall
One of the most remarkable reveals in recent theatre, and makes this play an absolutely compelling must-see.
Review: The Ballad of Johnny & June
That rare event: a new musical with classic inscribed on it. Outstanding.
Review: John Proctor is the Villain
The apotheosis is both thrilling and more than timely. At a moment where feminism is being closed down, this needs screaming
Review: Two
As fine a revival as you’re likely to see in London or the South. It's a classic that, like Road, is more political as it ages gracefully.
