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.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: The Crucible at the National Theatre
Discover what critics have made of Lyndsey Turner’s production of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, officially open at the National Theatre’s Olivier space.
‘Lyndsey Turner’s production is expertly crafted’: AFTER THE END – Theatre Royal Stratford East
Dennis Kelly’s 2005 play After The End is set inside a nuclear fallout shelter, so it is not surprising that it deals with situations beyond the boundaries of what passes for normality.
‘A truly troubling scenario emerges with a horrific imbalance of power’: AFTER THE END – Theatre Royal Stratford East
With all its effortful but pointless violence, Dennis Kelly’s After the End leaves me cold at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.
‘What could be a very clinical piece can also be deeply human’: A NUMBER – Old Vic Theatre
It may be the second time in as many years that Caryl Churchill’s A Number has been performed in London, but it is a play that bears restaging, yielding greater insights every time you see it.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: A Number at the Old Vic Theatre
On LoveLondonLoveCulture, Emma Clarendon rounds up the reviews for the latest revival of Caryl Churchill’s two-hander A Number, now starring Lennie James at Paapa Essiedu at the Old Vic Theatre until 19 March 2022.
‘In most respects a treat to watch’: UNDER MILK WOOD – National Theatre
The National Theatre’s staging of Under Milk Wood is far from the first time Dylan Thomas’ poem has been adapted for the stage. It’s easy to see the temptation to perform a work so packed with characters, drifting through a strange, semi-mythical setting encountering one another.
‘Beautifully pitched adaptation’: UNDER MILK WOOD – National Theatre
Making Under Milk Wood a story within a story is a risk but one that pays off, adding a tender father-son connection that ties that multifaceted sprawl of Dylan Thomas’ story together.
NEWS: The Old Vic announces Back Together season
The Old Vic has announced its Back Together season, the seventh from artistic director Matthew Warchus, which will run from July 2021 to July 2022 and combines both streamed and live shows.
NEWS: Theatremakers from all four nations are celebrated in The Stage 100 list
The Stage has unveiled its annual The Stage 100 list. The list has been re-imagined this year to celebrate individuals who have gone above and beyond in helping theatre survive the biggest crisis the industry has ever faced.
‘Feels particularly timely’: A NUMBER – Bridge Theatre
If the intimate play A Number feels a bit lost in the vast space of the Bridge, the performances are big enough to give it the required punch.
‘Excellent precision delivery’: FAR AWAY – Donmar Warehouse
Churchill’s vision two decades ago in Far Away now seems even more prescient and accurate of planet Earth’s downhill spiral: endless wars and realignments, climate change, imminent environmental catastrophe.
‘Pitch perfect’: FAR AWAY – Donmar Warehouse
Caryl Churchill wrote Far Away in 2000 and, 20 years on, it feels more current by the moment.
‘A beautifully imagined fantastical catastrophe’: FAR AWAY – Donmar Warehouse
This well-focused revival of Caryl Churchill’s, brief dystopic classic Far Away is vivid but frankly unexceptional.
‘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.
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.
‘Provides a combination of dark humour & precisely honed language’: PINTER FOUR – West End
The fourth instalment in Jamie Lloyd’s consistently enjoyable season of Harold Pinter’s short plays contrasts plays from either end of the writer’s career.
‘Top drawer cast, top drawer production’: PINTER FOUR – West End
Like ripping off a dramatic plaster, now that I’ve done one show’s worth of Harold Pinter it’s time to plunge headfirst into another. Pinter Three down, Pinter Four to go.
NEWS: Siobhan Redmond & Katherine Kingsley are cast in Top Girls at the National Theatre
Initial casting for the National Theatre’s production of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls includes Liv Hill (Angie), Katherine Kingsley (Marlene), Wendy Kweh (Lady Nijo), Amanda Lawrence (Pope Joan), Ashley McGuire (Dull Gret), Ashna Rabbheru (Kit) and Siobhan Redmond (Isabella Bird).