Ava Pickett’s latest play starring Michelle Dockery Although Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy is billed as a conflict between two female friends, there is much more to rising playwright Ava Pickett’s dynamic follow up to her award-winning 1536. With feisty dialogue in a domestic Essex sitting room, it’s like a modern Abigail’s Party except there’s […]
The Children — Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
A tender study of nuclear fallout Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children is about energy. The emotional core of the play is a charged love triangle between ex-engineers; its literal core is a broken nuclear reactor that explodes the drama into life. The Children explores the repercussions of an environmental catastrophe as they play out in the […]
Tartuffe (Remixed) – Marylebone Theatre
Mark Rylance stars in a farce for our times When Molière’s farce Tartuffe was first performed for the King of France in 1664, it is thought that it met with royal approval, with King Louis XIV finding it amusing. Shortly afterwards, the play was banned after pressure was brought to bear on the king by […]
Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie (Underbelly Boulevard Soho)
American folk music icon Woody Guthrie’s songs of social injustice, resilience and hope sparkle in the hands of the multitalented Woody Sez cast led by David Lutken
The Story National Theatre
Clint Dyer Brings Kinetic Energy to a Newsroom Battle The newsroom has always struck a chord with storytellers, both on the screen and on the stage, depicting everything from world politics in the 1976 film “All the President’s Men” to comic satire in the 90s TV series “Drop the Dead Donkey”. Drama fuelled by journalistic […]
Electra/Persona – National Theatre
After Sophocles and Ingmar Bergman Two actors enter in front of the audience and ask someone in the front row to spin a coin. It lands on heads, and Cate Blanchett chooses to act as Clytemnestra, leaving Nina Hoss to play Electra. The actors apply white makeup to their faces; we are transported to ancient […]
Abigail’s Party
It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To Last night saw the opening of Abigail’s Party, Mike Leigh’s classic 1970s play, also adapted for TV, that made a star out of the wonderful Alison Steadman in the role of monstrous suburban wife Beverly. This 2024 Stratford East production has returned to London after […]
CATS – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s beloved feline fantasy is back in a dazzling new production that prowls, pounces and ultimately leaves you purring with delight. It can’t be easy bearing the responsibility of bringing one of the most successful and iconic musicals of all time back to the London stage (where it ran for 21 years from […]
Tao of Glass
A Portrait of the Artist… The charismatic Phelim McDermott is the central figure in The Tao of Glass, a work that originated from a unique theatrical collaboration with the American minimalist composer Philip Glass. First staged as part of the 2019 Manchester International Festival, it tracks Phelim’s life from a young theatre-obsessed boy, to a […]
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare’s Globe
Flirting and Flamenco in a Bailar of the Sexes Why isn’t Love’s Labour’s Lost a better loved Shakespeare play? It borrows familiar components audiences know from other pieces – the disguises of Twelfth Night, the “play within a play” antics of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and plenty of romantic chicanery and silliness. Less frequently staged […]