Male order
Here’s a great idea for a play. Turn the polygamy principle upside-down and you get a female egoist presiding over…
Diligent drudgery
What’s the quickest way to create a hit musical? Base it on a bestselling book. The writers of The A-Z…
Freak factory
Interesting times at Soho Theatre. One of its outstanding shows of last year, Fleabag, was an offbeat Gothic love story…
Sweet talk
Tracy Letts, of the Chicago company Steppenwolf, has written one of the best plays of the past ten years. August:…
Misdirected rage
Here it is. Fifty years late. Oh What a Lovely War was originally staged at Stratford East in 1964. It…
Putin’s poison
Sochi 2014 is the least wintry Winter Olympics ever. Yes, there’s a bit of downhill shimmying going on in the…
Tales from Oxford
Why, oh why, the producers ask, are the national press so reluctant to cover the London fringe? The snag is…
Lear for masochists
Directors appear to have two design options when approaching a Shakespeare tragedy. Woodstock or jackboot. Woodstock means papal robes, shoulder-length…
Art vs profit
Here’s a heartwarming tale from the London fringe. A company named Above the Stag was merrily plying its trade at…
The curiosity in the cabinet
John Biffen was mentally ill. This is the outstanding revelation of Semi-Detached, a memoir which has been assembled from his…
Long division
Of all the West End’s unloved venues the loveliest is the Arts Theatre. It specialises in creaky off-beat plays like…
Going for a duck
It’s taken me a few months to catch up with the political farce The Duck House. Then again, it’s taken…
Size matters
It starts with a brilliant joke. We’re in the Weimar Republic in 1929. Little Emil Tischbein is listening to his…
The lady vanishes
Lloyd Evans tries to get a handle on Birgette Hjort Sorensen
Male order
Henry V is the final show in Michael Grandage’s first West End season. The theatre was full to bursting on…
Larval Butterworth
In 1992 Quentin Tarentino gave us Reservoir Dogs. At a stroke he reinvented the gangster genre and turned it into…
Circus of blood
Strange actor, Martin Shaw. He’s got all the right equipment for major stardom: a handsome and complicated face, a languid…
Miller’s tale
Lloyd Evans talks to Ben Miller about politics, physics and his part in The Duck House
In the slammer
Athol Fugard is regarded as a theatrical titan but I usually need a microscope to find any trace of greatness…
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…
