67 stories by "Andrew Haydon"
The Belgrade International Theatre Festival, universally known as BITEF (Beogradski Internacionalni TEatarski Festival) has been running for 49 unbroken years. A remarkable
Three of the most outspoken and inventive plays at this year's fringe come from alumni of Warwick University fired up by recent student protestsThe best three pieces of theatre that I've see…
Contact theatre, ManchesterFrom a pea-eating contest with cocktail sticks to a Bacchic ritual of desire and violence, this inventive, physical triple bill was enjoyably tough to categoriseEv…
Forced Entertainment are live-streaming tabletop versions of the Bard's complete works, with cutlery, cans and candlesticks as characters. If that sounds unpromising, then it fits the compan…
Sex and scandal are integral to this classic Viennese play, but British directors seem to be shy of telling it like it isIf most new openings seem to be about communism at the moment, it's s…
Recent events in Hungary, Belarus and Iraq show that governments find theatre dangerous enough to think it's worth banning. So what should we be doing in response?
In Germany, I saw a white woman dress as a gorilla to play Othello. Yet the best that Britain seems to do is Clybourne Park - a play which aims for laughs rather than a serious examination o…
Some say that theatre is all about liveness and intimacy, others that it needs to be epic in scope. Both can't be right, surely?Does size matter? It strikes me that the biggest single issue …
Recent events in Hungary, Belarus and Iraq show that governments find theatre dangerous enough to think it's worth banning. So what should we be doing in response?In the past month, three ra…
One is supposedly writer-led, the other director-led; one genuinely made classics speak to the present day while the other boomed with new writing. But these two countries' productions are l…
Set back from Unter der Linden, Berlin's wide tree-lined avenue sweeping east to west from Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburg Gate, the Maxim
Sherman Cymru, CardiffSophie Melville is superb in this reworked version of the myth that follows a disaffected young woman kicking hard against a bleak worldIf you take a slight detour on t…
Merthyr Tydfil Labour ClubNational Theatre Wales attempts to rehabilitate Bertolt Brecht's cold pragmatist as a sentimental, Shameless-style rogue Continue reading...
The underfunded Portuguese festival presented a wealth of intriguing dramas from directors including Ivica Buljan and Romina Paula Continue reading...
Live streaming and online interactivity mean it may be time to reconsider what we mean by live performance, and it's companies such as Coney who are at the vanguardA strange thing happened l…
Forget what you think you know about My Fair Lady this German version features everything from Mozart to Wham!The Swiss director Christoph Marthaler's Meine Faire Dame isn't just a German-l…
Romanian playwrights are taking an unflinchingly look at their country with targets matching those of their British counterpartsThe work staged this month at an international theatre festiva…
Several current stage hits suggest British theatre is looking outwards. Andrew Haydon is delighted, but thinks there is a way to go when translating and staging texts from abroadBack in 2008…
Stadsteatern, StockholmThe Bridge star delivers a compelling central performance in the world premiere of Arne Lygre's stark playThe wide black floor stretches back from the audience. It is …
Deutsches Schauspielhaus, HamburgForget Bizet and his familiar take on Prosper Mérimée's novel " Simon Stephens' bleak adaptation owes more to Virginia WoolfWith Three Kingdoms, Sebastian …
Back to Gaußstraße, and to the same odd little arts-industrial estate as Thalia Gaußstraße, for a performance by the young people's theatre of Deutsches Schauspielhaus, which is …
Misunderstandings are complicating the debate over ethnically authentic casting, as the Clybourne Park case shows, writes critic Andrew Haydon
How should theatre tackle real-life horror? And how much do Doctor Who and Shakespeare really have in common? Find out the issues captivating the blogosphere this weekWhat to do about "reali…
What price a bit of honest publicity? The rapidly changing face of theatre reviewing is grist to the bloggers' mill this weekWhat happens if you can't get a critic to see your show? Most the…
Theatre bloggers are in uproar about suggested plotlines for Neil LaBute and Theresa Rebeck's live playwriting promotion " and they're none too happy about West End ticket prices, eitherWho …
