Theatre Reviews
How to Survive an Apocalypse, Finborough Theatre review - millenarian millennialsMonday, 04 October 2021![]()
Despite its painfully relevant title, How To Survive An Apocalypse was written in 2016. If only Canadian playwright Jordan Hall knew, eh? The end times aren’t just creeping but hurtling towards us, these days. Read more... |
Curious, Soho Theatre review - a young playwright puts herself centre-stageMonday, 04 October 2021![]()
Jasmine Lee-Jones has a hard act to follow – namely, herself. Read more... |
Witness for the Prosecution, London County Hall review - return of Agatha Christie's gripping courtroom dramaFriday, 01 October 2021![]()
Lucy Bailey's production of Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, first staged at County Hall in 2017, has a few years to make up on The Mousetrap's near 70, but it has already proved its staying power, despite the hiatus of the lockdown months. Read more... |
Back to the Future: The Musical, Adelphi Theatre review - a spectacular West End show to delight fans old and newTuesday, 28 September 2021![]()
There’s a lot of going back to the future in theatres just now - shows (like this one) postponed by 18 months or so and delayed still further by co-star Roger Bart being indisposed on press night are bringing the bright lights back to the West End. Read more... |
Shining City, Theatre Royal Stratford East review - occasional sluggishness alongside a true star turnMonday, 27 September 2021![]()
When Brendan Coyle, playing a modestly magnetic widower and sales rep called John in this revival of Conor McPherson's 2004 play Shining City, first appears on stage, he looks thoroughly bewildered. His eyes dart back and forth as he initially struggles to find his bearings. Read more... |
The Last Five Years, Garrick Theatre review - bittersweet musical treat gets West End upgradeSaturday, 25 September 2021![]()
Much has happened in the five years since your reviewer braved the steep rake at The Other Palace and saw The Last Five Years (not least my now getting its “Nobody needs to know” nod in Hamilton – worth a fistful of Tonys in prestige, I guess) so it’s timely to revisit Jason Robert Brown’s musical. Read more... |
Blithe Spirit, Harold Pinter Theatre review - an amusing, if dated, revival of the Coward classicWednesday, 22 September 2021![]()
We’re in an agreeable drawing room with an author, Charles Condomine, who is looking forward to having a bit of fun with a local spiritualist, Madame Arcati, whom he has invited over for an evening séance. Read more... |
Black British Musical Theatre 1900-1950, Wigmore Hall review – a disappointing missed opportunityWednesday, 22 September 2021![]()
The Wigmore Hall is a bastion of white musicians playing the music of white composers to a largely white audience and it is to the credit of the management that, in seeking to diversify, it staged this lecture-recital on the history of black musicals in Britain from 1900-1950 in a main evening slot. Read more... |
Camp Siegfried, Old Vic review - the banality of evil, brilliantly served upTuesday, 21 September 2021![]()
A stealthily powerful play gets the production of its dreams in Camp Siegfried, which marks a high-profile UK presence for the American writer Bess Wohl. Read more... |
The Lodger, Coronet Theatre review - underdeveloped family dramaTuesday, 21 September 2021![]()
The Coronet Theatre is a beautiful space – it’s a listed Victorian building, and the bar’s like something out of a film about Oscar Wilde. 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

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...

Occasionally, when I pass my own reflection, out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of the likeness of my father, shining out through the...

Marriage is not often presented in cinema as a bowl of mangoes, but it’s rarely shown as so morbidly strange as in this reckless corker...

“The exercise of fantasy is to imagine other ways of life,” says one of the role-players during a Dungeons & Dragons marathon, because “...

A showstopper for starters followed by dark depths, a quirky compilation after the interval: it’s what you might expect from Iván...

When Yasmina Reza’s cerebral play Art arrived in London in 1996, we applauded it as a comedy. Now another French hit,...

The Father of Make Believe is the latest instalment in the cinematic fantasy world that Coheed and Cambria have meticulously crafted over...

With his furious docu-essay I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck caused a stir in 2016. The film...

One Boat, Jonathan Buckley’s 13th novel, captures a series of...

One of The Barnabáš Kos Case’s incidental pleasures lies in its relatively accurate depiction of orchestral life. Much of the action in...