In A Very Expensive Poison Lucy Prebble has serious arguments to outlay about the relationship between international governments and narrative misdirection, but the broadly comic approach to presentation feels at odds with the meaning of the play.
‘A great political play’: HANSARD – National Theatre
Hansard is a great political play, one that tells us everything about the society we have become and why the impasse of the last three years cannot be easily broken.
‘The past is never just the past’: APPROPRIATE – Donmar Warehouse
Jacobs-Jenkins explores how even fairly recent national history can be sanitised and reduced when examined from only one perspective in Appropriate at the Donmar Warehouse.
‘Will be long remembered’: LES MISERABLES – THE STAGED CONCERT – West End
Like its predecessors, 2019’s Les Misérables: The Staged Concert will be long remembered as another notable event in the musical’s performance history, heralding the return of Michael Ball to a show he helped to establish, but this time in the role of Javert.
‘Thoughtful arguments grounded in a recognisable reality’: ACTUALLY – West End
Actually has its issues as a drama and the heavily discursive competing narratives approach limits how the play is staged that can feel repetitive at times, but Ziegler has created a scenario and two complicated people who feel credibly drawn.
‘Oh what a show! Raw, fresh & intense’: EVITA – Open Air Theatre
With plenty to say about the shallow foundations of political leaders hiding behind their PR machines, Jamie Lloyd’s triumphant Evita is raw, fresh and intense – “oh what a show!”
‘Proves valuable & illuminating’: SOUTHERN BELLES – King’s Head Theatre
As the conclusion to a strong season of unusual Williams revivals, Southern Belles proves valuable and illuminating, concluding with an important moment of solidarity that leaves the audience with a sense of hope and the value of community to take home.
‘There is something life-affirming about it’: THE VIEW UPSTAIRS – Soho Theatre
Max Vernon’s musical The View UpStairs making its European debut at the Soho Theatre and running for just five weeks, commemorates the 1973 arson attack on a gay bar in New Orleans which was the most significant event of its kind until 2016’s Florida shootings.
‘Clive Owen makes a superb return to the stage’: THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA – West End
Gripping performances from Clive Owen and Lia Williams, and James Macdonald’s slow-burn direction allows Tennessee Williams’ writing in The Night Of The Iguana to cast its spell.
‘You can practically hear doors flinging open to Yarrow all over town’: JOSEPH & THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT – West End
The staging and orchestration of the Palladium’s new version of Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat looks to the future, as a whole new set of children fall in love with this perennial musical.
‘Thorne’s writing is meaningful & engaging’: THE END OF HISTORY – Royal Court Theatre
In The End of History Thorne shuffles various perspectives within the family, examining their different experiences of the same events from multiple angles, and while these differences drive wedges between them, ultimately and with hope for the future, he explores the ties that keep people together.
‘Simply a wonderful night at the theatre’: PRESENT LAUGHTER – The Old Vic
The Old Vic’s production of Present Laughter finally feels as though we’re shaking off some of the restraints that have shackled Noel Coward to the past.
‘Has nothing to say & misses the point’: BITTER WHEAT – West End
Bitter Wheat is not only frustratingly irresponsible in its treatment of the events that led to the #MeToo movement, it is also a poorly constructed drama.
‘Brings a fresh, more contemporary feel’: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – Bridge Theatre
It is the slight rearrangement of the text and its implication for the female characters that is Nicholas Hytner’s most notable achievement here in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre.
‘Highly stylised & fast-moving production which has a lot to say’: EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION – Trafalgar Studios
However light its frame, ultimately Education, Education, Education has serious points to make about the short-termist approaches to education funding used cynically as a political tool to win voters.
‘Sets Williams’ seminal drama in an entirely new context without changing a word’: THE GLASS MENAGERIE – Arcola Theatre
Femi Elufowoju Jr’s production of The Glass Menagerie is fascinating with the tense and vibrant second half in particular proving both gripping and illuminating
‘The strength of the production is in its slow-build effect’: OUR TOWN – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
Thornton Wilder’s writing in Our Town feels as fresh and innovative as it must have done in the 1930s and taking an early season risk on a less conventional play ultimately pays off.
‘Consistently interesting & valuable experience’: ORPHEUS DESCENDING – Menier Chocolate Factory
Even a middling Tennessee Williams play – Orpheus Descending – is better than most, and this one still has plenty to say about sacrifice and suffocation in small-town America
‘It’s more than enough that this eye-opening production exists at all’: DEATH OF A SALESMAN – Young Vic
It’s Marianne Elliott’s impressionistic approach that yields considerable insight into the themes of Death of a Salesman, the characters’ attachment to material possessions as indicators of success, and most especially to the physical home that contains their family history, which they have spent decades slowly paying-off.
‘Hayley Atwell’s multi-layered performance reveals a heroine like no other’: ROSMERSHOLM – West End
Most importantly Ian Rickson’s gripping production of Rosmersholm suggests that great female roles are to be found among the classics if only we look hard enough.