Let’s face it, Greek tragedy is often earnest, obscure or boring. Not this Medea
Carrie Cracknell’s new version of Medea strikes with overwhelming and rather puzzling force. The royal palace has been done up…
When Mr and Mrs Clever-Nasty-and-Rich met Mr and Mrs Thick-Sweet-and-Poor
Torben Betts, head boy at Alan Ayckbourn’s unofficial school of apprentices, has written at least a dozen plays I’ve never…
Richard Bean doesn’t believe in humans - just weasels, snakes, rats and vultures
Mr Bean, one of our greatest comic exports, has an alter ego. The second Mr Bean, forename Richard, is the…
Isn’t it time we asked the National Theatre to support itself?
Isn’t it time we asked the National Theatre to support itself? Lloyd Evans says yes
The sweating, dust-glazed saints at the Hampstead Theatre tells us nothing new about the miners’ strike
Hampstead’s new play about the 1984 miners’ strike was nearly defeated by technical glitches. Centre stage in Ed Hall’s production…
Fashion Victim – the Musical!: daft camp with a warm heart
Fashion Victim — the Musical!. There’s a title that’s been waiting to be used for ages. The Cinema Museum is…
Mark Benton’s Hobson spares us nothing in his journey from rooftop to gutter
Nice one, Roy. Across the West End secret toasts are being drunk to the England supremo for his exquisitely crafted…
Alex Jennings interview: the new Willy Wonka on Roald Dahl’s ‘child killer’
Alex Jennings, the new Willy Wonka, tells Lloyd Evans why Dahl’s ‘misanthropic world’ is fascinating to inhabit
Did Turgenev foresee Russia’s Stalinist future?
Fans of Chekhov have to endure both feast and famine. Feast because his works are revived everywhere. Famine because he…
The Globe's larf-a-minute Antony and Cleopatra
It’s hilarious. It’s also annoying that it’s so hilarious. Jonathan Munby’s earthy and glamorous production of Antony and Cleopatra goes…
When the big-boobed whisky monster met the upper-class snoot
Lionel is a king of the New York art scene. An internationally renowned connoisseur, he travels the world creating and…
Joan Littlewood has a lot to answer for – but Fings Ain't With They Used T'Be' makes up for it
Joan Littlewood’s greatest disservice to the theatre was to champion ‘the right to fail’, which encouraged writers and directors to…
Polly Teale interview: Cuts are making the theatre ‘a place where you can only survive if you are from a privileged background’
Lloyd Evans talks to the good-natured theatre director Polly Teale
Memo to Nick Payne: filling your plays with cosmic chit-chat doesn’t make you intelligent
How do you write a play? Here’s one theory. Put a guy up a tree, throw rocks at him, get…
From Bletchley Park to Take Your Pick – this baroness’s memoir is a blast
Jean Trumpington’s memoir, published as she closes in on her 92nd birthday, is an absolute blast from the opening page.…
The Silver Tassie: a lavish, experimental muddle that slithers into a coma
The Silver Tassie is the major opening at the Lyttelton this spring. Sean O’Casey’s rarely staged play introduces us to…
Everyone should see this pious anti-war monologue – seriously
Off to the Gate for a special treat: a pious anti-war monologue from the prize-winning American George Brant. Curtain up.…
The Guardian didn’t much like Noel Coward’s Relative Values – but you will
Cripes. How did I get that one wrong? A few issues back I blithely predicted that Harry Hill’s musical I…
The real original kitchen-sink drama
Rewrite the history books! Tradition tells us that kitchen-sink drama began in 1956 with Look Back in Anger. A season…
Another Country could almost be a YouTube advert for Eton
Another Country was an instant response to Anthony Blunt’s exposure in 1979 as a Marxist spy. Julian Mitchell set out…
Beware of Banksy: his art can make you homeless
You may not have heard of Goldie. He’s an actor and singer whose name refers to the bullion with which…
Simon Cowell’s latest attempt at global domination
I Can’t Sing! is a parody of The X Factor, which already parodies itself at every turn. Quite a tough…
Why are Shakespeare’s women so feeble?
Shakespeare did not give his female characters pivotal roles, but some of his contemporaries did, as Lloyd Evans discovers
Where’s a goofy, flat-chested shrew when you need one?
Ray Cooney, the master of farce, is back. These days he’s in the modest Menier rather than the wonderful West…
A gaggle of husbands and a pair of piglets
Here’s a great idea for a play. Turn the polygamy principle upside-down and you get a female egoist presiding over…
