846 stories by "Friends"
A BRILLIANT ECHO    Shouldn't be surprised that this is a cracking play:  Katherine Moar's 90-minute debut FARM HALL , about 1940s nuclear scientists, sparked cheers and a…
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A DARK SERENISSIMA Â Â No pretty biscuit-tin Venice here, but rather its ancient darkness:Â Jess Curtis' artful set offers stark steps, corners, slotted openings into which half-gli…
TANGLED JUSTICE, MORAL SWAMPS  There is no sure hero in Shakespeare's 'mystery play" , which can be exhilarating. Emily BUrns' remarkably sure-footed, clear and well-trimmed p…
ANYTHING CAN WASH UP ON THE NORTH SEA COAST …    Robin Brooks and director Fiona McAlpine mischievously bill this eccentric, enlivening short play as "a shocking so…
RAIN, RAGE , REGRETS   If you're expecting the original Ibsen tale of a bored wife wondering whether to leave a dull husband and deciding not to, pause.  This is "aft…
HOLLYWOOD AND HYPOCRISY Â Â Â Â It's a brilliant moment for this sharp bit of work from the American Michael McKeever to land at the Elephant with a bracing thump. Â We've got …
THE BEST OF TASTELESSNESS  It's always special when the small Menier's latest musical proves so perfect, so original in interpretation but faithful to its classic core that it can…
FAME, FRAUD AND FAMILY     Long after it opened, a massive hit both sides of the Atlantic, and finally closed , the enterprising Finborough hauls out a 1921 A.A.Mi…
NORDIC , NOIR, NEUROTIC    In a hotel room, sea uneasy beyond and faint wind howling, dishevelled Adolf with his crutch listens to his smooth, confident new friend Gustaf. He…
AWKWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIER Â Â Â The curtain is a marvel to start with: its plasticky-floral cosiness taking you straight to a 1970s kitchenette and the heyday of Mrs W's mission to g…
EMPYREAN ENTERTAINMENT; CLUTCH IT TO YOUR FAINTING BOSOM NOW!   It should be on prescription,  so healing of life's frustrations is this Charles Court Opera revival of Gilbert…
AMBRIDGE OVER SLIGHTLY TROUBLED WATER  Tim Stimpson is a long-serving modern writer on Radio 4's The Archers, and loves it:  so his play is about the dawning, 75 years ago,  …
POETIC PASSIONS IN A TUDOR POLICE STATE Â Â Here's a lively aquib from the RSC, a bravura 85 minute two-hander about Christopher Marlowe "Â dead at 29 in a Deptford tavern brawl " a…
A MODERN CHEKHOVIAN PLAY, BEAUTIFUL Â Â The first thoughts that steuck me on leaving Andrew Keatley's well-made, slightly old fashioned family drama were that a lesser playwright would…
BACK TO THE LAND Â Â Â Â Birdsong, a grassy bank. At a rough rustic table sits a rough rustic:Â bearded, silent, rolling fags and contemplating a broken tractor part. Â Int…
A FAMILY BUSINESS AT SIXES AND 007s This little theatre has given us some strong meat lately " themes of Nazi crimes, Jewishness, Russianness " but this time it hosts the Barn theatre's spar…
A TRUE-CRIME RICARDIAN ROMCOM Here's a wonderfully 1950s retro play, not just in style and simplicity but in the willowy vintage-Harrods outfits of Rachel Pickup as the willowy Marta…
LA COMMEDIA E FINITA! (oh no it's not)    The title is the first line, delivered by a furious Leoncavallo in 1893 Milan. It is a time of wild flowering in opera , old Verd…
A WILD YOUNG PRINCE OF DENMARK IN THE DUSK     Easy to forget, after decades of prestige-casting and its torrent of ringing, over-quoted lines, how much HAMLET is a play …
MUM-POLE OF THE BAILEY….?    I paused overnight before writing this, to see if a bout of two-star irritation might fade.  After all, lawyer-playwright  Suzie Miller g…
FAITH LOST, AND WAKENED Â Â Â This is a moody, cloudy production shot through with streaks of mad rage, deliberately unsettling. Â Autolycus, spirit of Time the thief and occasio…
WESTMINSTER , A WILL, A WICKED WRANGLE Â Â Â Â This excellent play is the first by Shaan Sahota, a doctor by profession:Â but goodness, she (and the NT Studio, and director Dan…
MEDIEVAL MODERNITY There's a nice irony in opening, this week, a tale of an aristocratically  bred heiress, seized first by evangelical Christian faith and then by a charismatic man,  …
SMOOTH AS VELVET, SHOT WITH GILT AND GUILT Ahhh I do love a well-made play from the 1920s (remember The Deep Blue Sea , just lately!). This one too deals with adultery and hidd…
