National Theatre
Death of England: Delroy, National Theatre review - a furious if fleetingly seen sequelThursday, 05 November 2020
Broadway tends to be the Darwinian environment where a show's opening night can also mark its closing. But such has been the Covid-prompted fate of the National Theatre's fiery return to the fray that Death of England: Delroy managed 11... Read more... |
An Evening with an Immigrant, Bridge Theatre review – poetic and engagingFriday, 25 September 2020
When the history of British theatre’s response to COVID-19 comes to be written, the names of two men will feature prominently: Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr. The “two Nicks” were the creative force behind the National Theatre’s pioneering NT Live... Read more... |
Amadeus, National Theatre at Home review – wild dance at the edges of sanityFriday, 17 July 2020
It is 41 years since Peter Shaffer ripped off Mozart’s respectable façade to reveal a foul-mouthed verbally incontinent child-man with no more ability to control his behaviour than his genius. Inspired by a short story by Alexander Pushkin that put... Read more... |
Theatre Unlocked 1: George Floyd remembered, a classic transformed, and a call to action re climate changeThursday, 16 July 2020
We're easing out of lockdown, haircuts are being had, and the theatre continually shape-shifts to accommodate these changing times. All credit to the 14 writers who have conjoined forces in urgency and haste to create 846, a collection of audio... Read more... |
The Deep Blue Sea, National Theatre at Home review - hauntingly elegiac portrayal of Rattigan's worldFriday, 10 July 2020
Helen McCrory is an actor who can inject a world of feeling into one syllable that many actors would struggle to muster in an entire script. Towards the end of The Deep Blue Sea, she is telling her estranged husband what it was that attracted... Read more... |
Theatre Lockdown Special 13: Early Lloyd Webber, vintage Rattigan, and a Dame or two in conversationThursday, 09 July 2020
Stop the presses! For the first time in nearly four months, The Arts Desk can point to the first of several live theatre events amongst the highlights of the coming week: the tour across the nation's car parks to multiple drive-in audiences of... Read more... |
Les Blancs, National Theatre at Home review – triumphant revival of forgotten classicFriday, 03 July 2020
Lorraine Hansberry’s debut, A Raisin in the Sun, was the first drama written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway, where it opened in 1959. It is now an American classic, but it’s her last play, Les Blancs, that in the current context of the... Read more... |
Theatre Lockdown Special 12: An American rarity, a British savoury, and fresh ApplesThursday, 02 July 2020
Can this weekly lineup really now be three months old? As we move towards at least some degree of relaxation on the social restrictions that have long been in place, the offerings of theatre online continue to afford many a reason not to leave... Read more... |
Small Island, National Theatre At Home review – big-hearted story hits every beatFriday, 19 June 2020
A British-Jamaican man is confused. It's the Second World War, and he signed up for the RAF on the understanding that he would serve as a pilot overseas. But instead he's ended up as ground crew in a grey Lincolnshire village. "You are overseas,... Read more... |
Theatre Lockdown Special 10: Epic plays from the National Theatre and Broadway alongside voices raised in protestThursday, 18 June 2020
As lockdown continues, National Theatre at Home has announced its final sequence of plays, and several of the very best are being saved for last. That certainly applies to this week's offering, Small Island, whose dissection of Britain's racist past... Read more... |
Theatre Lockdown Special 8: A film star plays tough, and several familiar titles are examined anewThursday, 04 June 2020
As we continue into a third month in lockdown, the arts continue to suggest ever-changing worlds beyond. The invaluable National Theatre at Home this week looks across the Thames to a smaller venue's large-scale Coriolanus, starring a certain... Read more... |
This House, National Theatre at Home review – timely revival of brilliant House of Commons dramaFriday, 29 May 2020
There is a line of argument that – unfairly – blames playwright James Graham for Dominic Cummings. Would Cummings, some might ask, have achieved the influence he has now if it hadn’t been for his depiction in Graham’s brilliant TV drama Brexit... Read more... |
