mon 19/05/2025

Theatre Reviews

Leopoldstadt, Wyndham's Theatre review - Stoppard at once personal and accessible

Matt Wolf

It’s not uncommon for playwrights to begin their careers by writing what they know, to co-opt a frequently quoted precept about authorial inspiration.

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Far Away, Donmar Warehouse review - one for the devotees

aleks Sierz

Caryl Churchill, Britain's best living playwright, is enjoying a spate of high-profile revivals of her classic work. Last year, the National Theatre staged her Top Girls, and an upcoming production of A Number is coming soon to the Bridge Theatre.

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Nora: A Doll's House, Young Vic review - Ibsen diced, sliced and reinvented with poetic precision

Heather Neill

Ibsen's Nora slammed the door on her infantilising marriage in 1879 but the sound of it has continued to reverberate down the years.

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Collapsible, Bush Theatre review - a high-wire solo engagement

Tom Birchenough

There’s such remarkable symbiosis between material and performance in Irish dramatist Margaret Perry’s Collapsible that you wonder how the hour-long monologue will fare in any future incarnation.

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On McQuillan's Hill, Finborough Theatre review - timely glance at Northern Irish myths and tensions

Rachel Halliburton

The news that the Continuity IRA created a bomb destined for England on Brexit Day has added to the timeliness of this revival of Joseph Crilly’s gut-punching comedy.

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The Taming of the Shrew, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - a confused and toothless mess

alexandra Coghlan

Say what you will about The Taming of the Shrew (and you’ll be in good company), but it is one of Shakespeare’s clearest plays.

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Death of England, National Theatre review - furious but fabulous

aleks Sierz

Is this an angry island? Although the British national character (if there is such a thing) has traditionally been one of reserve, repression and restraint, more recently it has become increasing passionate and full of anger. More a clenched fist shaken in loud defiance, than a teacup raised in mild annoyance. Brexit hasn't helped. It really hasn't.

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The Haystack, Hampstead Theatre review - a chilling surveillance state thriller

Marianka Swain

With counter-terrorism an urgent concern – and specifically how best to find, track and use the data of suspected threats, without sacrificing our privacy and civil liberties – it’s excellent timing for a meaty drama about the surveillance state.

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Albion, Almeida Theatre review - more rewarding and resonant than ever

Matt Wolf

It's not been three years since Albion premiered at the Almeida Theatre, since which time Brexit has happened and, not without coincidence, Mike Bartlett's time-specific play is beginning to look like one for the ages. Set amongst a community in physical and psychic limbo, Bartlett takes the pulse of a people, and a nation, at odds with themselves.

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Asking For It, Birmingham Repertory Theatre review - victim-blaming and abuse in small town Ireland

Guy Oddy

In a world where the contentious report of a young English woman gang raped by teenage boys in Cyprus last year continues to make headlines, Asking For It is more than relevant. Such scenarios are by no means new but are once again making news. 

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Advertising feature

★★★★★

A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.
The Observer, Kate Kellaway

 

Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.

 

★★★★★

This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.
The Times, Ann Treneman

 

Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.

 

Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.


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