The Royal Shakespeare Company joins forces with BBC4 for the world premiere of A Winter’s Tale, a production intended for the 2020 stage and all but lost to theatre history.
‘Suffused with goodwill, invention, care & Christmas cheer’: Lyceum Christmas Tales Live – Edinburgh (Online review) ★★★★
Lyceum Christmas Tales may have been born out of necessity, but the whole enterprise has taken on a beauty and importance of its own.
‘Urgent, provocative & familiar all at the same time’: NORA: A DOLL’S HOUSE – Young Vic Theatre
Despite the challenges, and judging by the Young Vic’s typically youthful, mixed audience, Nora: A Doll’s House is a production to which they can relate and which, so far as I could see, kept them on the edge of their seats.
‘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.
‘Hard to beat’: THE DUCHESS [OF MALFI] – Edinburgh ★★★★
The blood-soaked events of The Duchess [of Malfi], a co-production between the Lyceum and the Citizens Theatre, are almost unwatchably intense at times. As a depiction of timeless and timely considerations, however, this production is hard to beat.
‘Chillingly relevant’: ROMEO & JULIET – Barbican Theatre ★★★★
Romeo & Juliet, with Karen Fishwick and Bally Gill as the leads, arrives at the Barbican as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s London residency. Although written over four centuries ago, this production feels chillingly relevant.
‘Its heart is in the right place’: WHITE TEETH – Kiln Theatre
An imaginative adaptation of Zadie Smith’s 2000 contemporary classic White Teeth at the Kiln Theatre is let down by unnecessary music.
‘Riotous, joyous expression of the human spirit’: CYRANO DE BERGERAC – Edinburgh ★★★★★
Visually and verbally intoxicating, Cyrano de Bergerac at the Lyceum, Edinburgh is a riotous, joyous expression of the human spirit.
‘Comes as something of a shock’: THE GREAT WAVE – National Theatre ★★★★
Francis Turnly’s The Great Wave, at the National Theatre, is as good a portrait of the rule of fear and its consequences as we’re likely to see this or any year.
‘Really roars’: THE GREAT WAVE – National Theatre
Based on the eye-opening true stories of Japanese people abducted by the North Korean regime, in order for them to train spies and saboteurs, Great Wave expresses thrilling feelings of loss, guilt and partial redemption. The Great Wave really roars.
‘It is one of the best staging’s BOV has produced in the past few years’: THE CHERRY ORCHARD – Bristol ★★★★★
This Cherry Orchard is a production that showcases Michael Boyd, his ensemble, Chekhov and Bristol Old Vic at its very best. I love the theatre when it’s this good.
NEWS: Matthew Kelly & Josefina Gabrielle star in The Box of Delights stage premiere
Matthew Kelly and Josefina Gabrielle are to star in the new, world premiere stage adaptation of John Masefield’s 1935 Christmas book The Box of Delights, which runs at London’s Wilton’s Music Hall from 1 December 2017 to 6 January 2018.
RHINOCEROS – Edinburgh International Festival ★★★★
Wild: The EIF’s Rhinoceros is a thoroughly contemporary take on a modern classic, combining knockabout comedy with a deep consideration of human society.
HARROGATE – Royal Court & touring
Al Smith’s debut play about love, perversion and memory is both electrifying and emotionally satisfying.
ENDGAME – Manchester
A curtain featuring pretty painted seaside picture lifts slowly to reveal Tom Piper’s suitably grimy set – rusty, damp and closed off from the world. There are two small windows offering a peek outside, but you’ll need a ladder to reach them and a cloth to clean them. Samuel Beckett’s Endgame is an extraordinary piece of writing, a classic of modern theatre and this collaboration between the Citizens Theatre and HOME is as vital and as macabre as it should be.