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…
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…
