Decline and fall
It’s an unlovely venue, for sure. Charing Cross Theatre, underneath the arches, likes to welcome vagrant plays that can’t find…
Lost cause
Here’s a tip for play-goers. When the curtain goes up on a garden, prepare for some feeble plotting. The glory…
Let’s hear it for the toffs
This is a strange one. Simon Paisley Day’s new play feels like a conventional comedy of manners. Three couples pitch…
Passion player
Zoë Wanamaker on politics, acting, and drinking vodka
Without motive
There are many pleasures in The Light Princess, a new musical by Tori Amos. George MacDonald’s fairy story introduces us…
Cheering for Shirley
Decent, clever, charming, eloquent, hard-working, conscientious and terribly, terribly nice, Shirley Williams is one of Britain’s best-loved politicians. Mark Peel’s…
Lagging behind
Bang! The race is on. James Graham is the celebrated author of This House, a superb examination of Labour’s administrative…
The rivals
A feast of pleasures, and some annoyances, at the Trike. Handbagged, by Moira Buffini, is a fictional account of the…
Brecht will be Brecht
Brecht in the West End? Quite a rarity. Jonathan Church’s zippy and stylish version of The Resistible Rise of Arturo…
Aiming low
How appropriate. Barking in Essex, a farce about gangsters, has been dishonestly billed as ‘a new comedy’. The script was…
Freudian slip
Terry Johnson’s acclaimed farce Hysteria opens in Sigmund Freud’s Hampstead home in 1938. The godfather of psychobabble is ambushed by…
Porn and pontiffs
Suddenly they’re all at it. Actors, that is, writing plays. David Haig, Rory Kinnear and Simon Paisley Day are all…
Girls allowed
More un-Shakespearean drama at London’s leading Shakespeare venue. The Globe has pushed the Bard off stage to make way for…
Spreading Brecht’s message
Lloyd Evans talks to Henry Goodman about his role in the playwright’s political allegory
Quest for Tank Man
Chimerica. The weird title of Lucy Kirkwood’s hit play conjoins the names of the eastern and western superpowers and promises…
Dodgy dealings
High summer and it’s blockbuster time. The Donmar’s latest show is by the acclaimed Nick Payne, whose play about string…
Edinburgh impressions
Lloyd Evans finds politics everywhere: not only in the architecture but at the Fringe too
The Edinburgh experience
Lloyd Evans samples the delights of the Fringe
A noo era
Hats off for theatrical recklessness. The producer Danielle Tarento has taken a $10-million Broadway mega-musical and staged it in the…
False starts
This is brilliant. The new play by Oliver Cotton, a 69-year-old actor, is set in New York in 1986. An…
Defying type
Lloyd Evans meets the ever-versatile David Haig
Cheek by Jumbo
West End producers are itching to get their hands on the new show at the Bush. Mama Mia’s director, Phyllida…
Bring on the clowns
The Ladykillers is back. Sean Foley’s adaptation of the classic Ealing comedy introduces us to a crew of villains who…
A fine vintage
Lloyd Evans meets Peter Nichols, who, in his ninth decade, is riding a wave of public favour
Miscast Macbeth
It’s always a problem with Macbeth: what accents to use? The Globe is applying the traditional remedy. Lord and Lady…
