UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

With a loop pedal and tonnes of personality, Jack AG Britton addresses a strikingly under-explored subject: heightism. From Tinder profiles deliberately demanding men only above a certain height to swipe right to blatant online hatred directed towards short guys, Mighty brings light and humour to an...

As Joe is asked to prepare for a play about domestic assault based on Shakespeare's toxic males, his own relationships start to change. The second offering by Joe Sellman-Leava and Worklight Theatre for VAULT Festival is a defining and masterful performance. Monster is a journey through noxious masc...

We all attach labels to people. Some - like friend, father, brother - are kinder than others. Joe Spellman-Leava explores the magnitude of sticking attributes to individuals in his extraordinarily intelligent solo show Labels. With Katharina Reinthaller's stunning direction, he analyses the breadth ...

The Bush Theatre's studio feels like a perfect place for this play, as it demands close proximity between the audience and actor. Sitting on a raised ledge, Essie tells us the story of her job displacement, intertwining conversations she's had with her friends, family and former partners. Her aim is...

The world's greatest dollmaker has just died and his family have come together to mourn the death of their father and husband. While their showbiz obsessed mother is grieving a man who wasn't exactly how people perceived him, three sisters start to untangle a series of secrets....

The nation of Mars is finally free. It's 2199, six cities have taken control and declared themselves republics after their oppressors left to go back to Earth after the revolution. Upstart Theatre's latest creation is an intriguing experiment that looks and feels more like a digital board game of so...

Currently in London overseeing the London transfer of his Broadway musical Be More Chill, composer Joe Iconis took to the stage last night at the Other Palace with Joe Iconis Live: a charming and authentic collection of his best-loved work. And boy, did he deliver....

The Taming of the Shrew is arguably one of Shakespeare's most controversial comedies. In Maria Gaitandi's production, designer Liam Bunster has helped to transform the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse with raised platforms and ladders, with the cast using them constantly throughout. Although you occasionally...

Terrorism. Online security. Passwords. Encryption. Cookies. These are all familiar terms in the modern world. Odds are, as audiences take their seats in the Hampstead Theatre to watch Al Blyth's new play The Haystack, they'll finish a text or quickly dash out an e-mail before turning off their phone...

It's very hard to distillate horror and put it on stage. Theatre works on the separation between audience and performers, and the surprising effects that one can successfully employ live in performance are relatively limited by the realistic nature of the mean, therefore companies usually only rely ...

Roy Williams and Clint Dyer's one man play explores the complexities of white working class identity in a multicultural, post-Brexit England with verve and passion....

Julie (Jenny Walser) and Simon (Jack Brownridge-Kelly) grew up in a small fishing village at the end of the world, in Cornwall. While Simon is willing to dedicate his life to the ocean like all the men in his family have for generations, Julie is restless and wants more. In My Lungs the Ocean Swells...

On a morning in late January in 1989, Salvador Dalí was dying at the age of 84 after changing the art world forever. The sharp decline of his health and a few suicide attempts quietly led to heart failure while he was listening to his favourite piece of music in his later years. What happened in t...

A post-apocalyptic road warrior, an astronaut and a shark walk into a bara??...

Having premiered at the Almeida in 2017 to critical acclaim, Mike Bartlett's play Albion returns home with a spellbinding revival directed by Rupert Goold. Rightly billed as a play for our times, Albion appears to have grown in its resonance as a deliciously layered commentary on Britain's thorny re...

Patricia has spent the past year recovering from an abusive relationship. She's had time to craft the speech she'd give to her ex and she's come to terms with her trauma. However, neither therapy nor time prepared her for the moment she accidentally bumped into him on the street, so now she's prepar...

VAULT Festival is notorious for its offerings of promenade and immersive shows. Every year companies gather to take audiences on the most disparate journeys all around the Waterloo area....

Antony McDonald's production of Gerald Barry's hurtling dash through Wonderland and behind the Looking Glass is a delight from start to finish - or it will be for some....

Sometimes we just want to get away. We all have our reasons for wanting a bit of peace and quiet in the middle of nowhere but being cut off from the rest of the world isn't necessarily a solution to life's problems. Ali Milles' new thriller The Croft follows two stories across multiple timelines th...

In Beijing, four expats at different stages of emigration are grappling with how Chinese society perceives them. Julian, a translator who's just moved (David East); Lisa, a British-born Chinese young woman (Siu-See Hung); Robert, a writer who's lived in the country for 20 years (Joseph Wilkins); and...

Hot on the heels of Trevor Nunn's recent production at Jermyn Street Theatre, Samuel Beckett's plays continue to grace London in all their bleak splendour. Starring Alan Cumming and Daniel Radcliffe, Richard Jones' captivating production at the Old Vic brings together Endgame and Rough for Theatre ...

a?oeGrime changed my life, more than my two first class degrees, it gave me permission.a?? Debris Stevenson is back at the Royal Court with a limited of her grime theatre show Poet in da Corner, prior to a UK tour. Inspired by the acclaimed breakthrough album from her idol Dizzee Rascal (Boy in da C...

Louise O'Neill's award-winning 2015 novel, Asking For It, has been adapted for the stage by playwright, Meadhbh McHugh, and received its UK premiere at The REP Birmingham last night, following great success in its country of origin in 2018....

Since making her Broadway debut as Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid in 2007, Sierra Boggess has firmly established herself as one of theatre's biggest stars on both sides of the Atlantic. She is synonymous with The Phantom of the Opera, having played Christine for several engagements (including ...

Daphne du Maurier's 1951 novel My Cousin Rachel is a dark, psychological thriller that focuses on jealousy, female sexual power and control over men. It was made into a moderately successful film in 2017 starring Rachel Weiss and then adapted for the stage. It ends its nationwide tour at Richmond th...