Our UK Regional Critics
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Review: FALSTAFF, Glyndebourne Festival
Adapted from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, director Richard Jones’s glorious Falstaff makes a welcome return to Glyndebourne, losing none of its charm or deft comedy. It is playful, witty and a pure delight....
Review: THE CONSTANT WIFE, Starring Rose Leslie
It's a bold move for the Royal Shakespeare Company to slip in a remake of W Somerset Maugham's 1920s lesser-known comedy about infidelity in amongst more serious offerings like King Lear and Timon of Athens....
Review: GRACE PERVADES, Starring Ralph Fiennes
Fiennes captures the voice and gait of actor-manager Sir Henry Irving and Miranda Raison conveys the intuitive nature of actress Ellen Terry in a superb production by director Jeremy Herrin in Fiennes' new season at Theatre Royal Bath....
Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, Watermill Theatre
The Watermill Theatre may be small, but this Jesus Christ Superstar is epic on biblical levels. Exuberant, dynamic yet intimate, if you’re on the lookout for an alternative stripped back Andrew Lloyd Webber revival this summer, this one is worth taking a holy pilgrimage...
Review: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Glyndebourne Festival
You could be forgiven for thinking that there isn’t much more to be said about Le nozze di Figaro, the most performed opera in Glyndebourne’s history. However, Mozart’s classic role subversion comedy is deceptive in its simplicity: beneath the farce and improbable plot twists is a complex web ...
Review: I’VE LOST MY BOBBLE HAT! A NICK COPE FAMILY SHOW, Leicester Square Theatre
Nick Cope’s vibrant live show, I’VE LOST MY BOBBLE HAT!, is a polished, thoughtful, and musically rich experience that confirms his standing as one of the UK’s most respected musical family entertainers....
Review: MAZEPPA, Grange Park Opera
Even ardent opera fans may struggle to recall the story or the score for Mazeppa. Based on a poem by Pushkin, Tchaikovsky's opera has been unjustly overshadowed by his Eugene Onegin. Last staged at the London Coliseum in 1984, Grange Park Opera have landed a coup by engaging the English National O...
Review: HAMLET HAIL TO THE THIEF, Royal Shakespeare Theatre
It was only February when we headed to Stratford-upon-Avon to review Hamlet, so it comes as quite the surprise to head through green fields speckled with sheep for the same play a mere four months later. Elsinore might have been a massive moving ship back then, but it’s receiving an astonishing ov...
Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHTMARE, Keats House
Midsummer Nightmare, created by Midnight Circle Productions, is a Gothic adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is currently touring outdoor spaces in the UK. The particular performance I attended was in the garden of Keats House, which works perfectly as the poet John Keats who ...
Review: FLUMPS, Mercury Theatre
Fancy something sweet? Flumps, the debut full-length play by Essex writer Emma Jo Pallett, has arrived at the Mercury Theatre’s Studio. Originally performed at Colchester Fringe in 2022, Pallett’s dark comedy has since been in development with the Mercury, now becoming their brand-new Studio Ori...
Review: SAUL, Glyndebourne Festival
Just how much fun can you have at an oratorio about a Old Testament tale of jealousy, madness and death? Well, quite a lot as it happens at the return of Barry Kosky's remarkable production of Handel's Saul. This staging is opera at its most theatrical, with severed heads, a breast-feeding witch, a ...
Review: MADAMA BUTTERFLY, Grange Park Opera
Grange Park Opera has opened its new season with a crowd-pleaser. Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly remains problematic, with its story of a Japanese teenage geisha, impregnated and cruelly abandoned by an American lieutenant. However, it is still wildly popular, mainly due to its ravishing score....
Review: GEORGE ELIOT IN WORDS AND MUSIC, Salisbury Playhouse
What could be more pleasing than an evening of extracts from George Eliot's diaries and novels read by Hermione Norris (Cold Feet, Spooks, The Salt Path) and actor/singer/songwriter SuRie?...
Review: GIFFORDS CIRCUS: LAGUNA BAY, Chiswick House & Gardens
Giffords Circus: Laguna Bay takes audiences and transports them from a 600-seat tent in Chiswick House and Gardens to a beach resort in 1950s America, with sunglasses and leather jackets aplenty....
Brighton Fringe Review: TALKING TO MARGERY, BN1 Arts Centre CIC
A medieval mystic and a scribe walk into a 21st-century dorm room . . . No, that’s not the start of a joke. It’s the beginning of Talking to Margery, a play written and directed by Zoë Alexander in which famed mystic Margery Kempe (Denise Evans) and her devoted scribe (Jamie Izzet) somehow end ...
Brighton Fringe Review: NAMASTE BLISTERS, Half A Camel - The Joker
As someone who used to be obsessed with yoga, I knew that I wanted to see Namaste Blisters, a comedy show written and performed by Kym Nelson, a former yoga teacher, that promises to reveal the “stereotypes, secrets and absurdity of the yoga industry.”...
Brighton Fringe Review: SPACE PLANET MISSION: THE IMPROVISED SCI-FI EIC, Half A Camel - Presuming Ed's
Space Planet Mission: The Improvised Sci-Fi Epic’s title is pretty self-explanatory - the cast of the show will be putting on a sci-fi-themed improvisational show, coming up with an entirely new story before the audience’s eyes. An added bonus? There is a live musician accompanying the improvisa...
Brighton Fringe Review: THE GIANT BALLOON SHOW, WundaBarn At The SpiegelGardens
When a show begins with a content warning about balloons, '80s music and danger, you know you’re in for an interesting one. The Giant Balloon Show, performed by Dizzy O’Dare, mixes balloon tricks with a playlist from the 1980s to make a show for all ages, but there’s one catch - the actual gia...
Review: A BEAUTIFUL THREAD: THOMAS HARDY IN WORDS AND MUSIC, Starring Anton Lesser
An unmissable evening of beautiful words from Thomas Hardy (read by National Treasure Anton Lesser) and music from Orchestra of the Swan at Stonehenge....
Brighton Fringe Review: PEAR: PHOBIA, Rotunda Theatre Brighton - Squeak
PEAR: Phobia makes quite the interesting promise to its audience. Patrick and Hugo McPherson, 6’7” identical twins, proclaim that, by the end of the show, there will be no more fear in the world. Take that, Fleabag....
Brighton Fringe Review: GLENDA & RITA: LIVE, Rotunda Theatre Brighton - Squeak
Glenda & Rita: Live has a simple concept - Glenda Swing and Rita Herringbone, two former movie stars, are moving from the screen to the stage in an attempt to win back the fame that has faded for them. The catch? They’re still stuck in the world of black-and-white. Literally....
Brighton Fringe Review: THE CITY OF LADIES, Rotunda Theatre Brighton - Squeak
The City of Ladies, described as an “offbeat comedy exploring the radical ladies of the past through puppetry, drag, and special hats,” has quite the unique premise. Two muses, Ladies Rectitude and Reason, visit a medieval woman named Christine de Pizan, who is struggling with what it means to b...
Brighton Fringe Review: PUCK: A FAIRY'S TALE, The Actors - Theatre
Written and performed by Fay Downie, Puck: A Fairy’s Tale gives a backstory to the sprite from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the servant of Oberon who loves to pull pranks and cause chaos. Downie is joined creatively by Olivia Mace, who takes on both the role of director and dramatu...
Brighton Fringe Review: THE BIG BITE-SIZE BREAKFAST SHOW, Ironworks Studio
The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show has quite a fun concept for a Fringe show - audience members are greeted with a croissant, a strawberry and a choice of a hot drink before taking their seats for the performance. Instead of just being one play in an hour, audiences see multiple “bite-size” ten-mi...
Review: TALL STORIES: THE ELMER ADVENTURE, artsdepot
The Elmer Adventure, inspired by David McKee’s beloved patchwork elephant, bursts onto the stage with a kaleidoscope of colour and charm....
Videos
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Burn the Floor: Supernova Venue Cymru (6/19-6/19) |
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MOTLEY CRUDE at The Underworld - London The Underworld (11/14-11/14) |
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PROTEST THE HERO at Scala - London Scala (7/31-7/31) |
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Rabbits Out of the Hat Ventnor Fringe Festival (7/22-7/25) |
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Live Odyssey Camden Market (5/22-12/20) |
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Count Arthur Strong - And Its Goodnight From Me! The Stables - Milton Keynes (5/14-5/14) |
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Watford Philharmonic Society Orchestral Concert 2026 St Luke's Church (6/20-6/20) |
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Burn the Floor: Supernova Wyvern Theatre (6/23-6/24) |
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G4 Christmas 2026 - Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral (12/14-12/14) |
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CRO-MAGS at The Underworld - London The Underworld (8/07-8/07) |
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