Genre: classical 0
Review: A Doll’s House
The end, a question-mark, leaves a silence where you might hear a door banging three streets away.
Review: The Old Ladies
A small classic, if not on the scale of The Truth About Blayds, it’s yet another gem. And a must-see.
Review: Summerfolk
We need Summerfolk. Sided and slant, this version is a must-see. And almost as much as Chekhov, we need more Gorky.
Review: The Crucible
One of Lewes Little’s finest of recent years; which often happens when they’re ambitious.
Review: Dear Liar
Stella Powell-Jones and her team make the strongest possible case. A must-see for all lovers of theatre, wit, and wincing put-downs.
Review: The Constant Wife
An outstanding revival and adaptation, a faultless cast, an award-winning set too. Brighton has been lucky in its last three productions. This though is the gem. Outstanding.
Review: The Gambler
Chiten Theatre intensifies to a point of light here something barbarous, atavistic, and goes to the heart of nihilism. Still outstanding.
Review: The Lion in Winter
In the main a stupendous feat: two leads at the top of their game and three superb, beautifully detailed actors inhabiting the sons; with two fine supporting ones as siblings Philip and Alais. A must-see.
Review: The Playboy of the Western World
An impossible balance, but having seen Playboy at farce-speed, it’s good to weigh in with a loquacious backbeat of despair. Wholly absorbing.
Review: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
This is a virtuoso production like no other you’ll see in one twice as big with a stage twenty times as huge.
Review: Alice in Wonderland
This 23-strong cast triumph in this cavalcade of Carroll. A must-see and pretty outstanding.
Review: Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson
Don’t expect Sherlock, and you could be entertained by Ms Holmes. And emphatically Ms Watson.
Review: David Copperfield
An outstanding production, a seasonal offering more satisfying than most pantos.
Review: A. A. Milne The Truth About Blayds
A classic revival of a minor classic. Pacily directed and with a consummate cast, this production couldn’t be bettered
Review: Miller The Crucible
It’s almost sold out. If there’s a cancellation on any night, you must see this.
Review: Death Comes to Pemberley
Stylishness in the fixtures, truth in the lower orders, some superb acting by the likes of Berger, Boyce, and Faulkner, as well as two couples with chemistry.
Review: Suddenly Last Summer
Conor Baum and his company are carving out a record of distinction. We’re lucky it’s started in the south east. Outstanding.
Review: Sense & Sensibility
Austen fans can feel they’re delivered the story’s heft, if not all its socially pinched circumstance. It’s a small gem.
Review: Euripides’ Iphigeneia in Tauris
Captivating, tense, moving, and laced with themes of violence, human agency and gender politics. A hidden gem.
Review: Adrian Lukis Being Mr Wickham
There’s nothing more charming or endearing in the West End this summer.
Review: Les Misérables
There’s not enough adjectives left to praise this. But there is a verb phrase: see it!
Review: John Joubert Jane Eyre, Grimeborn Opera
A gripping romantic opera premiere emerging right out of Dalston. Arcola’s Grimeborn have scored another first with a future.
Review: The Midnight Bell
An outstanding ballet by any standards. One that like its inspiration Patrick Hamilton will last.
Review: Short Plays 2025
Enough here to engage and make anyone who’s not yet ventured to NVT to keep coming back. Do see this collation of crazies.
Review: Extraordinary Women
For a bijou summer in a bottle, this can’t be beaten. Exquisite, painfully funny, and hinting at the depths Mackenzie found to his own chagrin. A gem.
Review: Top Hat
The most joyous musical of the summer. And it has a summer heart that never cloys. A sizzling must-see.
Review: A Man For All Seasons
A must-see, one of the very finest plays to have reached the theatre this year.
Review: Sarah Ruhl Eurydice
Sam Chittenden coaxes provisional miracles from her cast and space. The medium’s playful, even fun. The message though is bleak; and love is still in the letting go.
Review: In Praise of Love
There’s every reason to see this rare gem, now added permanently to Rattigan’s finer plays.
Review: Sophocles Electra
The end is set. Conor Baum directs that ratcheting-up inexorably: never hurried, never static. The audience holds its breath. So will you. Outstanding.
Review: Helen Edmundson The Heresy of Love
A brave undertaking – typical of Gerry McCrudden and his teams - and a rare opportunity to see this superb, all-too-topical play.
Review: The Importance of Being Oscar
Alastair Whatley takes the joy of the sorrow, and makes it his own. Unmissable if you can squeeze in.
Review: Chekhov Three Sisters
There’s a rapt self-communing in this production of Three Sisters. A must-see, it glows long after you’ve left it.
Review: The Devil May Care
Do see this particularly for an outstanding performance from Burrows and an exceptionally fine one from Woodhouse. This adaptation remains an exhilarating reminder of what a difference a century makes.
Review: Treasure Island
First-rate youth theatre, creatives and cast excel: detailed, funny, not to be taken over-seriously, then quite a bit more so.
Review: Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
Frecknall has re-thought and refreshed one of the great, and classically-framed American dramas. And made it classic.
Review: Helen Edmundson (adaptor) Anna Karenina
With Diane Robinson’s team there’s a vibrant retelling, superbly produced
Review: Ballet Shoes
A paean to wonder and possibility, dreaming to some purpose. Like other winter growths, this should prove a hardy perennial, evergreen as the book.
Review: Happy Days
I’ve never seen a Winnie more ordinary, one without those strange transcendental inflections. Catherine Humphreys isn’t flat: she rises to anguish, though it’s one of realism. I’m still not quite sure what’s been removed. But I’m very glad I’ve seen it.
Review: Sara Farrington A Trojan Woman
An acclaimed pocket tragedy which yet carries Euripides’ weight in Farrington’s framing, it more than touches the heart: it snatches it and hands it back as a sad and angry consolation.
Review: The Silver Cord
A darkly thrilling masterpiece, given what might be its finest UK revival. All are outstanding and Alix Dunmore, and certainly Sophie Ward, should be up for some glittering prizes.
Review: Pride and Prejudice
An unalloyed delight, compressing the story but revealing things even those who know the novel will take back to it.
