New play about motherhood and vampirism is disappointingly incoherent Motherhood is a high stress job. Ask any woman and they will tell you the same: sleepless nights, feeding problems and …
April De Angelis's 1993 play is a delightful if sketchy account of Restoration female actors Creatives " or creatures? In the 1660s, women " having been banned from working as actors in pre…
New play about the game of Dungeons & Dragons explores fact and fantasy "The exercise of fantasy is to imagine other ways of life," says one of the role-players during a Dungeons & …
The Guyanese migrant experience of 1970s London gets the big-stage treatment Plays about the Windrush Generation are no longer a rarity, but it's still unusual for revivals of black British…
Gaza play is both surreally humorous and finally devastating The war in Gaza has been going since 7 October 2023 " that's about 15 months. But it's strangely absent from British stages. Of …
House of Cards writer tackles AI and religion, but without the necessary clarity Our humanity is defined not only by our use of language, but also by our sense of the spiritual. Whether you…
New West End drama about spicing up marriage is oddly lacking in passion Since when has new writing become so passionless? Mike Bartlett is one of the country's premiere playwrights and his…
A new sci-fi gothic horror about life after death is intriguing, but flawed I always advocate in favour of more sci-fi plays, and over the past decade there have been a gratifying number of …
Howard Brenton's new play about Winston and Stalin is both intelligent and fun Playwrights who work for decades often acquire a moniker. In the case of Howard Brenton, who began his career …
New play about mental breakdown is a mix of acute distress and poetic writing In a world tainted with racism and homophobia, the Bush theatre is something of a refuge from prejudice. As one …
South African satire about racism, sexism, home ownership and community politics Most Brits don't know much about South Africa today, but we do know about house values, so this new comedy b…
Tom Stoppard's classic evocation of Victorian golden age Oxford stars Simon Russell Beale Can men really love each other " without sex? Or, to put it another way, how many different forms of…
Gig theatre piece about the pain and redemption of a pioneer reggae artist I live in Brixton, south London. To get to the tube, I have to cross Windrush Square. Since 2021, I go past the Ch…
New play about a paedophile ring foregrounds the voices of British-Pakistani women British theatre excels in presenting social issues: at its best, it shines a bright light on the controver…
This venue's annual festive classic is seasonally joyous, but its writing is frankly patronizing This Dickens classic is an annual treat, or a Christmas trial " depending on your point of v…
New play about young black men and cryptocurrency is sadly predictable Cryptocurrency is like the myth of El Dorado " a promised land made of fool's gold. Despite its liberatory potential, …
The latest in Forced Entertainment's 40 years of experiment is a thought-tickling farce Can experimental theatre survive the decades? This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Forced Enter…
Hanif Kureishi classic gets a compulsively comic makeover from Emma Rice Hanif Kureishi's 1990 novel The Buddha of Suburbia begins like this: "My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman …
Richard Bean's new work play revisits the Hull fishing industry of the 1970s "Don't take a piss in the house of a woman you have made a widow." The mixture of earthy comedy and tragic pain i…
Lorraine Hansberry classic is both a historical gem and a play for today Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is not only the first play by a black woman to premiere on Broadway, back i…
New play about the consequences of a plane hijack is energetic but unconvincing Air travel is bad for us. Yes, yes, I know we need planes to take us long distances, but look at the downside…
Two all-time 1950s classics, 'Look Back in Anger' and 'Roots', get super revivals by young directors Why should we not look back in anger? With the Oasis reunion tour in the news recently, …
Tanika Gupta's new play is a beautifully heartfelt mix of comedy and tragedy Queenie is in trouble. Bad trouble. For about a year now, this 68-year-old Indian woman has been forgetful. Losi…
Brilliant revival of this key absurdist play stars Lucian Msamati and Ben Whishaw Modernism is us. Today. For the past two decades plays by Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter " which once upo…
Slender new play about political and gender prejudice in 1950s American science British theatre has a proud heritage of science plays. From 1990s classics such as Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (199…