Review Roundup: Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA at The Old Vic
by Aliya Al-Hassan - Feb 5, 2026
Arcadia is set in April 1809 in a stately home in Derbyshire. Thomasina, a gifted pupil, proposes a startling theory, beyond her comprehension. All around her, the adults, including her tutor Septimus, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries. Two hundred years later, academic adversaries Hannah and Bernard are piecing together puzzling clues, curiously recalling those events of 1809, in their quest for an increasingly elusive truth.
Review: ARCADIA, The Old Vic
by Aliya Al-Hassan - Feb 5, 2026
Of all Tom Stoppard's work, Arcadia has always stood out. Touching on sex, Fermat's last theorum, the second law of thermodynamics, landscape gardening with a detective story thrown in, it is a mixture of subjects that few playwrights could attempt to combine. Does it matter if you don't understand the complex scientific and mathematical theories? Not at all. Carrie Cracknell's magnificent revival has huge amounts of humour and heart, which is not always a given with Stoppard's work.
Review: CARMEN Sizzles with Akhmetshina Heading Stellar Cast at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - Jan 16, 2026
From her first appearance on stage, it was clear that mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina was no flash in the pan when she gave us a scorching Carmen when this production was new just two years ago. The program describes the title character as “a force of nature” and that’s certainly what we got at the Met, in such arias as the Habanera (“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”), the Seguidilla (“Pres des ramparts de Seville”) or in the opera’s Finale with Don Jose.
MODERATION By Kevin Kautzman Opens At Hope Theatre In March
by A.A. Cristi - Jan 21, 2025
Over Here Theatre and Bad Mouth Theatre have announced casting for the UK premiere of Moderation at the Hope Theatre, 19 March to 5 April. Moderation is a startling dark comedy about a pair of social media moderators who become increasingly 'brainsick' from the disturbing content they're forced to view at work.
Review: THE GRAPES OF WRATH, National Theatre
by Cindy Marcolina - Aug 1, 2024
The piece is heavy in topic and method, but Carrie Cracknell’s quiet direction smooths out the nearly three hours of running time. It’s by any means not an easy-breezy show to experience, but it sinks into your soul in a way that only an epic does. The problem is that it’s so, so slow.
Mezzo-Soprano Aigul Akhmetshina Signs to Decca Classics
by Michael Major - Jan 26, 2024
Mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina Signs to Decca Classics. Despite facing rejection at early auditions, where she was told she lacked the right voice and appearance, at the age of 27 Aigul has already etched her name in history as the youngest artist ever to take on the title role of Bizet's Carmen at the Royal Opera House in London.