sun 10/08/2025

Theatre Reviews

The King of Hell’s Palace, Hampstead Theatre review - Chinese scandal freezes the blood

aleks Sierz

New artistic directors are popping up all over British theatre. Every week seems to usher in a refreshingly versatile talent taking the reins of a major theatre.

Read more...

For Services Rendered, Jermyn Street Theatre review – uneven revival of 1930s drama

Laura De Lisle

“I don’t think I have the right to influence her,” says an older character of her daughter in For Services Rendered, W Somerset Maugham’s 1932 anti-war drama. If only all elder statesmen and women felt the same about the youth.

Read more...

Preludes, Southwark Playhouse review - journeying into the mind of Rachmaninoff

Marianka Swain

Where does music come from? That’s the vital question posed to Sergei Rachmaninoff in Dave Malloy’s extraordinary 2015 chamber work, as the great late-Romantic Russian composer – stuck in his third year of harrowing writer’s block – tries to relocate his gift.

Read more...

A Doll's House, Lyric Hammersmith review - Ibsen tellingly transposed to colonial India

Heather Neill

Newly arrived from a much-lauded stint at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, Rachel O'Riordan has undertaken to make "work of scale by women" during her time as artistic director of the Lyric. What better place to start than with Ibsen's once-shocking heroine, her story reimagined by prolific playwright Tanika Gupta?

Read more...

Torch Song, Turbine Theatre review - impressive return for Harvey Fierstein's seminal gay drama

Tom Birchenough

London’s latest theatre opening brings a stirring revival of Harvey Fierstein’s vital gay drama, which premiered as Torch Song Trilogy in New York at the beginning of the 1980s, the playwright himself unforgettable in the lead...

Read more...

Chiaroscuro, Bush Theatre review - music, sweet, sweet music

aleks Sierz

Identity politics has been around for decades.

Read more...

Anahera, Finborough Theatre review - blistering family drama from New Zealand

Katherine Waters

With power comes responsibility. One without the other is sickening -- and both iterations are on show in Emma Kinane's searing new play about a child runaway in New Zealand. 

Read more...

A Very Expensive Poison, Old Vic review – bold evocation of a post-truth world

Rachel Halliburton

If Russia is, as Winston Churchill once so memorably said, “a riddle, wrapped inside a mystery, wrapped inside an enigma”, then this play is an outrage, wrapped inside a farce, framed by a bittersweet love story.

Read more...

Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation, Royal Court review - brilliant meta-theatrical experience

aleks Sierz

Playwright and performer Tim Crouch is one of Britain's most innovative creatives, with a big back catalogue of challenging and stimulating stage work. Typically he tells stories about profound loss, while simultaneously questioning the basis of theatrical representation: how is what we see on stage true? In what way is it real? And how can you tell?

Read more...

Falsettos, The Other Palace review - affecting search for the new normal

Marianka Swain

William Finn and James Lapine’s musical – which combines two linked one-acts, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, set in late 1970s/early 1980s ...

Read more...

Pages

Advertising feature

★★★★★

A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.
The Observer, Kate Kellaway

 

Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.

 

★★★★★

This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.
The Times, Ann Treneman

 

Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.

 

Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.


latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Works and Days, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review...

With the sheer density of theatrical creations jostling for attention across...

Eight Postcards from Utopia review - ads from the era when 1...

If you saw it blind, with no information about its origins, Eight Postcards from Utopia might look like 70 minutes of outtakes...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Final Solution - Just Like Gold

The booklet coming with Just Like Gold - Live At The Matrix frequently refers to the band as “The Solution.” It will be...

Every Brilliant Thing, @sohoplace review - return of the com...

The Fringe piece Duncan Macmillan devised with Jonny Donahoe in 2014 has since been round the world and back, finally landing in the...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Lily Phillips / Ayoade Bamgb...

Lily Phillips, Monkey Barrel ★★★★

Lily Phillips is keen to tell us at the top of her...

The Kingdom review - coming of age as the body count rises

The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree is the bitter message of The Kingdom. Director and co-writer...

Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby, Rambert, Sa...

If you have never watched a single episode of the BBC period gangster drama Peaky Blinders, I am not sure what you would make...

Mogwai / Lankum, South Facing Festival review - rich atmosph...

Running as part of the South Facing Festival in Crystal Palace Bowl, Thursday’s headliners, Mogwai, and their friends across the water, Lankum,...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Beautiful Future is Comin...

The Beautiful Future is Coming, Traverse Theatre ...