Theatre Reviews
Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Groomed / Let the Bodies PileFriday, 11 August 2023
Groomed Pleasance Dome ★★★★ “How can a truth be told? How can a secret be spoken?” Patrick Sandford asks in Groomed, his searingly honest account of his experience of abuse by a teacher at primary school several decade ago. Over 50 minutes he recounts his tale, weaving in other stories to illuminate his own. Read more... |
Edinburgh International Festival 2023 reviews: FOOD / DuskThursday, 10 August 2023
FOOD, The Studio ★★★ Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Heaven / Lie Low / After the ActWednesday, 09 August 2023
Heaven, Traverse Theatre ★★★★★ Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Stuntman / Beautiful Evil Things / What You See When Your Eyes Are Closed...Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Stuntman, Summerhall ★★★★★ Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: The Death and Life of All of Us / Anything That We Wanted To Be / ChickenSaturday, 05 August 2023
The Death and Life of All of Us, Summerhall ★★★★ Victor Esses was 16 when he first discovered his grandmother had a sister – someone the family had never discussed. It was just a year after his own first illicit visit to a gay sauna. Read more... |
The Crown Jewels, Garrick Theatre review - star laden comedy fails to sparkleFriday, 28 July 2023
At first, it’s hard to believe that the true story of Colonel Blood’s audacious attempt to steal The Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in 1671 has not provided the basis for a play before. After two hours of Simon Nye’s pedestrian telling of the tale as a comedy, you have your answer. Read more... |
Annie Get Your Gun, Lavender Theatre review - new production in new venue has some work to doMonday, 24 July 2023
A new theatre? In 2023? Now there’s a shot in the arm for the post-pandemic gloom. But there’s no business like show business – not for Mayfield Lavender anyway, who have found a corner of one of their beautiful purple fields and built an outdoor theatre for the poor, neglected souls of er… Epsom – but any investment in arts is surely welcome in these most philistine of times. Read more... |
Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors, National Theatre review - verbatim theatre delivered to wrenching effectSaturday, 22 July 2023
The shadow of Grenfell Tower has already produced Nick Kent and Richard Norton-Taylor’s dispassionately forensic but devastating documentary plays based on transcripts from the Grenfell Inquiry. Now comes a companion piece, the National’s Grenfell, a verbatim play using excerpts from the same source, but larded by Gillian Slovo into a wider account of the fire by those who were in it, to equally wrenching effect. Read more... |
Disruption, Park Theatre review - relevant and resonantFriday, 21 July 2023
Plays chronicling the unscrupulous collision of high finance and big tech seem 10 a penny these days. Some writers, such as Joseph Charlton, seem to have built entire careers around telling glossy tech morality tales (for my money the best in this burgeoning genre is Sarah Burgess's Dry Powder staged at Hampstead Theatre in 2018 starring Hayley Atwell). Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival - invisible cities and possible dreamsMonday, 17 July 2023
Came for the music, returned for the theatre. I oversimplify: Riccardo Muti’s Roads of Friendship events, meetings of his Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra with players from other places – since 1997, they have included Sarajevo, Lebanon, Kenya, Iran and this year Jordan – will always be the big cornerstones of the Ravenna Festival. Read more... |
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★★★★★
‘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.
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