With the total loss of its Arts Council funding, Hampstead Theatre’s future as a specialist new writing venue is in doubt. But before anything drastically changes, the playwrights and plays developed by Roxana Silbert, who was edged out as artistic director in December last year, are still coming through. One of them is Ruby Thomas, whose Either, her 2019 drama in the studio here, was thrillingly experimental. Boy, can she write! Her latest, this time on the main stage, is Linck & Mülhahn, a historical queer love story which features a gender-pioneering couple.
‘Sharp, credible & funny’: LINCK & MULHAHN – Hampstead Theatre
The story of Linck and Mulhahn in 1722 is the backbone of a fascinating story which inspires a playful tragicomedy from Ruby Thomas at the Hampstead Theatre, who has already dazzled us twice downstairs in this theatre which discovers new writers and tends them well.
‘A good story well told’: THE MEMORY OF WATER – Hampstead Theatre
I remember seeing Shelagh Stephenson’s contemporary classic at the Hampstead, when this venue was still an ageing prefab, and enjoying Terry Johnson’s racy staging,
‘The superb script is compellingly brought to life’: THE MEMORY OF WATER – Hampstead Theatre ★★★★
The three sisters in Shelagh Stephenson’s play The Memory of Water – Teresa (Lucy Black), Mary (Laura Rogers) and Catherine (Carolina Main) – have gathered at their mother’s home ahead of her funeral.
‘The great lines keep on coming’: THE MEMORY OF WATER – Hampstead Theatre ★★★★★
Libby Purves is tempted to see The Memory of Water at Hampstead Theatre again, just to feel a more solidly packed audience laughing and gasping around her. That’s how much fun it was.
‘Timely & relevant drama’: THE HAYSTACK – Hampstead Theatre
If neither newspapers nor intelligence services will lose sleep over the way Blyth represents them, The Haystack is insightful enough to be a contemporary state-of-the-nation parable.
‘A blistering attack on the politics of the era’: TOP GIRLS – National Theatre
I’m coming to Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (1982) afresh. Well, sort of. I read the play a few years ago, but I’ve not seen it and wasn’t born until 10 years after its original production at the Royal Court.
‘Its intelligence is as pin-sharp as ever’: TOP GIRLS – National Theatre
Caryl Churchill’s superb Top Girls receives a luxurious but clear-sighted production from Lyndsey Turner at the National Theatre.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Top Girls at the National Theatre
Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews for Lyndsey Turner’s revival of Caryl Churchill’s play Top Girls.
‘A brightly directed version of a supremely intelligent drama’: TOP GIRLS – National Theatre
Enjoyably high-definition revival of Caryl Churchill’s 1982 feminist classic Top Girls gets the National’s big-stage treatment.
‘This tale of impossible love clutches at your heart’: The York Realist – Donmar Warehouse
Nothing feels rushed in Robert Hastie’s wonderful new production of The Yor Realist at the Donmar Warehouse, allowing this beautifully sad production to really touch the heart. A modern classic and a Yorkshire Brief Encounter indeed.