An adroit cast does justice to Isley Lynn's complexly woven narrative "You need to get better at communicating", says one character to another in Isley Lynn's albatross. Indeed, the same…
What does it take to stretch Shakespeare's shortest tragedy to a runtime of over three hours? Not, as it turns out, a tedious crawl through the play. Rather, an electrifying but patient jour…
"Would you rather have one shoe or no shoes?" Viv is here to show us that missing only one shoe is not necessarily the better option. Having lost one of her shoes on the way to work, she kno…
Evelyn Farrant, the scheming actor at the centre of Gerald Moon's 1983 play Corpse!, would like to believe that he is the
What goes into an apology, and what comes out of it? The three plays assembled in The Apologists approach these questions from
John Osborne's Look Back in Anger is often remembered for its association with kitchen sink realism. Marking the play's return to London
Antoinette Nwandu's play Pass Over is a palimpsest. Its outer surface looks familiar: haunted by the ever-present threat of a murderous police force, two black men are paralyzed into inactio…
Now that's what I call a star turn. Hitting the brakes on an express train, Lesley Manville lands on the National Theatre's Olivier stage surrounded by thick smoke, supported by prosthetic l…
A woman walks into her home. Then does another. And another. Stef Smith's Nora: A Doll's House is not merely an adaptation of Ibsen's 1879 play. It is three adaptations superimposed on one a…
Towards the end of Leopoldstadt, a young writer named Leonard is handed a sheet of paper with his family tree on it. The chart spans four generations and bears the imprint of two dozen lives…
"Tonight's been a drama-overload," observes one of the "magnificent six" in Crongton Knights. She is not exaggerating: Emteaz Hussain's adaptation of Alex
Could diabolical interference be the only way for a woman in 17th-century London to advance in life without being bound to a man? For Joanna Faustus, the answer is in the affirmative. So she…
The wilting characters of Uncle Vanya would like us to believe that their scenes from country life should not amount to much, except, perhaps, for an endless succession of tedious trifles. T…
Set in Chicago in 1957, Tony Tortora's Cops zooms in on four jaded police detectives trying to navigate a police force steeped
Imagine if the "rude mechanicals" from A Midsummer Night's Dream were asked to stage Hamlet in just an hour and with only
It is hard to believe that Shelagh Delaney wrote A Taste of Honey when she was only nineteen. This increasingly textured and knotty play, which received its first"and famous"staging in 1958,…
This Duchess of Malfi is a cool one. It is so cool that it has lost its gripping temper and, with it, some of its fire. A surprising drop in temperature, because director Rebecca Frecknall h…
"You into words?" Jamie Lloyd's magnificent treatment of Cyrano de Bergerac very much is. Refracted through Lloyd's modestly masterful staging, Martin Crimp's vigorous, insightful adaptation…
Based on Antoine de Saint-Exupery's beloved classic The Little Prince, this year's festive show at the Omnibus Theatre promises a joyously sparkling
Fairview is a scorching minefield that looks like a green meadow. At long last, London audiences can enter the beguiling terrain of Jackie Sibblies Drury's 2018 play in a flawless Young Vic …
Written and directed by Peter Rowe, New Wolsey Theatre's "rockin' panto" Cinderella lands in North Finchley with a glittery, flaming bouquet of
'Tis the season for Christmas pantos across the UK, and there could not be a more ideal opener to this mad tradition than Lyric Hammersmith's joyously woke Cinderella. Written by Jude Christ…
First performed in 1945, Emlyn Williams' play The Wind of Heaven depicts a Welsh village caught in spiritual turmoil in the wake
Adapting novels for the stage is a tricky business. When the novel in question happens to be wildly popular and epically proportioned, the challenges faced by the adapter can escalate withou…
Founded in 2001, the Dramaturgs' Network is the only organization in the United Kingdom solely dedicated to supporting dramaturgs and promoting the practice and theory of dramaturgy. Among t…