In Michael Longhurst’s dreamy new London production of The Band’s Visit at the Donmar Warehouse, where everyone is close to the stage, it’s enchanting and quietly riveting. It also features, in the work of leading lady Miri Mesika, in the role that won Katrina Lenk the 2018 Outstanding Actress Tony, one of the most remarkable British stage debuts in living memory.
‘A moving experience’: SILENCE – Donmar Warehouse
In Silence at the Donmar Warehouse four British playwrights have adapted Kavita Puri’s book Partition Voices: Untold British Stories in a joint production between Donmar Warehouse and Tara Theatre.
‘Factual approach strips away some of the emotion’: SILENCE – Donmar Warehouse ★★★
Silence at the Donmar Warehouse is based on a non-fiction book by journalist Kavita Puri who interviewed people who lived through the partition of India in 1947 and subsequently settled in the UK.
‘Convincing & urgent’: THE TRIALS – Donmar Warehouse
In developing The Trials, the Donmar worked with more than 1,300 young people plus a further 200 in workshops at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and National Youth Theatre. Director Natalie Abrahami, helped by designer Georgia Lowe and video maker Nina Dunn, has created a compelling production, with more than half the cast making their stage debuts.
‘A door slam may be decisive but it’s not final’: A DOLL’S HOUSE PART II – Donmar Warehouse
Does A Doll’s House really need an epilogue? On this evidence it’s a sound choice. The force and weight of Ibsen’s play came from the decision to abandon institutional forces – the husband, the baby, the estate; but in A Doll’s House Part II at the Donmar Warehouse Lucas Hnath, with sound reason and compassion, reminds us that human beings prop up society’s structures and they too have a voice and perspective worth hearing.
‘A tough watch with an abstract style & disjointed scenes’: MARYS SEACOLE – Donmar Warehouse
Jackie Sibblies Drury’s new play is an entirely female affair, no male characters are present, implied or even speak, only the time-travelling idea of Mary, her ghostly mother, Mary’s daughter and another tri-generational white family.
‘The story of the pioneering Jamaican nurse seems to get lost’: MARYS SEACOLE – Donmar Warehouse ★★
What I was expecting from Jackie Sibblies Drury’s play highlighting the story of pioneering Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole was a straightforward biopic with her story being recounted maybe from the present day.
‘A relevant & timely production that will stay with you long after it has finished’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★
This powerful and thought-provoking production is electrifying to watch from start to finish.
‘As much calculating businessman as inspirational ruler’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse
There’s way too much going on in this production of Henry V at the Donmar Warehouse, despite Kit Harington’s return to the stage.
‘Kit Harington combines drop-dead gorgeous with an innate everyman likability’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★★
This thrilling Donmar revival comes at a particularly interesting time in global history, where an unchecked leader invading a neighbouring country on which he has no authentic claim is likely to provoke a particularly vehement reaction.
‘Kit Harington is nuanced, often quiet & considered’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★★
Henry V opens with a burst of energy at a club with a worse for wear party prince. It’s lifted from Henry IV part 2 and is an important reminder of Henry V’s past and subsequent transformation into a serious king.
‘This is easily Kit Harington’s finest career performance on stage or screen’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse
Henry V is the greatest war play ever written and is the template for all literary responses to conflict since produced.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Force Majeure at the Donmar Warehouse
On LoveLondonLoveCulture, Emma Clarendon rounds up the reviews for the stage adaptation of Ruben Östlund’s film Force Majeure, now at London’s Donmar Warehouse until 5 February 2022.
‘Interesting themes about human behaviour under extreme pressure’: FORCE MAJEURE – Donmar Warehouse
Force Majeure is a random act of God that cannot be predicted or measured that entirely disrupts planned activity, something we can all appreciate a little better in the past two years.
‘Genius programming for winter 2022’: FORCE MAJEURE – Donmar Warehouse ★★★
Inspired programming here. You’d find a decent overlap in any January Venn diagram of regular Donmar audiences and people who wish they were skiing.
‘Shades of Scandi humour on the slopes’: FORCE MAJEURE – Donmar Warehouse
The Donmar Warehouse’s stage has been converted into a French ski resort for Force Majeure.
Force Majeur…
‘Director Michael Longhurst brings ski slopes to Covent Garden’: FORCE MAJEURE – Donmar Warehouse
Adapted from Ruben Östlund’s film, Force Majeure is an exercise in family breakdown set among a group of well-off Swedes on a skiing holiday.
‘Great writing can be interpreted & reinterpreted in any number of ways’: CONSTELLATIONS – Donmar Warehouse (Online review)
There’s a world (indeed, a universe) of possibilities in this intriguing play about decisions and repercussions.
‘Devastating, dark & rich’: LOVE & OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★★
The birth of a new star is always a source of theatrical excitement, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen a professional debut as impressive as that of Abigail Weinstock.
NEWS: National Theatre Live returns to cinemas in January with four productions
National Theatre Live will return with a new programme of four productions to be broadcast to audiences worldwide in cinemas, in January.