Our UK / West End Critics
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Aliya Al-Hassan
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Review: ANEMOI/THE CELLIST, Royal Opera House
The Royal Ballet presents revivals of two contrasting yet sublime one act ballets. The abstract nature of Anemoi is ethereal and makes for an enthralling ballet. The Cellist is a commission by the Royal Ballet, Choreographed by Cathy Marston. Marston’s skills are a masterclass in clear balletic st...
Review: THE BOY, Soho Theatre
Joakim Daun’s new play, made with extensive migrant input, is an often funny, sometimes heartrending tale of adjusting to changing circumstances born of tragedy and fear...
Review: FREE YOUR MIND, Aviva Studios
Few venue openings have been as much-anticipated as that of Aviva Studios. With around £100m of public funding and £35m just from the naming rights, its opening production from Factory International was announced over a year ago: Free Your Mind would be “a large-scale immersive performance based...
Review: THE SCORE, Theatre Royal Bath
If the multi award-winning TV drama Succession taught us anything, it’s that no one can take Brian Cox’s place. Fans of the Scottish actor will be pleased to know that he commands centre stage – with Logan Roy-esque verve – in Trevor Nunn’s The Score, a new play by actor-playwright OIiver ...
Review: MEETINGS, Orange Tree Theatre
As The Statesman says, the late Mustapha Matura was “the most perceptive and humane of Black dramatists writing in Britain. His 1981 satire Meetings can be proof of that, first opening Off-Broadway and now making its first major 21st-century UK return to the Orange Tree Theatre. In his directorial...
Review: BLACK SABBATH - THE BALLET, Sadler's Wells
A stunning celebration of the music of Birmingham legends Black Sabbath performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet. The combination of heavy metal music with ballet may not seem an obvious one but here we are thanks to the direction of Carlos Acosta, who had the vision to celebrate Birmingham’s most...
Review: ELEPHANT, Bush Theatre
An accomplished, evocative solo project, the piece sits between a play with songs and a straight drama infused with socio-politics: much like its creator, it’s impossible to pigeonhole it. She is casually funny between candid reflections that are strong in their stance. While these are sanitised a...
Review: OWNERS, Jermyn Street Theatre
In 1972, Caryl Churchill’s first professionally staged work Owners caused quite the stir when it opened. Part farcical comedy, part biting critique of the housing crisis, her play now returns from Artistic Director Stella Powell-Jones....
Review: THE FLEA, The Yard
There’s no escape from the parasites. A bedbug invasion looms in London and there is a flea at Hackney’s Yard Theatre. I’m talking more specifically about The Flea, James Fritz’s new coked-up joyride of a satire which not so much pokes fun at, but hacks and slashes hierarchical English socie...
Review: POCKETART COLLECTIVE/LOUISE ORWIN DOUBLE BILL, The Place
Autumn at The Place continues with a double bill featuring the Prague-based Pocketart Collective with The Lion’s Den and Louise Orwin's Famehungry.
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Review: PORTIA COUGHLAN, Almeida Theatre
Marina Carr’s award-winning play returns to London directed by Carrie Cracknell and starring Conversations with Friends starlet Alison Oliver (who trod the same boards earlier this year in Women, Beware the Devil). A compelling analysis of toxic dysfunction and female pain, Portia Coughlan is a ja...
Review: HAMNET, Garrick Theatre
Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet explores grief and loss through the lens of Elizabethan society, reimagining the family life of the most celebrated playwright in England. Lolita Chakrabarti’s play enjoyed a fairly successful run in Stratford-upon-Avon and immediately promised a West End transf...
Review: SHAKESPEARE'S R&J, Reading Rep
Joe Calarco’s electrifying interpretation of the legendary star-crossed lovers is nothing short of excellence. While mainly recited in its original Shakespearean form, Calarco brings a fresh take on the tragedy, through a modern setting and intertwining of a queer narrative....
Review: HALLOWED PEAK: LUNAR FESTIVAL, Phantom Peak, London
A town has appeared once more in Canada Water, bringing with it a cast of curious townspeople and exciting mysteries to uncover. In this town, you can become a paranomal investigator, make new friends (or enemies!) and even go fishing for platypuses. Will you pass through the gates of Phantom Peak a...
Review: SUNSET BOULEVARD, Savoy Theatre
Many words have already been written about whether Nicole Scherzinger, the American actress, ex-Pussycat Doll and X Factor judge, is the right choice to play Norma Desmond, the reclusive silent movie star who dreams of a comeback. Desmond has lost the limelight, whereas Scherzinger remains a global ...
Review: MOS, IOANNA PARASKEVOPOULOU, Barbican Centre
Foley artists don’t often get moments to shine - step forward Athens based dancer and choreographer Ioanna Paraskevopoulou with her work MOS presented by Dance Umbrella....
Review: RIGOLETTO, Royal Opera House
Mears’s production demonstrates a keen feel for drama and a genuinely brilliant reading of Verdi’s opera; when juxtaposed with a musical interpretation as potent as this, it’s a production not likely to be forgotten....
Review: A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, Chichester Festival Theatre
It may be old enough to collect its state pension, but this classic play still has much to say about life as it's lived today...
Review: BLUE MIST, Royal Court Theatre
Three boys meet at Chunkyz to gossip, swap stories, and grow up against the backdrop of a society that’s not made for Muslim men. Blue Mist is staged with unfaltering energy across all areas of the production. Directed by Milli Bhatia, the strongly conversational dialogues have a snappy pace manip...
Review: SONG OF SONGS, PAM TANOWITZ, Barbican Theatre
Song of Songs premiered in 2022 and now has its London opening at the Barbican Centre. The work sees American dance maker Pam Tanowitz collaborate with Pulitzer prize-winning composer David Lang....
Review: THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE, Noël Coward Theatre
Based on Neil Gaiman’s short 2013 novel, this seemingly simple story is of a man who revisits his childhood where he discovers friendship for the first time and copes with the aftermath of his mother’s death. When his father takes in a terrifying lodger, a nightmarish fantasy world envelopes him...
Review: THE EMPRESS, Lyric Hammersmith
There are meaty themes, moments of humour and insight, and the standard of professionalism you’d expect from a Royal Shakespeare Company production first staged in Stratford in 2013 and now playing at the Lyric Hammersmith. But somehow Tanika Gupta’s script doesn’t quite take off....
Review: SEA OF TROUBLES, Screening, Royal Opera House
Kenneth MacMillan was renowned for being a major film buff, so we can assume he’d revel in his 1988 work Sea of Troubles being transferred to the big screen...
Review: MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE, Peacock Theatre
If using the relaxing music of dinner party favourite Sting as the basis for a wild and inventive hip hop dance show isn’t an act of iconoclastic bravado, then what is?...
Review: GENTLEMEN, Arcola Theatre
When toxic tradition clashes with inevitable progress, the very structure of the crème de la crème of higher education comes into question. Matt Parvin’s Gentlemen is the cerebral lovechild of Laura Wade’s Posh and Alan Bennett’s The History Boys whose third cousin once removed is Mamet’s ...
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