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…
Young blood
Dominic Cooke did it at the Royal Court. Now Ed Hall is having crack as well. Cooke’s crazy decision to…
Hell hath no fury…
We all know Edwina Currie as a shrill, tasteless, attention-seeking Thatcherite nuisance from Liverpool. But the private Edwina — as…
