Personal politics on stage at Jerwood Theatre Upstairs ‘I’m not going to talk about October 7, I’m not going to talk about the war in Gaza. I’m going to talk about my divorce,’ Yousef Sweid informs the audience in his opening paragraph. The audience laughs – partly relieved and partly amused – because the play’s […]
Brighton Festival
Brighton Celebrates the Arts with a Wide-Ranging Festival A sprawling jamboree of arts and entertainment, the Brighton Festival returns to the city and surrounding areas in May for its 60th edition, bigger and better than ever before. Music, both classical and popular, circus, dance, literature, visual arts, you name it, all will be there vying […]
Copenhagen – Hampstead Theatre
A lesson in quantum mechanics, ethics and human connection With wars breaking out around the globe and the geopolitics unsteady, the reprisal of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen at Hampstead Theatre feels uncomfortably prescient. As bombings of nuclear facilities are shown on our news programmes, a play reflecting on the 1930s race to understand nuclear fission and […]
INTER ALIA
I Fought The Law, But The Law Won After its successful run at the Lyttleton, National Theatre, Olivier Award-winning writer Suzie Miller’s legal drama Inter Alia is back for a new run, this time at Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End and with Rosamund Pike reprising her role as London Crown Court Judge Jessica Parks. Miller made a […]
The Authenticator
In The Authenticator, the act of proving what is real becomes inseparable from uncovering what has been deliberately hidden Some years ago, I travelled to Antigua to cover Sailing Week, an extravagant festival held every year at the end of the Caribbean sailing season with exclusive champagne parties, mega-yachts with professional crew and massive events […]
Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Lyttelton Theatre
Wicked little letters Guest Post by Natalie York The National Theatre’s much-anticipated production of Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses coincides with the playwright’s 80th birthday and just over 60 years of writing for the stage. Hampton’s adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 epistolatory classic retains the original’s outrage at a calcified and predatory aristocracy […]
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding – Hammersmith Lyric
Joyful, award-winning Broadway play makes its UK debut, revealing touching individual stories underlying the immigrant experience This timely play by Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh premiered on Broadway as part of the Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2023–2024 season and quickly caught the public’s attention. Its run was extended twice during its limited season, and a series of […]
John Proctor is the Villain – Royal Court
A special kind of witchcraft In a wonderful coincidence of staging at the Royal Court, John Proctor is the Villain opens 70 years after Arthur Miller’s The Crucible had its UK premiere in the same theatre. The play written by Kimberly Belflower derives its name from the protagonist of Miller’s much-lauded play. John Proctor is […]
Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House
Bravado and Bravura in this barnstormer of a production Oliver Mears’s Rigoletto is back at the Royal Opera House with a revival of his production of Rigoletto. The story of Rigoletto is adapted from Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’Amuse (The King Amuses Himself). Rigoletto’s librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, replaced the king with the Duke of […]
America the Beautiful Chapter 1, King’s Head Theatre
Shocking shorts The America on view in Neil LaBute’s trio of short plays that make up Chapter 1 of America the Beautiful is a disquieting, ugly place. LaBute (In the Company of Men, The Shape of Things, Fat Pig) has often been badged the great misanthrope of the American stage and screen, and his reputation […]