Review: De Profundis
Jens Harzer throws himself into it so much that when he almost stumbles on for a standing ovation the look of sheer bewilderment hasn’t left his face. Outstanding.
Genre: Historical 0
Review: A Small and Quiet Light
It will live as a further bright witness. How a Muslim Sufi princess ended with a posthumous George Cross. Outstanding.
Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A fully re-imagined Dream, it’s mostly successful in suggesting a real 1994 that might just have existed.
Review: Stand or Fall: The Fall and Rise of Brighton Albion Theatre
A must-see if you love community, especially Brighton community.
Review: Man to Man
A flawless tour-de-force by Swinton of a slightly-flawed yet uniquely potent warning.
Review: Darkling
Unmissable to anyone who takes an interest in India or the world's recent history, ongoing late capitalism and how it stops humanity in cyanide tracks.
Review: Pride
Pride is essential. The greatest danger in celebrating past struggle is that it lets us off the hook of any now.
Review: Guilio Cesare in Egitto
Vocally and dramatically compelling, this is as good a smaller-scaled Handel opera can get.
Review: A Small and Quiet Light
It will live as a further bright witness. How a Muslim Sufi princess of bi-racial origins and deeply cosmopolitan heritage ended with a posthumous George Cross. Outstanding.
Review: Henry VIII And His Groom
Some amusing royal toilet talk. Typically British. Typically Fringe.
Review: 1918: The Final Salomé
The story of Oscar Wilde's literary executor and his lifelong battle with censorship.
Review: An Audience with Virginia Woolf: Writing One’s Mind
An impeccably elegant exploration of a powerful yet troubled mind.
Review: A Forgotten Woman: Mrs Oscar Wilde
A moving solo performance with the weight of history behind it
Review: Bury the Hatchet
Killer theatre whetted, ground and gleaming. It will turn heads. Again. Unmissable.
Review: Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library
Mrs. Stern Gives the Gestapo an Existential Crisis
Review: War Horse
An astonishing spectacle that still moves and will forever craze the idiocy of war on the retina like an iced-over No-Man’s Land.
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: The Beekeeper of Aleppo
It’s important to see it now. It’s none the less real for being fiction.
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: 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: Scary Mary
Daughter of Feminism, Mother of Sci-Fi, the original Goth girlfriend: Mary Shelley is spooky AF.
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: 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: Ben Hur – Cue Fanfare
Exceptional and Outstanding epic which never ceases to amaze and amuse!
Review: The Wooster Group. Nayatt School, Redux
Renowned for their avant-garde, multimedia approach blending archive, technology, film, sound, and live performance, the company has profoundly influenced generations of artists and theatre-makers internationally.
Review: Ashes and Diamonds
Exceptionally humane, humanly absorbing. It’s always 11.15. Till it isn’t
Review: Magic
Brave, timeless, and troubled, Magic sometimes refuses to give up its secrets too. Absorbing.
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: Playhouse Creatures
This version is never done because the all-female five-hander is easier: so do see it. A triumph.
Review: The Ballad of Johnny & June
That rare event: a new musical with classic inscribed on it. Outstanding.
Review: Pack of Lies
This one-time hit though now rarely-staged Olivier-winning play is worth tracking down; and you’ve a little more time to find it in Southwick.
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: Glorious!
Wendi Peters sends you out singing: with all the right notes in the wrong order. Solidly recommended.
Review: Arcadia
As bright as stained crystal and warm as the filament Thomasina reaches for: 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: Mrs President
Mrs President will continue to haunt and I suspect, develop. Be haunted though.
Review: Cable Street
This is an event. Break in (without breakages!) if you have to, to see this. You’ll be standing in the aisles to swarm the barricades.
Review: Safe Haven
There’s a perennial feel not just to the humanity at the play’s core; but the work itself. In these dark days, a must-see.
Review: Sunny Afternoon
Joe Penhall’s book is outstanding and frankly puts most musical biopics in the shade. His wit and deft charactering of core band and satellites who interact with the complexity of a play, the way the songs move the narrative. Ray Davies’ storytelling and songs are self-recommending. Sunny Afternoon still deserves those awards.
Review: Forbidden Places
Tom Stoppard dying the day before recalled Leopoldstraat to many. No-one expected this harrowing slant successor. No wonder the audience were on their feet. Outstanding.
Review: We Are the Lions, Mr Manager
At a time of racialised targeting – a distraction technique born of the very forces Jayaben Desai fought – Grunwick speaks with startling relevance.
Review: Mr Jones
Once you’ve seen Mr Jones, it will never leave you. Not just history, but the poignancy that shivers across survivors and leaves them buried, ceaselessly pulling them to the past.
Review: The Line of Beauty
Not the most theatrical story, it’s a heady narrative. A dance to the music of a time that marred us, this still compels
Review: Keep Your Sunny Side Up
In nearly every way exceptional. Hampshire is consummate and sets off Rouselle as worthy to inhabit Fields.
Review: David Lan The Land of the Living
The most moving and theatrically gripping new play I’ve seen for a long time, it’s also the most layered and completely realised. A world that invites ours to ask where on earth we come from.
Review: Miller The Crucible
It’s almost sold out. If there’s a cancellation on any night, you must see this.
Review: Amazons
A heartfelt exploration of one woman's Brazilian heritage told through the lens of the region's history.
Review: Mussolini
"An intelligent and technically remarkable portrait of the dictator as a clown and mime-artist"
Review: NIUSIA
A powerful, multi-layered journey through three generations of formidable women, as one unpacks her grandmother’s legacy and her own Jewish identity.
Review: 1 King, 2 Princes and Shakespeare’s Lie
A commanding, Ricardian, retelling challenging the myths surrounding Richard III
Review: 5 Mistakes That Changed History
A range of mistakes to delight even the most ardent history fan.
Review: Formosa Viva
A catchy dance theatre performance displaying Taiwan's historical heritage through movement and dance
Review: Chiara Atik Poor Clare
Sassy yet profound, probing yet exuberant, it asks all of us: No, don’t look at me. Look at you. A quiet must-see this summer.
Review: James Inverne That Bastard, Puccini!
With such a script, cast and production values, this is a sure-fire hit, a gem deserving of longer runs too. Don’t let this be a one-run wonder!
Review: Lynn Nottage Intimate Apparel
Everything built up, like a corset, is unloosed. What we thought we knew we don’t. Outstanding.
Review: Tim Price Nye
Through choreographic sweep, Tim Price crafts a necessary, traditional warning. A must-see with the finest last line since Good.
Review: Joan Littlewood Oh What a Lovely War
The Merry Roosters forget who they are and come together, awed by the transcendent theatre they’ve invoked. See it.
Review: Charlie Josephine: I, Joan
Daisy Miles, supremely, Laurits Hiroshi Bjerrum and Rhys Bloy excel in a fine cast and prove this clarion of a play can rise again triumphantly.
Review: Duty
A fresh and urgent play, Duty should tour as a salutary reminder of how war impacts community, divides war-influenced majority from the few who see through war.
Review: Billy Barrett and Ellice Stevens After The Act Royal Court Downstairs
Most of all this musical is necessary. With four outstanding multi-roling performers, a message both affirmative and defiant; and with a fierce joy that makes it a must-see.
Review: Timberlake Wertenbaker Little Brother
bsorbs and remains indelible. Stella Powell-Jones is helming a quietly radical shift in Jermyn Street. And she’s taking the audience with her.
Review: The Fabulous King James Bible
A fabulous historical comedy about the gayest king and his new bible
Review: Jonathan McLean Touching it Makes Baby Jesus Cry: The Musical
This can sing all the way to Edinburgh: just stopping off to be publicly burned, along with Jonathan McLean, in the Vatican itself.
Review: Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky The Gang of Three
The wittiest, wisest play I’ve seen this year, it deserves a long run, not least so we can absorb its lessons. Unmissable.
Review: Tim Coakley In Search of the Dance
Tim Coakley has a potential minor masterpiece on his hands, as he searches for that perfect crashed chord.
