Review: The Taming of the Shrew
See it and you’ll never think of the Shrew without this groundbreaking stab at the dreams of men.
Genre: Mainstream Theatre 0
Review: Death of England
This work never loses its charge, its own rapturous arrival Spall gives the performance of his career so far.
Review: Albion
Victoria Hamilton still dominates, but Albion’s a fine ensemble piece. Goold has given Albion the air it needs: an unsettling parable on forcing an identity of ourselves.
Review: Blood Brothers
The blend of definitive and new cast members in a recent classic has overwhelming impact: as story, as lyric fable, as terrible moral for these distracted times.
Review: You Stupid Darkness!
Bleakly funny, with flickers of tragedy, to make you see how redemptive kindness is
Review: Scenes with girls
Scenes with girls owns a buzz, a life, a difference about loving that gives it a sliver of unique.
Review: Three Sisters
This spectacular production beats with a fervour and purpose few adaptations achieve. Ellams has made Three Sisters new.
Review: Swive
A Hilliard rather than Holbein, it’s the velocity of Elizabeth’s survival that enthrals
Review: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The three lead actors, divas and a superb cast give this production its beating pink heart.
Review: The Duchess of Malfi
The scalpel and scruple of class and coolness breaks into tragedy and gifts us three outstanding moments
Review: Hunger
An exemplary, scrupulous production so starkly contemporary, it makes Hunger contemporary forever
Review: #We Are Arrested
Peter Hamilton Dyer carries this celebration of the conscience to be fully human
Review: Present Laughter
The finale is grounded in silences; an almost tragic awareness of the nature of the Essendines’ love. Outstanding.
Review: Richard III
This production could draw out the poison of being dead serious in terminal bursts of laughter
Review: My Brilliant Friend Parts One and Two
Cusack and McCormack give the performances of their lives
Review: As You Like It
For Lucy Phelps and Sophie Khan Levy above all, this is a joyful As You Like It.
Review: A Letter to a Friend in Gaza
Amos Gitai’s curating hope from the ruins, impelling the audience to construct a narrative.
Review: A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
Over 50 years on, this still sets benchmarks. Its power to enthral, to appal can never date.
Review: All’s Well That Ends Well
Hannah Morrish’s Helena shines in this achingly desperate, quietly beautiful production.
Review: The Lady Vanishes
A first-class production. Crisply paced, beautifully detailed, this ensemble is flawless, the finest Bill Kenwright’s team have produced
Review: Little Baby Jesus
Anyone seeing this play will be grateful they’ll never feel quite the same way about London, young people or language again.
Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
This surely is the greatest Dream since Peter Brook’s landmark 1970 production.
Review: Frankenstein
There’s a clean sharp fusion between these two writers that heralds something special.
Review: The Stornoway Way
An intriguing adaptation of a novel which captures the loneliness of an alcoholic man, in a beautiful landscape that only lights a fire withing him when he leaves it
Review: Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp.
For a time you feel that beyond Churchill’s world, nothing else quite seems to exist.
Review: Fleabag
Original, raw, brilliantly funny and devastating. This production is Fleabag neat. Its harrowing streak of genius burns like a healing scar torn.
Review: Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation
The most consistently satisfying work of Tim Crouch I’ve seen.
Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A carnival riot of joy – with enough misdirection to evoke moonshine
Review: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
It couldn’t be done any better and puts several touring shows to shame.
Review: The Doctor
A triumph for all concerned. Juliet Stevenson even gains in stature. Icke’s last production could hardly go better than this.
Review: As You Like It
A heartwarming revival. Jack Laskey, Bettrys Jones and Nadia Nadarajah have made a space for this As You Like It well beyond its initial moment last year.
Review: Devil of Choice
A measured and nuanced exploration of how relationships get threatened from within and without.
Review: Pilgrims
Elinor Cook’s always worth a diversion for. This drama deserves friends and revivals.
Review: Sadness and Joy in the Life of Giraffes
Rodrigues is a dramatist we need to see far more of.
Review: Fiver
An enchanting speed-read of our connectedness, a reminder that a fiver can change your life. Irresistible.
Review: Them!
A complex exploration of the evolution of theatre which hits often more times than it misses.
Review: Plenty
Unsettling enough to avoid instant classic status, but outliving many that court it. A superb revival.
Review: Little Miss Sunshine
It’s a quiet heartbreaker, with stoicism and love the only answers. Do see it.
