1,401 stories from theatrecat.com
BROTHER, CHRISTIAN, WITCHFINDER  I reviewed this play about the Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins last year, in Ipswich: I write only to add thoughts, now that it ha…
LEHMANS REVISITED The first time I saw Sam Mendes' production at the NT, I exclaimed that the evening had no right to be so much fun: three hours, three chaps in black frock coats, no so…
CHOSEN PEOPLE, CHOSEN LIVES   The saying goes "two Jews, three opinions", though some say that's an underestimate. Here are five people and innumerable opinions: two couples,Å
Sent from my iPad ZELDIN AGAIN I sometimes feel real sympathy (possibly unwanted) for actors who, trained and motivated to channel and express extreme and painful emotions, do their absolute…
POETRY AND PITY   Tremendous swagged, fringed, and roped retro curtains , the Gielgud looking much as it would 100 years ago when Sean O'Casey's most famous play reach…
SHARP SCRATCH?   Crossing the Edgware Rd yesterday a shouting vaccine denier with a loudspeaker informed us all, stomping past in some sort of hurry,  that vaccines were lies, in…
STONED STONES IN WEST WITTERING, 1967    At the end the 1200-strong crowd explodes to join a final roar of "Satisfaction" with the cast " lawyers, police, fans, three generatons …
VICTORIAN MISCHIEF WELL IN TUNE FOR TODAY . Do you want to see a senior Government minister entangled with a socially climbing financier and a fashion-greedy wife,  playing the …
LAURIE LEE, REMEMBERED AND REMEMBERING     A nine-part orchestra, gilded harp and flute at its apex; behind, monochrome photos of a century past show rural Gloucestershire,…
POLITICAL ECHOES, CLASS ARROGANCE, THRILLS     The award for ExIt of the Year goes to the magnificent David Oyelowo, tearing up the central aisle of the Olivier in a f…
FIRST CLASS FROM CHRISTIE, LUDWIG AND BAILEY This could have been a bit of a groan, like the overcomplex Rebus Game Called Malice , also on tour . But actually it's a class act in ev…
FRIENDSHIP HITS THE ROCKS OF TASTE : MISCHIEVOUS, SAD AND FUNNY     Not everything that tours the country is Agatha Christie or star-fed froth: sometimes a serious emotio…
REACH FOR THE STARS: IT TAKES HARD GRAFT AND VODKA Any week now at the Gielgud we shall hear the famous drunken cry in Juno and the Paycock  "what is the stars?".  At the heart o…
DATING FOR A CONFUSED AGE    I have written before of the particular glee I feel when a brand-new and original show emerges , not from anxious corporate calculations but from…
WORTH ANOTHER VISIT? O YES It's a gig, it's a party, it's as  glorious as ever. Down on the floor the promenaders surge between changing stages as they rise and fall to create old Manhatt…
UPMARKET EDINBURGH ROCK, SORT OF   Sir Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus accounts for a tenth of all crime bestsellers in the UK: the ancient mazes around Edinburgh Castle, set…
A MOMENT FOR REMEMBERING   A desk, leather chairs, a heap of file boxes, a single sunflower in a pot.  The century has turned, and it's the last day in the office for Simon Wiesen…
On this day of the report, a reminder of those two excellent verbatim plays from two stages of the inquiry. How theatre, with Nicholas Kent, reacted . There have been other plays about the e…
I IMPERSONATION, ILLUSION AND INTRIGUE      Cottonwool clouds, a scatter of furniture and instruments, an ancient cine camera, a noble arch and some pillars and fake tree…
ROLL UP, ROLL UP…     What sharper summer draw than "The Greatest Show On Earth" remembered within one of the smallest theatres?  Jonathan O"Boyle's production has the p…
LAUNDRY, LECHERY, LADIES, LAUGHTER    if anyone is ever so impertinent as to demand an audition piece from the RSC-seasoned John Hodgkinson, I suggest he delivers " with…
A TALL TALE, A SHIMMERING MAGIC Of all Shakespeare's plays this is now the rarest staged, not without reason: some early scenes are co- written with a contemporary John Wilkins, its tale is …
 L'CHAIM ! THE VERY STUFF OF LIFE   Of course it helps to be under a real sky: a lone fiddler high above the cornfield scratches out the first lonely notes against the even…
Duke Theseus offers instructions, Act 1 Scene 1.   "Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments, Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth!" Å
AS LONG AS WE NEED IT… To do a timeworn musical, entangled in all- too -familiar earworms, you can either sharpen, challenge and update it  or lovingly polish the old machine. If y…
