The National Theatre’s 2016 production of Les Blancs was directed by Yaël Farber and used the full resources of the Olivier stage to transmit its full force.
‘Raw & fascinating to watch’: LES BLANCS – National Theatre at Home (Online review) ★★★★★
Lorraine Hansberry’s play Les Blancs is vividly and powerfully brought to life in Yaël Farber‘s atmospheric production.
NEWS: Government announces £1.5 billion lifeline for UK arts & culture
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has bowed to pressure from the arts world and unveiled a £1.57 billion lifeline for the UK’s theatres, venues and museums struggling to stay afloat in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
NEWS: Designers launch #MissingLiveTheatre across the UK & Ireland
In collaboration with theatres across the UK, #scenechange – a community for stage designers taking action for theatre – has launched #MissingLiveTheatre, wrapping theatre buildings in a positive message of hope and visibility to the industry.
‘A modern-day classic about an age-old problem’: SMALL ISLAND – National Theatre (Online review)
A terrific and epic play about the Windrush generation: Andrea Levy’s sprawling novel Small Island has been turned into a glorious staged adaptation by writer Helen Edmundson.
‘Mark Gatiss’ mesmerising acting dominates the play’: THE MADNESS OF GEORGE III – Nottingham Playhouse (Online review)
Alan Bennett writes that “I’ve always had a soft spot for George III”, for no better reason than that he had studied the monarch’s reign at secondary school and then again at uni.
‘A towering central performance by Mark Gatiss’: THE MADNESS OF GEORGE III – Nottingham Playhouse (Online review)
An excellent production of a modern classic with a towering central performance: Alan Bennett’s early 1990s play examines public versus private monarchical concerns at the end of the 18th century in the latest stream from National Theatre At Home.
NEWS: National Theatre announces five final free lockdown YouTube streams
The National Theatre today announces a further five productions that will be streamed as a part of the National Theatre at Home series.
‘A lean, swift & feisty political thriller’: CORIOLANUS – Donmar Warehouse (Online review)
To take a play as epic in scale as Coriolanus and find a natural home within the intimacy of London’s Donmar Warehouse takes a skill and lightness of touch that is not only rare but all so often missed.
NEWS: National Theatre at Home screens Mark Gatiss in Alan Bennett’s The Madness of George III
Alan Bennett’s epic multi-award-winning drama The Madness of George III, starring Mark Gatiss in the title role, will be streamed from next Thursday 11 June 2020 via National Theatre at Home.
‘It is immediately clear how prescient it was’: THIS HOUSE – National Theatre (Online review)
The chaos of national politics in the mid-1970s seemed light years away in 2014, but how arrogant that assumption seems now.
‘Power is shown to be almost totally male-dominated’: THIS HOUSE – National Theatre (Online review)
The plotline of James Graham play covers several years during a period when majorities were slim and politics was a brutal business.
Recalling Tom Hiddleston in CORIOLANUS: ‘One of the best nights of theatre of my life’
It is not often that one reviews a play one saw six years ago, but with the forthcoming National Theatre At Home streaming of the Donmar Warehouse production of Coriolanus, right now seems a strangely appropriate time to recall one of the best nights of theatre of my life.
‘Gillian Anderson’s performance is a scorcher’: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Young Vic Theatre (Online review)
World on fire: The NT Live recording of this classic Young Vic production stars Gillian Anderson and is genuinely unmissable.
‘A vivid kaleidoscope of culture & thinking’: BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES – National Theatre ★★★★★ (Online review)
You can’t beat the experience of sitting in a theatre watching a live performance, but one of the lockdown-positives is a chance to watch stuff I sadly missed and Barber Shop Chronicles is one of those.
‘A lovely energy & pace runs right through the production’: BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES – National Theatre ★★★★★ (Online review)
This is a gloriously funny and heartfelt play that offers a fascinating insight into how the barbershop is a place of vital importance for African men.
‘Ralph Fiennes & Sophie Okonedo are well matched’: ANTONY & CLEOPATRA – National Theatre (Online review)
I’ve always found Antony and Cleopatra a bit of a slog. There, I’ve said it. Too many scenes which flit about all over the place, too many minor inconsequential characters, deaths which seem interminable.
The best play I’ve seen for each of the past 10 years (aka the agony-to-choose list)
Not to let a decade of theatre bloggery go by without marking the occasion, to kick things off, I’ve compiled a list of my favourite play for each year I’ve been blogging. It has been fun revisiting my best-of lists but absolute agony narrowing each list down to just one.
Frankenstein vs Frankenstein: Was role swapping any more than a gimmick?
This is the theatre at its very best and on screen, both productions are gripping, using the camera work to richly convey the abstract shapes and grand vision of its boldly beautiful staging, while allowing the connection between the lead actors to shine.
‘It is also about the elemental longing of all of us for human connection’: FRANKENSTEIN – National Theatre (Online review)
The megahit NT Live version of this iconic tale of creative hubris features a dynamic acting duo, but it is not perfect.