Marc Brenner News

Adrian Lester is an astonishing presence in a new version of an enduring tale

How many extended metaphors does it take to change a lightbulb? Only one, please, Rebecca Lenkiewicz. Commissioned by Ralph Fiennes to come up with a new play for the Ralph Fiennes/Theatre Royal Bath Season, Lenkiewicz's Small Hotel offers way too many exciting ideas – alas, none of which string together coherently into an easy-to-comprehend piece.

Both director and designer have slightly too many ideas about what the show could be, and what is left is unresolved potential.

Discover the world premiere of Small Hotel featuring Ralph Fiennes. Dive into the story of a celebrity facing his past at Theatre Royal Bath.

No one could accuse Max Webster's flamboyant production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest of being subtle. A new cast takes the reins from the National Theatre's hugely successful production last year and moves onto the intimate Noël Coward stage, bringing with them the biting wit, vibrant costumes and sexual fluidity that made this show such a hit.

A true crime story that offers hope as well as tragedy

First performed at Dallas Theater Center in 2015, Samuel D. Hunter’s three-hander play Clarkston makes its British première in a production at Trafalgar Theatre, which is directed by Jack Serio. Set in the Washington state town of Clarkston, the lives of Connecticut native Jake and nearby Lewistonian Chris are intertwined as they find themselves working the nightshift together at Costco; both have secrets that they are trying to hide from - but does the answer lie in stacking shelves?

More TikTok than tragedy

The Gate Theatre will present the European premiere of David Finnigan’s Scenes from the Climate Era at The Playground Theatre in West London, running September 23–October 25, 2025. See photos of the production.

Production photos have been released for the London production of CABARET at the Kit Kat Club, featuring Reeve Carney, Eva Noblezada, and Ruthie Henshall.

The National Theatre’s Dear England, James Graham’s Olivier Award-winning play about Gareth Southgate and the England men’s football team, has begun its first national tour. Check out photos of the production!

Alice Birch’s Romans, a novel is an expansive portrait of literary masculinity through the ages. With an ever-shifting form, an array of subtle references, and an intricate, thought-provoking script, this is a play that many will find difficult and impenetrable. At its core, however, it’s a truly perceptive piece that understands masculinity like little else.

Now that days are getting colder and nights are getting longer, it’s time to get spooky. When a viral video asked women if they’d rather choose to be alone with a man or with a bear last year, the internet exploded. To this day, more than half of the women in the 18-29 range who took part in the online discussion chose the bear, citing fears of violence and lack of safety around male strangers. It’s alarming. Riding that wave, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm has written a revolutionary take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula with a twist that redefines the original. Forget everything you know because nothing is what it seems: it’s time to follow Mina Harker on her own quest.

If you come to opera via film musicals and, later, stage shows, Tosca is amongst the most accessible. The story of the lovers and the evil apparatchik is told at a furious pace, trauma after trauma piling up as the emotional heft becomes all but unbearable. There’s no standing about for twenty minutes while someone sings stage left, no mythical dwarves hiding gold, no magical toymaker. Nor, as early critics were quick to point out, is there a whole lot of poetry either in Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa adaptation of Victorien Sardou’s sensational play. However, there are compensations…

Rehearsal room images have been released for the RSC’s forthcoming production of Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand’s thrilling, lyrical tale of love and lies, longing and disguise, in a new version by Simon Evans and Debris Stevenson, directed by Simon Evans.

A longtime staple of New York and London stages, we are chronicling Elizabeth McGovern's theater roles ahead of the debut of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.

Rehearsal photos have been released for CABARET at the Kit Kat Club, featuring Grammy Award winner Reeve Carney as The Emcee and double Tony Award nominee and Grammy Award winner Eva Noblezada as Sally Bowles.

Rachel Zegler has dropped a 'Miami Mix' variation of 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina,'  a new take inspired by the 1996 single version recorded by Madonna. Listen to it now!

Worlds clash once again in Mike Bartlett’s universe. Lip and Ruth’s pull to return to nature is disrupted when Ruth’s stepdaughter, Millie, and her academically inclined best friend, Femi, visit the couple’s earthy homestead. This rural idyll, where the sky is enormous and the trees tell a story of their own, is suddenly disturbed by brutal talks of capitalist wars and nihilism while the economics of permaculture are discussed. What happens when ecological extremism starts to look like a sensible decision? Should we put our planet before our family? Generations lock horns, blame becomes currency, and the land watches on in three big scenes divided by two intervals. It’s all very Mike Bartlett-y.

Actor Tony Hirst shares insights on his role in PUNCH, working with playwright James Graham, and the impact of true stories in theater.