Almeida, London; Soho theatre, London; both available onlineAdrian Lester and Danny Sapani work as one in Lolita Chakrabarti's brilliantly realised study of male friendship. And a breathless…
MZG Theatre Productions; available onlineJanie Dee impresses in a smart production of a Terence Rattigan solo work bound up in class issues Terence Rattigan has long been rescued from the th…
Original Theatre; available onlineSian Clifford and Nikesh Patel rehearsed for two days on Zoom before being filmed in a studio in Lorien Haynes's impressively naturalistic bereavement story…
Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, live streamPlaying multiple roles " and all the music " four young actors dazzle in Eline Arbo's superb staging of Édouard Louis's brutal coming-of-age …
Royal Court, London, online; Bristol Old Vic onlineMore than 60 writers and 200 freelancers get to work on the Royal Court's inspired latest venture, while the Bible gets a Bristol twist Fo…
Our critic looks back on dazzling state-of-the-nation monologues and valiant virtual reimaginings, Ovid and Oliver Twist Dance: Sarah Crompton's five best of 2020 The Observer critics' rev…
Noël Coward; Lyric, London A brisk new backstage farce was overtaken by events, while Henry VIII's splendid singing wives were silenced once more as London entered tier 3 All gone. And at…
It can be a role as career-defining as Hamlet. Dan Leno, who starred at Drury Lane every Christmas from 1888 to 1904, was the first great pantomime dame: a tiny ex-clog dancer with a top-kno…
Almeida; Bridge; Big House; Hampstead, LondonAs theatres ease into the new normal, the Almeida and Big House celebrate connection and isolation, while Nicholas Hytner's A Christmas Carol del…
Jermyn Street theatre onlineThe aggrieved women of the poet's Heroides speak loud and clear in 15 bristling new monologues by top playwrights, scorchingly delivered by 15 leading actors Here…
Olivier, London; Chichester Festival theatre; live streamThe sequel to Clint Dyer and Roy Williams's Death of England, plus works by Sarah Kane and Steven Carl McCasland, evoke rage and prej…
Nottingham Playhouse; Apollo; Bridge, LondonOpposites attract in James Graham's typically astute new two-hander; Adam Kay's surgical wit lights up the West End; and an asylum story with styl…
The pandemic supercharges the atmosphere in this film version of Ian Rickson's recent stage production Here is an extraordinary, transfiguring leap from stage to screen. Ian Rickson's produc…
Bridge theatre, LondonTamsin Greig flutters while Maxine Peake is uproarious in a fiendish double bill from Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series What a cunning double bill this is. The latest…
The newly formed Musical Theatre Factory creates bespoke musicals for any occasion; for our critic, a potentially barnstorming show about her predecessor... Like all good ideas, it looks obv…
Bridge theatre, LondonThe wide-open space of the Bridge is commanded with riveting intimacy in one of four Talking Heads double bills The sheer success of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads makes…
Bridge, London; Troubadour, Wembley ParkDavid Hare's explosive, first-hand coronavirus monologue, delivered by Ralph Fiennes, hits every target. And Kimberley Walsh and Jay McGuinness carry …
Alan Cumming puts his trademark drollery to diabolic effect in this exhilarating twist on Little Red Riding Hood Each week through these Covid months the National Theatre of Scotland has bee…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonThere is no escape for a socially distanced audience all wearing headphones from Simon Stephens's powerfully menacing adaptation of José Saramago Every now and then …
Garden theatre, London SE11; onlineTwo singing, dancing Victorian cross-dressers give the kiss of life to London's fringe theatre. And by Zoom to 2070 and Wonderland Here are some chinks in …
Black writers shared feelings they had kept to themselves for years in a quietly explosive week of tension and tears The words of My White Best Friend (and Other Letters Left Unsaid) hit act…
Urgent new perspectives on George Floyd's death and the slave trade's place in art; pastoral meditations from David Rudkin and an unforgettable wartime soundscape Every week, a new catastrop…
Eyebrows were raised over the casting for the young Prince of Denmark, but it could give the play new life At first it seems preposterous. Aged 81, Ian McKellen has announced he is to play H…
With real life now the biggest show in town, our theatre critic reflects on the catastrophic effects of lockdown, and talks to industry insiders about navigating a way back Kitty Empire: 'No…
Outstanding Zoom drama from New York, a deluge of monologues from Dublin and an astonishing solo performance by Andrew Scott The theatres have been dark " in that terrible, expressive phrase…