Review: Murder in the Cathedral
The Orange Tree Murder in the Cathedral, with David Suchet almost convincing me of Beckett’s not exactly seeking martyrdom, might prove the defining production for a generation.
Genre: Political 0
Review: Triumph
A superb, substantial sliver from a master who can still cut it, gleaming and toothed and entire unto itself.
Review: Blood of My Blood
Very highly recommended. Joy Nesbitt, an American playwright based in London, is absolutely a playwright to watch.
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: Fire Fire
A very promising play, and Webber a highly talented political writer. The kind we so clearly need.
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: Tartuffe (Remixed)
Mark Rylance can’t fail to take you with him. If not take you in. Very highly recommended.
Review: Fempaths: Transistor Radio Hour
Trans Histories, Political Resistance and Queer Joy Through Song
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: Transmission
By turns hilarious, provocative, weighty, and touching- it will take you to the extremes whilst also taking care of you
Review: Epic Economics : What Would You Protest About Today?
Quintessentially quirky. Quintessentially Fringe
Review: Before We Forget
Exhilarating to see how, despite all the cuts and starvation of opportunities, vibrant voices find a refuge and a springboard at the Bush.
Review: Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library
Mrs. Stern Gives the Gestapo an Existential Crisis
Review: You and Me (and whoever comes next)
A thought-provoking drama exposing the gaps in our care system through humour and first rate storytelling.
Review: Woody Sez: The Life & Music Of Woody Guthrie
A musical storytelling of the tough life and times of political activist and American folk star Woody Guthrie
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: Appropriate
NVT confirm this a masterpiece, something I’d not fully appreciated in the excellent 2019 Donmar production, which this excels. Outstanding
Review: My Fair Lady
Kavanagh’s production is in every way outstanding, I’m not sure there’s been a finer – or at least more believable - My Fair Lady conceived and staged as here.
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: 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 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: 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: Foal
The Finborough have form with five-star solo shows. This is clearly another flued and sanded with the ferocity of pursuit. Outstanding.
Review: Ashes and Diamonds
Exceptionally humane, humanly absorbing. It’s always 11.15. Till it isn’t
Review: Escaped Alone
It mightn’t quite be the droll, dry Churchill we know, but it’s certainly one we should greet. Absorbing.
Review: The Final Episode
Two original twists, a fine, fresh writer/performer/director and something I certainly look forward to seeing developed.
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: 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: Deep Azure
One of the few moments of Peter Brooks’ term “Holy Theatre” has arrived at the Wanamaker. A must-see.
Review: The Tempest
Orlando Gough’s music stamps this production, and makes the pulleys of reinvention sing despite themselves. For that and the sweep of decolonised languages, a must-see.
Review: Jerusalem
This flawless production of weight and substance calling on NVT’s resources is a triumph.
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: Our American Queen
Klingenstein’s attentive, witty above all brilliant re-imagining of two remarkable young people. Exceptional.
Review: Christmas Day
An absorbing drama, taking risks and never losing its balance. For the most part superbly-crafted, with memorable characters, sparking with urgency and sparkling dialogue throughout. The most exciting new play in London.
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: Mistero Buffo
A thoroughly worthwhile revival, it still kicks and thrills in equal measure. Highly recommended.
Review: Cow/Deer
Emphatically theatre worth doing, worth attending, worth fighting to clarify and worth being changed for.
Review: Deaf Republic
Its claustrophobia overwhelms and moves, whilst leaving Dead Centre room for yet another slant on Ilya Kaminsky’s imaginary.
Review: Balfour Reparations
An interesting theatrical deconstruction of what might happen in 20 years’ time if we wake up to what we did in Palestine.
Review: Michael Elsener: How to Live in Paradise
Swiss satire meets soulful storytelling in a sharp, multilingual journey through politics, identity, and paradise lost.
Review: Kaddish (How to Be a Sanctuary)
A bold, multi-voiced meditation on grief, justice, and Jewish identity, staged with striking theatricality.
Review: Sorry: A Canadian’s Apology for America
A polished, multi-layered solo show that blends sharp political insight with theatrical flair and quick-witted crowd work.
Review: Between The River And The Sea
Stories depicting the complexity of identity, truth, and family life of Palestinian-Israeli actor Yousef Sweid.
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: La Guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu
An engaging play about the manipulation of public opinion to satisfy the taste for war of a tiny elite
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: Tim Price Nye
Through choreographic sweep, Tim Price crafts a necessary, traditional warning. A must-see with the finest last line since Good.
Review: Claire Dowie See Primark and Die Finborough
There’s more than a touch of Ken (even more, Daisy) Campbell about the way Dowie structures her circular storytelling. Here it’s at its most consummate, most artful and repays re-reading to catch Dowie at your throat.
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: Beth & Josie EXPOSED: F*&# De$antis
A stand-up comedy show that is a big middle finger to DeSantis.
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: Athena Stevens Diagnosis
Over 50 minutes, a compelling, unique and disturbing vision unravels: prophesying prophesy is invisible. That’s why as many as possible should see it.
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: Samuel Rees and Gabriele Uboldi Lessons on Revolution
It’s intersectional, it’s personal, it’s interactive: all great reasons to see this play: unless you’re a board member of BP, or the government.
Review: Tending
Essential theatre, essential witness and mandatory for anyone who wants to know how human we have to be, from beginning to end.
Review: Dr Strangelove
Steve Coogan reigns supreme, and a cast like John Hopkins then Giles Terera are a gift to both Coogan and the show.
Review: Dear England
With its nimbus of inevitability as national storytelling, it’s still groundbreaking.
Review: Jane Upton (the) Woman
A ground-breaking play, fully deserving of its London run. Catch it there.
