National Theatre
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,... Read more... |
Dear England, National Theatre review - filtering the national narrative through sportWednesday, 21 June 2023
"Is everything loss?" the great Oliver Ford Davies once asked on the National's Olivier stage, in the closing moment of David Hare's masterful Racing Demon. That question informs another masterful play, James Graham's Dear England, newly opened... Read more... |
The Crucible, Gielgud Theatre review - outstanding National Theatre transferSaturday, 17 June 2023
Whining Donald Trump and snivelling Boris Johnson claim that they are victims of witch-hunts, although all the evidence suggests otherwise. In 1953, haunted by the iniquitous McCarthy trials that were designed to purge the US of communism, Arthur... Read more... |
The Motive and the Cue, National Theatre review - theatrical titans face offTuesday, 09 May 2023
Plays about the theatre are many and varied, from Gypsy and Noises Off to the numerous Shakespeare works that absorb theatrical performance into their very fabric.Jack Thorne's The Motive the Cue immediately takes pole position amongst recent... Read more... |
Dixon and Daughters, National Theatre review - cold discomfort harmThursday, 27 April 2023
Men are bastards. Okay, not all of us, but enough to make the lives of millions of women a misery. This we know, but anyone who has any doubts might be educated by some of the horrific statistics of sexual assault and domestic violence in the... Read more... |
Dancing at Lughnasa, National Theatre review - largely ravishing Brian Friel revivalMonday, 24 April 2023
It's saying a lot when a production lives up to its gasp-inducing set. That's the happy case with Josie Rourke's loving revival of Dancing at Lughnasa, which returns Brian Friel's modern-day classic to the building, the National, where this Olivier... Read more... |
Standing at the Sky's Edge, National Theatre review - razor-sharp musical with second-act woesTuesday, 21 February 2023
Buildings can hold memories, the three dimensions of space supplemented by the fourth of time. Ten years ago, I started every working week with a meeting in a room that, for decades, had been used to conduct autopsies – I felt a little chill... Read more... |
Phaedra, National Theatre review - stunning acting in stunning showMonday, 13 February 2023
How can old texts speak to us now? The point is not just to adapt classics, but to reimagine them – and that’s exactly what hotshot Australian director Simon Stone does. Having brilliantly staged Lorca’s Yerma with Billie Piper, he now turns his... Read more... |
Kerry Jackson, National Theatre review - new writing nadirMonday, 12 December 2022
Is British new writing in deep trouble? With the Arts Council defunding venues such as the Hampstead Theatre, the Donmar and the Gate, and past masters such as Terry Johnson underperforming, the signs are not good. But what about the National... Read more... |
Othello, National Theatre review - ambitious but emotionally underpoweredSaturday, 10 December 2022
Clint Dyer is the first black director of Othello at the National Theatre, a venue that once staged the piece with its actor founder Laurence Olivier playing the lead role in blackface. We are reminded of this now-reviled practice before... Read more... |
Hex, National Theatre review - 12 months after being sent to sleep by Covid, Rufus Norris's show is backWednesday, 07 December 2022
Hovering way, way above us, three aptly named high fairies, in voluminous chiffon, open a show that may not be airy in the metaphorical sense, but invites us to cast our eyes upwards continually – no bad thing to do in the bleak midwinter of 2022.... Read more... |
Blues for an Alabama Sky, National Theatre review - superb cast and production for this period hitSaturday, 22 October 2022
The cynical might think Pearl Cleage’s play had been expressly written to address the over-riding issues in today’s USA – abortion and contraception rights, gun control, homophobia, racism. But the cynical would be wrong, as Blues for an Alabama Sky... Read more... |
