Theatre Reviews
Romeo and Juliet, Tobacco Factory, BristolThursday, 26 February 2015
Teen spirit explodes time and time again in the intimate space of Bristol’s Tobacco Factory, with piercing electronic sounds, fierce lighting and a torrent of high-energy movement. The frenetic pace of Baz Luhrman’s film has left its mark on intepretations of Shakespeare's classic love story, and this isn't necessarily a good thing. Read more... |
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Aldwych TheatreWednesday, 25 February 2015
Stars continue to be born from Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Following on from the ongoing Broadway run of the show, which catapulted to name status its Tony-winning leading lady Jessie Mueller, along comes the immensely likeable West End version and – oh, Carole! – much the same looks likely to happen again here. Read more... |
Kill Me Now, Park TheatreWednesday, 25 February 2015
The big news was that dashing Greg Wise was returning to the London stage after an absence of 17 years. Still best remembered as the handsome cad Willoughby in the film of Sense and Sensibility – now 20 years old – he appears in the intimate Park 200 auditorium as a middle-aged, care-worn father, oblivious to wrinkles and grizzled locks. He gives a performance so physically and emotionally charged, however, that his looks are irrelevant. Read more... |
Multitudes, Tricycle TheatreTuesday, 24 February 2015
Plays about Muslims in British theatre tend to open a door on a segregated community, a place cut off from the mainstream. But stories that show cultural conflict – between whites, Asians, Muslims, Hindus, Poles and Sikhs – are much rarer. So it’s good that actor-turned-playwright John Hollingworth’s debut play, with a title which alludes to Walt Whitman’s “I am large. I contain multitudes” from Song of Myself, dares to explore conflict between social groups. Read more... |
Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage, National Theatre WalesTuesday, 24 February 2015
For many the story of Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas will be familiar. It has been told in many forms, and powerful and inspirational as it is, many times too. Thomas (known to all bar his mam as “Alfie”) is now not just a totemic figure in the sport he graced for 16 years, but a symbol of courage and hope for the LGBT community and indeed anyone who has at some point in their lives felt the walls closing in. Read more... |
Closer, Donmar WarehouseMonday, 23 February 2015
Political sleaze, arguments over Europe and fears for the NHS – sometimes it feels as if it’s the 1990s all over again. And, right on cue, theatre has been staging a whole shelfload of revivals of work from that decade: Kevin Elyot’s My Night with Reg, Conor McPherson’s The Weir and Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing. Read more... |
Farinelli and the King, Sam Wanamaker PlayhouseSaturday, 21 February 2015
Farinelli and The King is pretty much a perfect piece of theatre. More importantly, though, it’s perfectly timed. In a month when English National Opera’s troubles have made the front page, when op-eds are all about why Simon Rattle’s dreams of a new concert hall for London are fruitless, this paean to music – to its serious, healing, transformative power – is not only resonant, but necessary. Read more... |
Happy Days, Young VicFriday, 20 February 2015
For those who never saw Samuel Beckett’s favoured performer Billie Whitelaw on stage as indomitable, buried-alive Winnie, peculiarly happy days are here again with another once-in-a-generation actress facing what Dame Peggie Ashcroft called “a ‘summit’ part”, the female equivalent of Hamlet. Read more... |
Muswell Hill, Park TheatreFriday, 20 February 2015
Has there ever been a successful dinner party on stage? It seems no sooner has the table been set than domestic disharmony erupts: opposing personalities obligingly clash, the veil of marital bliss is torn asunder, and terrible secrets are spilled along with the wine. In other words, dinner parties are the playwright’s bread and butter. Read more... |
The Life and Times of Fanny Hill, Bristol Old VicFriday, 13 February 2015
Turning John Cleland’s 18th-century erotic classic Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure into a convincing stage play is a tall order. The book, a product of male fantasy, is a catalogue of sexual feats of every order, rich in euphemism and with a dash of poetry. 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...
Chuck Prophet, Mid Sussex Music Hall, Hassocks review – the...
Thirty years ago, Chuck Prophet was the Keith Richards-like guitar hotshot in Green On Red, peers of R.E.M. and among the raw country-punk...
Oscars 2025: long day's journey into 'Anora'
Amid these troubling times, can we not all live in the world of the 2025 Oscars' runaway success story, an ever-smiling Sean Baker? That thought...
Hylozoic/Desires: Salt Cosmologies, Somerset House and The H...
The railways that we built in India may be well known, but I bet...
Album: Jethro Tull - Curious Ruminant
Folk rock has long been one of Jethro Tull’s strongest suits. Ian Anderson’s integration of...
Alterations, National Theatre review - high emotional costs...
Plays about the Windrush Generation are no longer a rarity, but it’s still unusual for revivals of black British classics to get the full...
Uprising, Glyndebourne review - didactic community opera sup...
The score is effective, and rewarding to perform, but derivative. The libretto uses every cliché, or truism, about save-the-planet youth activism...
Music Reissues Weekly: Kraftwerk - Autobahn at 50
“German space rock group is already shooting up the charts with their debut US LP. One of few continental groups able to make this musical mode...
Mahan Esfahani, Wigmore Hall review - shimmering poise and r...
To watch Mahan Esfahani play the harpsichord is to watch a philosopher at work. While...
Album: Architects - The Sky, The Earth & All Between
Brighton metallers Architects have weathered various tribulations in their almost 20-year career. Formed by twins Dan and Tom Searle, after...