Looking ahead to some of 2020’s exciting shows, most with an emphasis away from the West End and instead focusing at the London Fringe and across the UK.
‘The thriller aspects are definitely effective, if not the sense of history’: ANNA – National Theatre
Intriguing Cold War thriller Anna is thoroughly immersive, but lacks a convincing sense of historical reality.
‘Intriguing but strangely disconnected’: When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other – National Theatre
The publicity for Martin Crimp’s new play, gleefully stoked by the National Theatre, has been all about Cate Blanchett and ‘bondage’ scenes
‘Dazzlingly complex & immensely provocative piece of new writing’: When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other – National Theatre
Martin Crimp’s new play, When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other at the National Theatre, has been hyped because of its star, Cate Blanchett, and rightly so: it’s a five-star show.
‘Odd yet gripping production’: When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other – National Theatre ★★★
While it may not necessarily live up to expectations, When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other is a dark humoured, somewhat odd yet gripping production, and worth a watch for the performances alone. But if it’s the shock value you’re after, there is nothing here that you wouldn’t see on post-watershed television.
‘There’s something to enjoy in its batshit relentlessness’: When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other – National Theatre
Strong performances from Cate Blanchett and Stephen Dillane make the challenging When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other worth the effort at the National Theatre.
Is it time for theatres to reward loyal ticket buyers and how should it be done?
When tickets went on sale for the concluding play in Jamie Lloyd’s Pinter at the Pinter season – Betrayal starring Tom Hiddleston – those who had already booked tickets for other, arguably less commercial plays, were given 24-hours priority booking.
NEWS: National Theatre’s new season features Andrea Levy’s Small Island, Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls & Lenny Henry as Richard Pryor
Rufus Norris has unveiled the National Theatre’s plans for 2019 and beyond. Highlights include the world premiere of Small Island adapted by Helen Edmundson from Andrea Levy’s novel, directed by Rufus Norris.
NEWS: Cate Blanchett will make her National Theatre debut opposite Stephen Dillane in new Martin Crimp play in January 2019
Cate Blanchett and Stephen Dillane will perform in the world premiere of Martin Crimp’s play When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other (Twelve Variations On Samuel Richardson’s Pamela), directed by Katie Mitchell at the National Theatre in January 2019.
‘Sublimely atmospheric opera’: LESSONS IN LOVE & VIOLENCE – Royal Opera House
Lessons in Love & Violence is a deliciously cool, intellectually stimulating and tremendously suggestive reading of a brilliant piece about the politics of power, the confusion of desire and the horror of violence. If love can make us human, so can murder.
NEWS: David Lan announced as Special Award winner at the Olivier Awards for his work at the Young Vic
Former artistic director of the Young Vic, director and playwright David Lan will be presented with the Special Award at the Olivier Awards 2018 ceremony on Sunday 8 April at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Lucia di Lammermoor at Royal Opera House
Katie Mitchell’s production of Donizetti’s opera is revived at the Royal Opera House. But what have critics had to say about it?
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Anatomy of a Suicide at Royal Court Theatre
Katie Mitchell directs Alice Birch’s play, being performed at the Royal Court Theatre as part of the theatre’s Jerwood New Playwrights programme. But what have critics been saying about it?
ANATOMY OF A SUICIDE – Royal Court
Love her or hate her, Katie Mitchell is surely our most bravely iconoclastic theatre director working in Britain today. If Robert Lepage is the magician who smoothes the cracks between technology and stagecraft, Katie Mitchell is the one who adds tough edginess.
ANATOMY OF A SUICIDE – Royal Court
And what an excruciating, yet devastatingly brilliant, two hours they are. The play shows episodes from the life of the women of one family spread over three time periods: one starts in the 1970s, the next in the 1990s and the third in the 2030s.
CITY OF GLASS – Lyric Hammersmith
City of Glass, the first part of Auster’s New York Trilogy, was first published in 1985. It’s an enjoyably tricksy, postmodern novel in which Daniel Quinn, a detective-story writer, becomes a freelance investigator after answering a mysterious telephone call.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Written on Skin at the Royal Opera House
George Benjamin and Martin Crimp’s opera is revived at the Royal Opera House for the first time, directed by Katie Mitchell and running until 30 January 2017. Here is what critics have been saying about it.
Year in Review: Carole Woddis’ top 20 new plays of 2016 (with special praise for the Fringe)
Recalling the year past, which is de rigueur for those of us who have spent too many nights in darkened rooms, I’m struck again by the richness and talent of so many shows I’ve seen, particularly in the smaller and Off-West End and Fringe venues.
HEDDA GABLER – National Theatre
Top director Ivo van Hove makes an uneven Southbank debut, preferring visual beauty to emotional connection.
NEWS: Dr Seuss’s Cat in the Hat returns for second festive season at Pleasance
Following a run at London’s Pleasance Theatre, Islington in 2014 and two sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the acclaimed stage adaptation of Dr Seuss’s The Cat In The Hat will return this festive season, running again at the Pleasance from Tuesday 6 December 2016 to Monday 2 January 2017.
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