Reviews - Theatre
April 28, 2011 Shakespeare Franchis'd - Or Lincoln Allison on why Cardenio is more like Blackadder meets The Three Amigos than Shakespeare Lincoln Allison
July 09, 2010 Brendan Simms asks, did Terence Rattigan try to suppress After the Dance because it was too revealing about his affair with Chips Channon? Terence Rattigan's After the Dance at the National Brendan Simms
July 07, 2010 A play poised on the threshold of a new, Victorian, world: London Assurance - Dion Boucicault David Womersley
June 02, 2010 The Empire is not as predictable a play about Afghanistan as you might expect from the Royal Court, argues Brendan Simms: D. C. Moore's The Empire at the Royal Court Brendan Simms
April 26, 2010 No good even if you were to agree with its politics: Richard D. North on Edward Bond's Bingo at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester Richard D. North
March 04, 2010 Bruckner's bleak work shows not so much the futility of bourgeois life, as the futility of trying to escape it, argues Brendan Simms: Pains of Youth - Ferdinand Bruckner in a new version by Martin Crimp Brendan Simms
February 09, 2010 Keira Knightley as Celimene? David Womersley argues this is a return to the play's origins: The Misanthrope - Molière in a version by Martin Crimp David Womersley
December 07, 2009 An anti-semitic Fledermaus in Berlin? Brendan Simms on Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus at the Staatsoper Unter Den Linden, Berlin Brendan Simms
September 07, 2009 Brendan Simms on a work whose time has come: The Black Album - Hanif Kureishi Brendan Simms
May 20, 2009 David Womersley endures excruciating theatre: Madame de Sade - Yukio Mishima David Womersley
August 21, 2008 The Craftiest of Madness: The "Sci Fi" Hamlet at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford Lincoln Allison
July 24, 2008 A Feminist Farce or a Farce About Feminism? Kenneth Minogue decides that farce is the natural genre for capturing ideology: The Female of the Species - Joanna Murray-Smith Kenneth Minogue
May 15, 2008 Brendan Simms uncovers the hidden neoconservatism of Martin Crimp - and is reminded that it sometimes takes a general: Martin Crimp's Cruel and Tender Brendan Simms
April 28, 2008 Treason in a Cold Climate: Brendan Simms on the treason of Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess and why it matters Brendan Simms
April 10, 2008 Embarrassed by Shylock: The Merchant of Venice at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford Lincoln Allison
March 26, 2008 The revival of Edward Bond's 1973 play The Sea makes David Wootton realise that Britain really has become a better place since then: Edward Bond's The Sea at The Haymarket David Wootton
March 25, 2008 Happy Now is a play that doesn't quite work - but it is a very interesting failure, says David Wootton: Lucinda Coxon's Happy Now at the National David Wootton
March 20, 2008 The Homecoming is today a different play than it was in 1965 or even in 2001 - David Wootton explains why: Harold Pinter's The Homecoming at the Almeida David Wootton
January 30, 2008 The Fat Man Trying to Get Out: Henry IV, Parts I & II at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford Lincoln Allison
December 12, 2007 David Wootton sees Euripides's The Women of Troy and finds his thoughts drifting away to the sub prime mortgage market: Euripides's The Women of Troy at the National David Wootton
November 19, 2007 David Wootton is shocked and intrigued by a strange play about sex: Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine at the Almeida Theatre David Wootton
November 05, 2007 Christie Davies laughs at the sheer silliness of the French in Ionesco's Rhinoceros at the Royal Court Christie Davies
October 29, 2007 The politics of Pinter's The Hothouse are those of the right, not the left - argues David Wootton David Wootton
October 01, 2007 A deeply flawed, but also quite wonderful production: The Merchant of Venice at the Globe David Wootton
September 21, 2007 Richard Cussands's new play Charity Wars is too grim even for those who have a jaundiced view of international aid, argues Brendan Simms - Richard Cussands's Charity Wars at the Pleasance Theatre, Islington Brendan Simms
August 21, 2007 David Womersley asks, is The Taming of the Shrew really as phallocentric a play as it seems? The Taming of the Shrew - Creation Theatre Company at Oxford Castle David Womersley
July 13, 2007 What is Chekhov's The Seagull about? David Womersley offers some suggestions David Womersley
July 05, 2007 Reconciliation between black and black in South Africa: Nothing but the Truth - John Kani Brendan Simms
June 18, 2007 Brendan Simms finds that Kurt Weill's political propaganda does not work when it is done for laughs - even if it is translated by Rory Bremner: Kurt Weill's Der Silbersee at the Wexford Festival Opera Brendan Simms
May 16, 2007 Anton and Agoraphobia: Anton Chekhov's The Seagull - RSC at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford Lincoln Allison
May 10, 2007 Lear, Tolstoy, Orwell . . . . and Me: King Lear - RSC at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford Lincoln Allison
May 03, 2007 In the age of Al-Qaeda, Equus's denigration of the normal is past its sell-by date, argues David Womersley: Equus - Peter Shaffer David Womersley
March 15, 2007 Equus is a play that reminds us that on the stage absolutely anything is possible - including the straightforwardly impossible: Equus - Peter Shaffer David Wootton
February 22, 2007 Historian David Wootton finds that Coram Boy is piffle - but he then remembers that the National Theatre's job is to put on plays, not teach history: Coram Boy - Jamilia Gavin/ Helen Edmundson David Wootton
February 19, 2007 The dialogue is dreadful, the sex is ridiculous, the rock and roll gratuitous and the politics impossible - David Wootton explains why he hates Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll David Wootton
January 29, 2007 Beckett for those who don't like Beckett: Happy Days - Samuel Beckett David Wootton
January 29, 2007 The Banality of Goodness: Richard III - RSC at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford Lincoln Allison
January 16, 2007 A culture clash between two very different practices of female life: Much Ado About Nothing - RSC at the Novello Theatre, London Kenneth Minogue
January 03, 2007 Look Out, Falstaff's Behind You: Merry Wives - The Musical at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Lincoln Allison
November 28, 2006 On Mimicry and Creativity: Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon at the Gielgud Theatre, London Lincoln Allison
November 14, 2006 Austrian anti-Nazism and other fairy-stories: The Sound of Music - Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein David Womersley
October 31, 2006 David Wootton asks - apart from Brecht - why has our culture failed to turn Galileo into a hero? The Life of Galileo - Bertolt Brecht David Wootton
October 25, 2006 The Terrors of the Bear-Garden: Henry VI, Parts I, II & III - RSC at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford Lincoln Allison
October 24, 2006 David Womersley explains why the newspaper reviewers have all got it wrong - The Voysey Inheritance is a far more morally-explosive play than it has been given credit for: The Voysey Inheritance - Harley Granville Barker David Womersley
October 24, 2006 Edward Bond attempts - and fails - to use drama as a medium to promote "advanced" opinion: Restoration - Edward Bond David Womersley
October 17, 2006 What is Waiting for Godot about? David Womersley explains that Godot is not about religion, Beckett's own experiences or politics, but instead offers a conservative vision of life: Peter Hall's production of Waiting for Godot David Womersley
October 02, 2006 Storm of Ideas: The Tempest - RSC at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Lincoln Allison
September 22, 2006 Fellow-Travelling, Czechoslovakia and the soundtrack to our lives: Rock 'n' Roll - Tom Stoppard Richard D. North
September 21, 2006 Peter Hall's production of Measure for Measure is the most complete and moving rendition of this difficult but wonderful work which I have ever seen, says David Womersley: Measure for Measure at Stratford David Womersley
September 19, 2006 Time has proven Pravda's prophecies wrong - so, Richard D. North asks, why is Chichester reviving the play?: Pravda - Howard Brenton and David Hare Richard D. North
September 18, 2006 Strindberg's The Father exhibits the politics of the caveman - yet it is a brilliant, engrossing play, argues Richard D. North: August Strindberg's The Father at Chichester Richard D. North
September 06, 2006 Christie Davies sees a play that should never have been revived and remembers Emmanuel College reunions: Donkeys' Years - Michael Frayn Christie Davies
July 08, 2006 I'm Hal from Chicago: Henry IV, Parts I & II performed by the Chicago Shakespeare Theater Company as part of the RSC's Complete Works Festival, Stratford-upon-Avon Lincoln Allison
June 08, 2006 A strange, transitional play: Romeo and Juliet - RSC at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford David Womersley