How Facebook became a freedom-gobbling corporate monster
Southwark Playhouse is beating the latest lockdown with a zingy new musical about social media. The performers, Francesca Forristal and…
Actors will be in trouble if the Bridge Theatre's latest experiment catches on
Flight has been hailed as a new form of dramatic presentation — prefab theatre. It’s great to look at. A…
Stick it on the BBC: Love Letters at Theatre Royal Haymarket reviewed
Love Letters by A.R. Gurney began life as an epistolary novella about two childhood friends, Andy and Melissa, whose on-off…
Deserves to be a permanent winter fixture: Potted Panto at the Garrick reviewed
Potted Panto is a 70-minute parody presented by two burlesque comedians. Jeff is a tall, playful bungler and his colleague,…
Like eating 58 luxury chocolates: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk reviewed
The Flying Lovers of Vitebskbegins with a phone conversation between a pretentious art critic and a man called Marc. This…
Absorbing and beautifully designed: Jane Eyre reviewed
Blackeyed Theatre is another victim of the virus. Its production of Jane Eyrewas midway through a UK tour, and due…
Skilful and riveting: Poltergeist at the Southwark Playhouse reviewed
Sasha is angry. He’s a gay artist on his way to his niece’s birthday party and he keeps popping codeine…
As an essay in cheap comedy the show is a great success: Emilia reviewed
Emilia is a period piece about Emilia Bassano who may have been the ‘dark lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The writer,…
Racists will love it: National Theatre's Death of England – Delroy reviewed
Death of England: Delroy is a companion piece to Death of England, which ran in February at the NT and…
The Beeb could turn this script into TV gold: Howerd's End reviewed
It’s touch and go whether the theatre will survive this latest assault. Some venues have pushed back their entire programme…
Finally a lockdown drama that will endure: James Graham's Bubble reviewed
Theatres can open if they want to. That’s the current position. The only factor keeping a playhouse dark is a…
The mix of slapstick and sermonising is certainly original: In Bad Taste reviewed
In Bad Taste is a slapstick comedy about five female terrorists who murder the governor of the Bank of England.…
The jackboot zealotry of ushers is ruining theatre
Southwark Playhouse has revived an American show, The Last Five Years, whose run was cancelled in March. In advance, I…
A night of angry pipsqueaks: Young Vic's 50th birthday gala reviewed
When Kwame Kwei-Armah took over the Young Vic he strapped a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign over the front of the…
Enjoyable but hardly classic Alan Bennett: The Outside Dog & The Hand of God reviewed
The season of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads continues at the Bridge. In The Hand of God we meet Celia, a…
Inside the anti-lockdown rally
The anti-lockdown rally at Trafalgar Square was organised by Save Our Rights UK. This embryonic organisation is so new that…
Brilliantly performed twaddle: Old Vic’s Faith Healer reviewed
The Old Vic refuses to reopen. Director Matthew Warchus says the social distancing rules make it impossible for him to…
Covid marshals are killing theatre: The Shrine & Bed Among the Lentils reviewed
Covid marshals have invaded theatreland. Arriving for a weekday matinee at the Bridge, I was greeted by stewards holding up…
What I learnt as an Oxford vaccine guinea pig
Was the Oxford vaccine trial paused? Mine wasn’t. I signed up for it last week, in the 55 to 69-year-old…
An investor should snap up this weepy musical: Sleepless reviewed
It has roughly the same proportions as Shakespeare’s Globe. The Roman Theatre in Verulamium (St Albans) is an atmospheric ruin…
Defund theatres – and give the money to gardeners and bingo halls
Why does the state fund theatres and not gardening and bingo, asks Lloyd Evans
‘It’s not a crime to understand science': Behind the scenes at Extinction Rebellion
There was plastic aplenty at today’s Extinction Rebellion rally in Parliament Square. Plastic shoes, plastic badges, plastic sunglasses, plastic phone covers. A…
Edinburgh Festival is in ruins – but there's one gem amid the rubble
The virus has broken Edinburgh. The shattered remnants of the festival are visible on the internet. Here’s what happened. The…
How No. 10 outsmarted Alastair Campbell
LBC broadcaster Iain Dale has moved his Edinburgh Festival ‘All Talk’ series to Zoom, and yesterday he spoke to Alastair…
The New Normal Festival shows how theatre could return
So the madness continues. Planes full of passengers are going everywhere. Theatres full of ghosts are going bust. My first…
