Weather Afternoon: 6°c Sleet Tonight: 2°c Mostly cloudy

Theatre RSS

Absent Friends

Absent Friends, Harold Pinter Theatre - review

First night: Absent Friends makes grief funny - a rare feat. And although Alan Ayckbourn's 1974 play is a period piece, its sharp understanding of psychology feels up-to-date  Comments
Rating: 4 out of 5
The Heresy of Love

The Heresy of Love, The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon - review

While too many scenes are earnestly loquacious, there's power in Helen Edmundson's positive feminist vision of Juana Inés de la Cruz  Comments
Rating: 3 out of 5
Flamenco

Suspiro Flamenco/Manuela Carrasco, Sadler's Wells - review

This is flamenco with roots as deep and old as dance itself - a woman letting the music inhabit her, and calling on the spirits to do likewise  Comments
Rating: 3 out of 5

Sex With a Stranger

Sex With a Stranger, Trafalgar Studios - review

First night: Phillip Breen's intimate production is absorbing and the committed performances make this a satisfying, unsettling experience  Comments
Rating: 4 out of 5
Tyne Daly

Masterclass, Vaudeville - review

This is exactly what the title says: the occasion for a magisterial and classy performance from Tyne Daly as the wildly popular soprano Maria Callas  Comments
Rating: 4 out of 5

Noises Off

My play's a big noise at Old Vic but I thought no one would stage it

It has become the highest-grossing Old Vic show since Kevin Spacey took over at the theatre's helm  Comments

The Rodin Project / Russell Maliphant Company - review

Russell Maliphant's new work opens, appropriately enough given the artist who inspired it, like a fin de siècle fantasy of classical Greece  Comments
Rating: 5 out of 5

Angle: Repentance / Behind the Lines - review

Angle is a theatre company which sets out to discovers new playwrights, developing and presenting work by previously unheard voices  Comments
Rating: 3 out of 5

The Changeling, Young Vic - review

First night: Jam, jelly and custard do not usually play a large part in The Changeling. The opening night shows a messy approach to a tale of tragedy and vengeance  Comments
Rating: 2 out of 5

Wayne McGregor’s FAR

Wayne McGregor/Candoco/Hofesh Shechter, Sadler's Wells - review

At first sight this evening was a pretty disparate bit of packaging. An excerpt from Wayne McGregor's FAR was followed by Set and Reset/Reset, Candoco Dance Company's reworking of an Eighties minimalist classic by Trisha Brown  Comments
Rating: 4 out of 5
The Dream

The Dream/Song of the Earth/Royal Ballet, Covent Garden - review

The unenviable task of making us forget that there was ever a Sergei Polunin at the Royal Ballet fell to Steven McRae, and was made all the more difficult by the role in which he had to do it  Comments
Rating: 4 out of 5

Nathan Stewart Jarrett

The Pitchfork Disney, Arcola - review

Ridley's writing delights in metaphor and is often intriguing, yet it's rather too effortfully enigmatic. Ultimately the surrealism and operatic gestures feel punishing  Comments
Rating: 2 out of 5
She Stoops to Conquer

She Stoops to Conquer, National (Olivier) - review

First night: She Stoops To Conquer is almost 240 years old, but Oliver Goldsmith's tightly plotted play seems wonderfully youthful in this fizzy production  Comments (1)
Rating: 5 out of 5

Port Authority

Port Authority, Southwark Playhouse - review

Despite flashes of lyricism and humour this production doesn't grip us. Although McPherson's piece is inherently static, the decision to seat the actors in front of an array of empty crates emphasises the lack of vitality  Comments (1)
Rating: 3 out of 5
Katherine Kelly on theatre and in Coronation Street

Street star's West End coronation

Former Coronation Street actress Katherine Kelly has been hailed as a new star of the West End stage after swapping leopardskin and Lycra for the corsets of 18th Century comedy  Comments (1)

Midnight Tango

Midnight Tango, Aldwych Theatre - review

Strictly Come Dancing stars Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace hang their tango showcase on a narrative thread - twinned tales of a boy overcoming his sleazy rival to win the girl, and an elderly couple rekindling the fire in their relationship  Comments
Rating: 3 out of 5

Men in Motion, Sadler's Wells - review

Striking passages - like the intimately simple waltzes between the men which end with Sillis throwing himself foetally into Putrov's arms - but too much stodge between them  Comments (2)
Rating: 3 out of 5

Sergei Polunin as Des Grieux

Tattoos, tutus and tantrums at Royal Ballet

Dance company's party-loving star sleeps it off after making a dramatic exit  Comments (6)
The House of Bernarda Alba

The House of Bernarda Alba, Almeida - review

In Bijan Sheibani's production of Federico García Lorca's final play, the action has been transposed from rural Spain to Iran. It's a decision that feels wilful  Comments
Rating: 3 out of 5

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew, RST - review

There's an intriguing statistic in the programme. Between 1908 and 1944, The Taming of the Shrew was staged almost every year in Stratford. Since 1960, however, there have been a more modest 13 RSC versions  Comments
Rating: 3 out of 5
The Trial of Ubu

The Trial of Ubu, Hampstead Theatre - review

First night: Courtroom drama is always popular, and Simon Stephens subverts the conventions of the genre in this sharply contemporary piece, inventively directed by Katie Mitchell  Comments (1)
Rating: 3 out of 5


 

Theatre top five
Matilda The Musical
Matilda: The Musical

Cambridge Theatre

Earlham Street, WC2H 9HU

Rating: 5 out of 5
The Comedy Of Errors

National Theatre

SE1 9PX

Rating: 4 out of 5
Hamlet

Young Vic

The Cut, SE1 8LZ

Rating: 4 out of 5
The Ladykillers

Gielgud Theatre

Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 6AR

Rating: 4 out of 5
Noises Off

Old Vic

The Cut, SE1 8NB

Rating: 4 out of 5

London's Weather
Afternoon
Sleet
6°c
Tonight
Mostly cloudy
2°c
5 day forecast