This is the big one. The Crucible is the National Theatre at its strongest: unapologetic, classic, unsparing, gripping, impassioned. Here’s the heavy artillery, intellectual and dramatic, a big ensemble on a bare stage conjuring – in Es Devlin’s moody set – an illimitable blackness beyond. Hell and hysteria rage and choke and howl out across the centuries with all the power of irrationality.
‘It’s a blunt force impact of emotion, building to a frenzy’: CRAVE – Chichester Festival Theatre
Crave is a blunt force impact of emotion, building to a frenzy and then, in a little under 50 minutes, it’s over and we leave. The world outside is just the same, but we’re refreshed – a vital dose of theatre to see us through winter months.
‘Feels like a statement of intent’: CRAVE – Chichester Festival Theatre
A Sarah Kane play is by no means a safe option for any theatre looking to attract audiences back to its auditorium, but this bold and intriguing production of Crave at Chichester Festival Theatre was worth the risk.
NEWS: Full casting & creative team announced for Crave at Chichester Festival Theatre
Wendy Kweh and Jonathan Slinger join Erin Doherty and Alfred Enoch in Tinuke Craig’s production of Sarah Kane’s Crave at the Chichester Festival Theatre.
‘Big ideas & goals underpin the writing’: WOLFIE – Theatre503
Despite Wolfie at Theatre503 being the first play from Ross Willis and certainly not a flawless one, it demonstrates a laudable ambition and sense of scale.
‘A dark tale that positively throbs with excitement’: WOLFIE – Theatre 503
Ross Willis’ dazzle-bright debut play Wolfie is wild and wonderfully imaginative: innovative fringe theatre triumphs again.
WATCH: Terri’s show vlogs on Julius Caesar, Beginning & Foul Pages
I’ve been raving about Julius Caesar to everyone over the past few weeks, and particularly the experience of seeing it in the pit of the staggeringly versatile Bridge Theatre.
‘All futuristic dystopias are commentaries on the present’: #TheDivide @oldvictheatre
Alan Ayckbourn’s epic, very, very long satire on religion and sexual segregation prefers comedy to tragedy.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL – Old Vic Theatre ★★★★★
It takes a lot to put me in the mood for Christmas. But if anything can, this inventive A Christmas Carol does, pulling together tip-top modern stagecraft, a venerated story, and our proudest 200-year-old theatre.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL – Old Vic Theatre ★★★★★
It takes a lot to put me in the mood for Christmas. But if anything can, this inventive A Christmas Carol does, pulling together tip-top modern stagecraft, a venerated story, and our proudest 200-year-old theatre.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL – Old Vic ★★★★
The Old Vic’s gloriously exuberant production is a wonderful combination of classic Dickens with a touch of Brucie’s Generation Game thrown in. Presiding over it all is the belligerent Ebenezer Scrooge played to gleeful excess by Rhys Ifans.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL – Old Vic Theatre ❄❄❄❄❄
Despite our typical view of the Victorians being highly conservative in every aspect of their lives, the young queen was relatively liberal – and A Christmas Carol is almost surprisingly socialist. And it’s this that Jack Thorne seems to have really played upon when adapting it for this brand new stage production.
THE DIVIDE PARTS 1 & 2 – Edinburgh & Old Vic Theatre
★★★☆☆ Long time coming:
The official Festival’s flagship production of Alan Ayckbourn’s The Divide at the King’s contains multitudes.
NEWS: Stephen Daldry directs two premieres in Lan’s final Young Vic season
Fresh from his award-winning screen success with The Crown, former Royal Court artistic director Stephen Daldry will return to the stage to helm two world premiere plays in the Young Vic’s newly announced 2017/18 season.
NEWS: Cast & dates announced for Alan Ayckbourn’s The Divide at Old Vic
The Old Vic today gives a sneak preview of what’s to come in 2018 at The Old Vic during its bicentenary, with dates and full casting announced for the year’s first production: the London transfer of Alan Ayckbourn’s new dystopian family drama The Divide.
Theatre diary: Guards at the Taj, Junkyard & Waiting for God
In its depiction of two pawns caught up unwillingly in the machinations of the rich and powerful and its philosophical banter, Guards at the Taj reminds me a lot of Tom Stoppard‘s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Who won what in the 2017 Manchester Theatre Awards?
The Manchester Theatre Awards represent the cream of theatre in my native North-West.
WISH LIST – Royal Court
You could call it the Corbynisation of new writing. In the past couple of years, a series of plays have plumbed the lower depths, looking at the subject of good people trapped in zero-hour contracts and terrible working conditions. Like Ken Loach’s dreary film, I, Daniel Blake, these plays have integrity, but very little dramatic content.
WISH LIST – Royal Court Theatre
New play about casual work and disability is a thinly written Corbynesque drama.
Judging Sondheim Society Student standouts and new songs … from my seat in the stalls
On Sunday, I attended my first Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year Awards (or, the SSSSPOTYs, ‘for short’!). The competition is now in its ninth year – and I, for one, certainly intend to be back for its tenth anniversary in 2016. The SSSSPOTYs …. wait, wait, do I really have to call them […]