Theatre Reviews
Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, Barbican Theatre review - Cillian Murphy soars and sweepsFriday, 29 March 2019
Wow, what a collection of talent: this show stars Peaky Blinder Cillian Murphy, and Enda Walsh's adaptation, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, is based on Max Porter's award-winning novel of the same name. Read more... |
Fiddler on the Roof, Playhouse Theatre, review – energetic production whips up an emotional stormThursday, 28 March 2019
In an age where political, social, and gender norms seem to be in perpetual meltdown, it should be pretty much impossible for a musical that begins with a song celebrating ‘Tradition’ to strike a chord. Read more... |
Local Hero, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh - captivating musical with a harder edgeWednesday, 27 March 2019
“Cult” is probably an over-used adjective, especially when it comes to movies. Read more... |
The Phlebotomist, Hampstead Theatre review - thought-provoking dystopian thrillerTuesday, 26 March 2019
Contemporary British theatre loves time travel — and not just to the past. It also enjoys imagining the future, especially the bad stuff ahead. So Ella Road's debut play, The Phlebotomist, is set in a convincingly coherent dystopia where genetic profiling reigns supreme, and one blood test can fuck up all your life chances. Read more... |
Mary's Babies, Jermyn Street Theatre review - rollercoaster investigation of early fertility treatmentTuesday, 26 March 2019
Obstetrician Dr Mary Barton had the best of intentions. As a missionary in India she had observed the poor treatment of childless women and, back home in England, she took positive action to help women who wanted babies. This being the period between the late 1930s and 1967, there was as yet no legal framework for artificial insemination; indeed it was disapproved of and kept secret. Read more... |
The Life I Lead, Park Theatre review - pleasant enough but lacks biteMonday, 25 March 2019
I am deeply jealous of Miles Jupp's dressing gown in The Life I Lead, the solo play at the Park Theatre. It's a silky-grey patterned number of exquisitely comfortable proportions, and just the sort of thing a chap should wear to tell the story of his life via some genial patter over an hour or two. Read more... |
Blood Knot, Orange Tree Theatre review - defining apartheid-era drama delivers afreshSaturday, 23 March 2019
London's impromptu mini-season devoted to the work of Athol Fugard picks up real steam with Blood Knot, Matthew Xia's transfixing take on one of the benchmark titles of the apartheid era and beyond. Read more... |
Emilia, Vaudeville Theatre review - shouting for changeFriday, 22 March 2019
Emilia Bassano Lanier is not a household name. But maybe she should be. Born in 1569, she was one of the first women in England to publish a book of poetry. And she was also a religious thinker, a feminist and the founder of a school for girls. Oh, and a mother too. And maybe, just maybe, at a long stretch, she was also the "dark lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets. Read more... |
Downstate, National Theatre review - controversial but also clear-eyed and compassionateThursday, 21 March 2019
"Some monsters are real," notes a retribution-minded wife (Matilda Ziegler) early in Downstate, Bruce Norris's beautiful and wounding play that has arrived at the National Theatre in the production of a writer's dreams. Read more... |
The Bay at Nice, Menier Chocolate Factory review - David Hare talkfest takes intermittent wingWednesday, 20 March 2019
David Hare knows a thing or two about sustaining an onstage face-off. Skylight and The Breath of Life consist tantalisingly of little else and so, for the most part, does his 1986 curiosity The Bay at Nice, which I caught back in the day during a premiere engagement at the Cottesloe that was given immediate lustre by the ravishing Irene Worth. 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
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
A Form of Exile: Edward Said and Late Style, CLS, Wood, QEH...
You could plan an entire concert season around the theme of “late style”, its paradoxes and variations. For this one-off, many of us expected a...
Edward II, RSC, Swan Theatre, Stratford review - monarchs, m...
“Don’t put your co-artistic director on the stage, Mrs Harvey,” as Noel Coward once (almost) sang.
Tamara...
BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester re...
Anja Bihlmaier returned to the BBC Philharmonic – for the first time in the Bridgewater Hall as principal guest conductor – with a programme to...
Album: Reg Meuross, Fire & Dust: A Woody Guthrie Story
I come to this album from a week or so spent among the denizens of the New York and Boston...
Music Reissues Weekly: Liverpool Sunset - The City After Mer...
What happens after the spotlight is directed towards another target? In the case of Liverpool and the Merseybeat boom – which, in terms of chart...
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov, Barbican re...
Exactly half a century ago, Semyon Bychkov fled the USSR for the United States as he sought to swap tyranny for liberty. Last night, in a world...
Drive to Survive, Season 7, Netflix review - speed, scandal...
Last year’s sixth season of Drive to Survive radiated an air of diminishing returns. It was as though the novelty of its spy-in-the-...
Bonhoeffer review - flawed biopic of a saintly man of courag...
The German theologian, pastor and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a saintly, courageous figure, of major historical...
Matt Forde, Touring review - politics, poo and Viagra
Matt Forde gives a warning: “Don’t heckle the disabled – that’s a hate crime.” What an opener for his latest touring show, The End...