Theatre
The Great Gatsby, London Coliseum review - lavish and lively production fails to capture the novel's tortured soulSaturday, 26 April 2025
In 2012, an eight-hour long version of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby arrived in London at the Noel Coward Theatre. Rather than risk offending the novel’s devotees by missing any detail out, the Elevator Repair Service theatre... Read more... |
The Inseparables, Finborough Theatre review - uneven portrait of a close female friendshipFriday, 25 April 2025
The Finborough has once again performed the miracle of creating a whole world in its intimate space: this time, inter-war France, where two young girls meet and form a strong attachment. The semi-autobiographical story comes from a 1954 Simone de... Read more... |
Personal Values, Hampstead Theatre review - deep grief that's too briefThursday, 24 April 2025
“They fuck you up your Mum and Dad; they may not mean to, but they do.” These lines from Philip Larkin’s 1975 poem, “This Be the Verse”, sum up the emotional fuel of many recent plays by young writers.They certainly apply to Personal Values, Chloë... Read more... |
Ghosts, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre - turns out, they do fuck you upFriday, 18 April 2025
A single sofa is all we have on stage to attract our eye - the signifier of intimate family evenings, chummy breakfast TV and, more recently, Graham Norton’s bonhomie. Until you catch proper sight of the room’s walls that is, which are not, as you... Read more... |
All the Happy Things, Soho Theatre review - deep feelings, but little dramaWednesday, 16 April 2025
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. Or words to that effect. This quote from Milton’s Paradise Lost seems apt when thinking about the prevalence of mental health issues in current new writing for... Read more... |
Shanghai Dolls, Kiln Theatre review - fascinating slice of history inadequately toldMonday, 14 April 2025
The writer Amy Ng has made a sterling effort in digging up the true story behind her new play at the Kiln, Shanghai Dolls, but sadly has not yet found the best way to project this interesting material. The Dolls are two women who meet in... Read more... |
Manhunt, Royal Court review - terrifyingly toxic masculinityMonday, 14 April 2025
Are we really in “a new era of male anger, societal discontent and rage”? This is what Royal Court artistic director David Byrne claims in the programme of Manhunt, Robert Icke’s new documentary play about Raoul Moat. Weak thought, because surely... Read more... |
Midnight Cowboy, Southwark Playhouse - new musical cannot escape the movie's long shadowSunday, 13 April 2025
It seems a bizarre idea. Take a pivotal film in American culture that reset the perception of The Great American Dream at this, obviously, pivotal moment in American culture in which The Great American Dream, for millions, is being literally swiped... Read more... |
Thanks for Having Me, Riverside Studios review - snappily performed comedy with a lightweight coreSaturday, 12 April 2025
Keelan Kember’s play Thanks for Having Me may look like a vehicle for Kedar Williams-Stirling (Sex Education, Red Pitch), but it’s more accurately a showcase for the comedic talents of Keelan Kember, a former OUDS performer with a TV pilot to his... Read more... |
Rhinoceros, Almeida Theatre review - joyously absurd and absurdly joyfulSaturday, 05 April 2025
Is the theatre of the absurd dead? In today’s world, when cruel and crazy events happen almost daily, the idea that you can satirize daily life by exaggerating its latent irrationalities seems redundant. For this reason, perhaps, revivals of plays... Read more... |
The Importance of Being Oscar, Jermyn Street Theatre review - Wilde, still burning brightThursday, 03 April 2025
It’s a greater accolade than a Nobel Prize for Literature – one’s very own adjective. There’s a select few: Shakespearean; Dickensian and Pinteresque. Add to that list, Wildean. That’s all the more remarkable in the light of Oscar Wilde’s... Read more... |
Stiletto, Charing Cross Theatre review - new musical excessWednesday, 02 April 2025
That friend you have who hates musicals – probably male, probably straight, probably not seen one since The Sound of Music on BBC 1 after the Queen’s Speech in 1978 – well, don’t send them to Charing Cross Theatre for this show. But that other... Read more... |
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