Theatre
The Fear of 13, Donmar Warehouse review - powerful analysis of a gross injusticeFriday, 18 October 2024
There is star casting, and there is casting the right star – not the same thing. The Donmar’s new production, The Fear of 13, succeeds in the latter category, in spades. The star in question is Adrien Brody, a child actor who left stage work... Read more... |
The Duchess [of Malfi], Trafalgar Theatre review - actors imprisoned by confused time travellingFriday, 18 October 2024
John Webster’s sour, bloody tale of brotherly greed and vice has been updated by the playwright Zinnie Harris, who also directs her own text at the Trafalgar. The title has a handy [of Malfi] added. But do we really know where we are? Or which... Read more... |
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Marylebone Theatre review - explosive play for todayFriday, 18 October 2024
An incendiary play has opened at the Marylebone, the adventurous venue just off Baker Street. Bigger houses were apparently unwilling to stage it, fearing anti-Israeli protests. Their loss.Nathan Englander has expanded his short story of the same... Read more... |
Land of the Free, Southwark Playhouse review - John Wilkes Booth portrayed in play that resonates across 160 yearsFriday, 18 October 2024
Straddling the USA Presidential elections, Simple8’s run of Land of the Free could not be better timed, teaching us an old lesson that wants continual learning – the more things change, the more they stay the same.We open on the Booth family kids... Read more... |
Oedipus, Wyndham's Theatre review - careful what you wish forThursday, 17 October 2024
How many times does a politician survive wave after wave of attack from rivals, surf the waves of fickle voters and tiptoe around every policy mishap, only to be undone by an appalling error of judgement in their private life, a skeleton in the... Read more... |
Knife on the Table, Cockpit Theatre review - gangsters grim, not glamorousThursday, 17 October 2024
There’s a moment in writer/co-director, Jonathan Brown’s, gritty new play, Knife on the Table, that justifies its run almost on its own. Flint, a decent kid going astray, is "invited" to prove he’s ready for the next step in his drug-dealing career... Read more... |
A Raisin in the Sun, Lyric Hammersmith review - of race and menSunday, 13 October 2024
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is not only the first play by a black woman to premiere on Broadway, back in 1959, but it’s also a cultural goldmine. So powerful is its depiction of the postwar African-American experience that it has... Read more... |
First Person: Lindsey Ferrentino on the play that has led Adrien Brody to the London stageFriday, 11 October 2024
I turn 36 this year, while living in London and rehearsing my new play The Fear of 13 at the Donmar Warehouse. The cast places a cake on my desk, covered in script pages and 10 pairs of handcuffs. I video the cake, the handcuffs, the singing actors... Read more... |
The Lehman Trilogy, Gillian Lynne Theatre review - three brothers, two crashes, one American DreamFriday, 11 October 2024
Merchant bankers then eh? It’s not a slang term of abuse for nothing, as the middlemen collecting the crumbs off the cake (in Sherman McCoy’’s analogy from The Bonfire of the Vanities) have a reputation for living high on the hog off the ideas and... Read more... |
Filumena, Theatre Royal Windsor review - Mozartian marriage comedy with pasta sauceFriday, 11 October 2024
Of all the ingenues in all the world of golden TV sitcom, Felicity Kendal was the most innocent, the most wicked, the most deceptive, with an amaretto voice that wheedled like a child and seduced like a witch. Half a century on, there must be a heck... Read more... |
Brace Brace, Royal Court review - too slender to satisfyThursday, 10 October 2024
Air travel is bad for us. Yes, yes, I know we need planes to take us long distances, but look at the downside: not only the carbon footprint, but also the anxiety. I used to feel pretty relaxed about flying, then – one day on a short European... Read more... |
First Person: Tim Etchells on 40 years of making a noise with Forced EntertainmentThursday, 10 October 2024
Forced Entertainment is a theatre company based in Sheffield, touring original performances around the world. The core group of 6 artists has been working together for 40 years, often inviting others to collaborate on particular projects. From the... Read more... |
