Theatre
Ayckbourn again
Experts are concerned that Alan Ayckbourn’s plays may soon face extinction. Fewer than 80 of these precious beasts still exist…
A family at war
Bad Jews has completed its long trek from a smallish out-of-town venue to a full-scale West End berth. Billed as…
Poetry in motion
Quite a hit factory these days, the Hampstead Theatre. The latest candidate for West End glory is Hugh Whitemore’s bio-drama…
Nothing to write home about
Philip Ridley is best known as the screenwriter of The Krays, in which Gary and Martin Kemp played Ronnie and…
State of the arts
The season of cringe-making acceptance speeches at arts awards ceremonies is nearly over, thank heavens. But it hasn’t passed without…
Good old bad old days
Anthony Quinn’s fourth novel, set in London’s artistic and theatrical circles in 1936, is not the kind in which an…
Suite nothings
One of last year’s unexpected treasures was a novelty show by Defibrillator that took three neglected Tennessee Williams plays, all…
GBH meets BS
When I was a kid, I was taught by a kindly old Jesuit whose youth had been beguiled by George…
Audience participation
Torben Betts is much admired by his near-namesake Quentin Letts for socking it to London trendies. Letts is one of…
State-funded twaddle
‘We hate the system and we want the system to pay us to say we hate the system.’ The oratorio…
Barometer
Watching brief Samsung warned users of its voice-activated televisions that what they said in front of the TV could be…
Friends reunited
New venue. New enticement. In the undercroft of a vast but disregarded Bloomsbury church nestles the Museum of Comedy. The…
All in the mind
Big event. A new play from Sir Tom. And he tackles one of philosophy’s oldest and crunchiest issues, which varsity…
It’s a knockout
A knockout show at the Young Vic. Literally. The stage has been reconfigured as a boxing ring to make Mike…
Balkans ballyhoo
A masterpiece at the National. A masterpiece of persuasion and bewitchment. Croatian word-athlete Tena Stivicic has miraculously convinced director Howard…
A London Christmas
I have been having my vault done over. Not, as you might think, the family strong room, but the place…
Sin city
When to launch? For impresarios, this is the eternal dilemma. Autumn is so crowded with press nights that producers are…
Slow burn
Go slow at Dagenham. The musical based on the film about a pay dispute in the 1960s starts as a…
It was a wonderful town
I picked up this book with real enthusiasm. Who cannot be entranced by those 20 years after the second world…
Mis-en-Mars
You have to hand it to the Russians. They beat us into space, beat us to sexual equality, and a…
Men behaving badly
Start with a joke. Neville’s Island. Get it? Laughing yet? Are your ribs splitting into pieces? It’s a cracker, isn’t…
East up West
David Baddiel has turned his movie, The Infidel, into a musical. The set-up is so contrived and clumsy that it…
Sister act
First, a bit of background. Conquering Agamemnon slew his daughter, Iphigenia, in return for a fair wind to Troy. This…
The Tim and Andy show
Tim and Andy are back. Their monster hit Evita opens the fully refurbed and re-primped Dominion Theatre, which is built…
Director’s cut
At the age of 75, the theatre director Michael Rudman has got around to his memoirs, their title taken from…
