Theatre Reviews
Clyde's, Donmar Warehouse review - high-octane comedy with a soft-centreThursday, 26 October 2023
Lynn Nottage’s second London opening this year, the Donmar premiere of Clyde’s, is a comedy about a sandwich, the perfect sandwich. With just a little more punch to the plotting it would be another masterwork from this award-winning American playwright whose book for the musical MJ arrives on the West End next spring. Read more... |
Lyonesse, Harold Pinter Theatre review - a step backwards for #MeTooThursday, 26 October 2023
Penelope Skinner’s new play is one of the most eccentric things I’ve seen in a long time. It’s undoubtedly entertaining, with an engagingly bonkers attempt by Kristin Scott Thomas to navigate an almost impossible role, perched between victim, diva and madwoman, equally reminsicent of Norma Desmond and one of the posh recluses from Grey Gardens. Read more... |
The Confessions, National Theatre review - rich mix of the personal and the epicWednesday, 25 October 2023
How to describe Alexander Zeldin’s latest, The Confessions? It is almost a kitchen-sink drama, but also a picaresque trawl through the life of an Australian woman that’s verging on epic, spanning most of her 80 years. And it’s stirring stuff, alternately enraging, sad and very funny. Read more... |
Dear England, Prince Edward Theatre review - still a winner in its new West End homeSaturday, 21 October 2023
It was interesting, in the same week that the England football team trounced Italy 3-1 in a Euros qualifier, to see Dear England again, the National Theatre smash that has just embarked on a West End run at the Prince Edward Theatre. Read more... |
Portia Coughlan, Almeida Theatre review - atmospheric revival of Marina Carr's bleak 1996 dramaFriday, 20 October 2023
In 1994, the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin commissioned Marina Carr to write a play to celebrate its centenary. She walked the wards, met the new mothers, and wrote in a hospital study. Read more... |
The Flea, The Yard Theatre review - biting satire fails to stingThursday, 19 October 2023
A flea bites a rat which spooks a horse which kicks a man and… an empire falls? Read more... |
Meetings, Orange Tree Theatre review - three-hander that chews on big issuesThursday, 19 October 2023
Mustapha Matura’s 1981 play, Meetings, is still a knockout. Supply the characters with mobile phones and it could be set in the present day. Read more... |
Hamnet, Garrick Theatre review - conventional adaptation of the bestseller drains its poetry awayThursday, 19 October 2023
The RSC apparently has a hit on its hands with its West End transfer of Hamnet. Box office demand has already prompted an extension of the run by six weeks, until February 2024. Read more... |
Dracula: Mina's Reckoning, Festival Theatre Edinburgh review - audacious and entirely convincingTuesday, 17 October 2023
An all-female production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula – well, kind of – that transplants the novel’s more local action to the northeast of Scotland, and finds a bloody new calling for one of its less ostentatious characters? Elgin-born writer Morna Pearson is asking a lot from Stoker purists in her bold reimagining of the iconic, endlessly retold tale for the National Theatre of Scotland. Read more... |
Dead Dad Dog, Finborough Theatre review - Scottish two-hander plays differently 35 years on, but still entertainsSaturday, 14 October 2023
I know, I was there. Well, not in Edinburgh in 1985, but in Liverpool in 1981, and the pull of London and the push from home, was just as strong for me back then as it is for Eck in John McKay’s comedy Dead Dad Dog. 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...
The Producers, Menier Chocolate Factory review - liberating...
There is something deliciously perfect about the timing of The Producers’ arrival at the Menier Chocolate Factory. In these...
La Rondine, LSO, Pappano review - sumptuous orchestral playi...
There are no battlement leaps or murderous vows, no pistols or daggers, not so much as a slight cough disturbs the serene plot of La Rondine...
Black Doves, Netflix review - Keira Knightley and Ben Whisha...
It’s rare to spot Keira Knightley in a TV series, and it’s no doubt a sign of changing times that she’s starring in this six-part spies-and-guns...
Vampire Weekend, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - a mixture of br...
When Vampire Weekend arrived onstage they numbered only three and were bunched together at the front with a large curtain draped behind them,...
The Commander review - the good Italian
Patriotic Italian films set during the Fascist war effort are...
Ballet Shoes, Olivier Theatre review - reimagined classic wi...
Those with treasured battered copies of Noel Streatfield’s 1936 story of three young adopted sisters in pre-war London may have...
Christmas with Connaught Brass, Milton Court review - deligh...
Connaught Brass is a quintet of twenty-something...
Cinderella, Royal Ballet review - inspiring dancing, but not...
Romeo and Juliet or Cinderella? Prokofiev’s two great scores have provided the Royal Ballet with a pair of popular...