UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

In early 1974, American actress Patty Hearst was brutally abducted from her flat in California by the Symbionese Liberation Army, deemed the first far-left terrorist organisation. Faced with the choice of being released or joining the militia, Hearst decided to stay and fight with the dissidents. Sh...

PucciniAs the nights draw in, it seems highly appropriate to return to Glyndebourne for the start of its Autumn season and the chilly streets of Puccini’s La bohème. Floris Visser’s production, beautifully revived by Rachael Hewer, has the spectre of death ever-present. In this case, quite li...

Kimmings propels the plot with meta-theatrical orchestrated chaos. She toys with tone and pace, which results in an engaging rhythm of information and contemplation. It couldn’t be further from being preachy: Kimmings doesn’t judge. She refuses to employ her own anxious attachment to capitalism ...

Technically unsurpassed, but is there a chill where its soul should be?...

Matt Parker has built a career out of making mathematics marvellously merry. Getting Triggy With It proves that when it comes to comedy, numbers can surprise and inspire.   Appearing before a packed and enthusiastic audience at artsdepot, the stand-up mathematician, author and YouTube sensation del...

Dance Umbrella - the contemporary dance festival - started in 1978 and continues its mission today. One can always expect the unexpected…however, Sunday Shorts - “a screening of short films that draw on global perspectives and have movement at their heart” was far from what I'd hoped it would ...

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

Do you remember the book that made you fall in love with reading? Maybe it was a book you read in grade school that has stuck with you for your whole life, or even a book that a friend recommended. For Gay Gulman, that book is The Monster At The End of This Book, in which Grover from Sesame Street b...

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 t...

Cinephiles, get your popcorn ready - Cabbage the Clown is here to take you on a journey to Cinemadrome (definitely not Cineworld). Cabbage the Clown: Cinemadrome, written and performed by Eliza Nelso, brings audiences into the world of Cabbage, who is working a shift at the Cinemadrome, constantly m...

From the start of Elouise Eftos: Australia’s First Attractive Comedian, Eftos makes it clear that this isn’t going to be the classic self-deprecating comedy show, walking on stage to lip-sync to a personalised version of the iconic Basic Instinct scene. From there, audiences are introduced to Ef...

If you liked Evita at the Palladium, you'll like Carmen at the Coliseum...

Watching Mary Page Marlowe you feel like you're constantly trying to piece together a mosaic of one woman’s life, glimpsed in snapshots, lit by moments of clarity, yet never forming a complete picture. Under Matthew Warchus’s direction, in his final season as Artistic Director at the Old Vic, t...

Mary Page Marlowe is an accountant from Ohio. She's led an ordinary life, making the difficult decisions we all face as we try to figure out who we really are and what we really want. As Tracy Letts brings us moments-both pivotal and mundane-from Mary's life, a portrait of a surprisingly complicated...

Keelan Kember writes a morally compromised microcosm where art is money, status, violence, and power. It’s a shame it doesn’t fulfil its potential. Instead, it’s tasteless, continually slipping into a vicious circle of stereotyping and triteness. Directed by Merle Wheldon, it doesn’t rise ab...

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

Synergy Theatre Projectt's commission hits hard, but will it hit the right people?...

The Royal Ballet 25/26 season continues with Black History Month Draft Works, this year curated by principal dancer Marcelino Sambé. Sambé, and producer Julia Gillespie have invited five female, black choreographers to either create, or show existing work for two performances in the Clore Studio. ...

Branded as “366 Daily Inspirations for Writers & Artists,” this compendium of prompts contains an abundance of inspiration. Many books like this exist already, yet award-winning writer and director Jessica Swale has compiled an exciting list of ideas that sets her apart from the rest of the floc...

Fragmented and frightening, the commitment of the work carries the production...

One of the least performed plays in Shakespeare’s canon, and also one of the most aptly labelled as a ‘problem play’; Troilus and Cressida is ostensibly about the romance between these two Trojans, but in reality much of the play focuses on the backdrop to their love - the ongoing siege of Tro...

“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.” Given the National Theatre’s history with one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, a new production of Hamlet is a natural fit in Indhu Rubasingham’s inaugural season as artistic director. Robert Hastie follows the likes of Laurence Oli...

1969 was a time of seismic social change. Attitudes towards religion, sex and female emancipation were shifting. Sarah Shelton's Blessings introduces us to the Deacon family who gather at Easter, conflicted by traditional Catholic influences and the new social norms. This potentially interesting pre...

Some Soho Theatre audience members at My English Persian Kitchen over the next month may be more enticed by what comes after the show than by the show itself. That’s because Hannah Khalil’s one-woman show has the distinction of featuring onstage cooking....

English National Ballet’s season opener, R:Evolution offers up a varied set of challenges for the company, taking us back to the 1940s with George Balanchine and Martha Graham, to the present day with William Forsythe and David Dawson....