However, Dominic Cooke’s production of Emlyn Williams’ play The Corn Is Green makes a good case for reviving it but the real reason to see the drama is for Nicola Walker.
‘Ralph Fiennes is in his element as a man whose tragic flaw will clearly be his downfall’: STRAIGHT LINE CRAZY – Bridge Theatre
David Hare’s new play is a history lesson. New York city planner Robert Moses shaped the modern city by supplying it with expressways and parkways.
‘Sets a new standard for future productions of Shakespeare’s problematic play’: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
The Merchant of Venice is seen as a problematic play but, increasingly, it seems that the problems are with us, as much as they are with Shakespeare.
‘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 confused approach manifests itself in a very uneven set of performances’: HAMLET – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Sean Holmes’ new production of Hamlet in the Globe’s indoor space opens with a snatch of “Oh mother I can feel the soil falling over my head”, from The Smiths’ song ‘I Know It’s Over’.
‘The kind of work that, in ten years’ time, people will still be wondering at’: THE GLOW – Royal Court Theatre
The concept is like a Doctor Who plot opened up beyond the confines of a genre, to encompass limitless possibilities. It is both enthralling and disturbing.
‘Dynamic, energetic & paced like an 800m race’: FAIR PLAY – Bush Theatre
Ella Road’s new two-hander is set in the world of track athletics, but the two characters, Ann (NicK King) and Sophie (Charlotte Beaumont) are not just any runners.
‘Always compelling to watch’: MEASURE FOR MEASURE – Shakespeare’s Globe
For her last production at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Blanche McIntyre expertly conjured the life of a city onto a tiny stage. Her Measure for Measure is another city play, but of a very different kind.
‘A triumphant evening’: THE COMEDY OF ERRORS – Barbican Centre (RSC)
Like all theatre companies, the Royal Shakespeare Company has experienced a tough 18 months.
‘Michael Pennington’s voice is remarkable’: THE TEMPEST – Jermyn Street Theatre
The Jermyn Street Theatre is a tiny place to stage a play that is more usually seen filling all the space on offer at the RSC or the National Theatre, but the scale gives Tom Littler’s production of The Tempest particular meaning.
‘A well-chosen & beautifully cast pair of plays’: FOOTFALLS & ROCKABY – Jermyn Street Theatre
In the tiny, pub theatre-esque Jermyn Street Theatre Samuel Beckett’s two monologues, Footfalls and Rockaby, exert a powerful hold.
‘A sad & elegaic play that seems to have gained significance’: HOME – Chichester Festival Theatre
Although David Storey is a somewhat forgotten writer, wildly successful from the late 1960s to the late ’70s as both a playwright and novelist, but then just as suddenly out of fashion, Home is the play that is consistently revived.
‘Raw history not yet ready to be consigned to the past’: THE NORMAL HEART – National Theatre
First staged in 1985, just before the AIDS epidemic had fully entered public consciousness, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart rails against the refusal of US authorities to acknowledge anything was wrong.
‘Charming performers fill the stage heroically’: CHANGING DESTINY – Young Vic Theatre
The Young Vic is configured in the round for Changing Destiny, Ben Okri’s adaptation of a 4,000 year old Egyptian myth.
‘A powerful play from an author we need to hear’: LAVA – Bush Theatre
The lava in the title of Benedict Lombe’s new, fierce, autobiographical play is anger. It flows over the stage, filling the crevasses of the set, and through Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo’s smouldering performance, which soon bursts into flame.
‘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.
‘One of the most absorbing & significant plays every written’: HAPPY DAYS – Riverside Studios
Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days is, as Lisa Dwan observes, often described as ‘the female Hamlet’. Dwan has played every other female Beckett lead but even she was intimidated by a role previously inhabited by Peggy Ashcroft, Brenda Bruce, Fiona Shaw and Juliet Stevenson, among others. It is understandable. Happy Days, first performed in 1961, is a mighty play, and 60 years later still unlike anything you’ve seen.
‘The writing is nuanced & structured’: HYMN – Almeida Theatre (Online review)
In an empty Almeida Theatre, two heavyweight actors – Adrian Lester and Danny Sapani – bring serious male energy to Lolita Chakrabati’s new play Hymn.
‘Powerful, funny & thoroughly engaging’: NAKED – Cockpit Theatre (Online review)
NAKED is a powerful, funny and thoroughly engaging piece of physical theatre. It is the first show from performers Luke Vincent and Paige-Marie Baker-Carroll of the NAKEDpresents queer collective.
‘We are transported somewhere far from Covid’: UNCLE VANYA – Harold Pinter Theatre (Screening)
Cut off in its prime in March, Ian Rickson’s Uncle Vanya returns to us from an empty theatre, filmed for cinema release.