A model of ethnically appropriate casting: the Brandreths’ Hamlet reviewed
A new orthodoxy governs the casting process in Hollywood. An actor’s ethnicity must match the character’s. If you extend this…
You’d have more fun watching jelly set: Against at the Almeida reviewed
Against by Christopher Shinn sets out to unlock the secrets of America’s spiritual malaise. Two main settings represent the wealthy…
Witty gun-slingers, exhibitionist aggro-mongering and a new low... Edinburgh Fringe roundup
Truman Capote should have been called Truman Persons. His father, Archulus, abbreviated his first name and introduced himself as Arch…
Bin Laden the pin-up, a Tory singalong and comedy magic: Edinburgh Fringe roundup
Brexit the Musical is a peppy satire written by Chris Bryant (not the MP, he’s a lawyer). Musically the show…
A fallen comedy god, schoolroom panto and Trumpageddon: Edinburgh Fringe round-up
What is the Edinburgh Fringe? It’s a sabbatical, a pit stop, a pause-and-check-the-map opportunity for actors who don’t quite know…
Ukip’s interim leader on Nigel Farage, Brexit and his party’s death spiral
The interim leader on Farage, Brexit and his party’s death spiral
Old Vic's Girl from the North Country is a disaster as entertainment
Conor McPherson’s new play is set in dust-bowl Minnesota in 1934. We’re in a fly-blown boarding house owned by skint,…
Why I avoid Edinburgh International Festival
Lloyd Evans says Edinburgh continues to get bigger (if not better) at 70, but the International Festival has had its day
A timely drama with a strong premise – but it needs rewriting: Dessert reviewed
Oliver Cotton is an RSC stalwart who looks like a man born to greatness. Google him. He has the fearless…
RSC's latest is like a week-long episode of Blackadder without the jokes
The RSC’s summer blockbuster is about Queen Anne. It’s called Queen Anne. It opens at the Inns of Court where…
A carefully sanitised account of Palestinian resistance: Taha at the Young Vic reviewed
Shubbak, meaning ‘window’ in Arabic, is a biennial festival taking place in various venues across London. The brochure reads like…
This King Kong comedy misses the emotional appeal of the film
The Vaults at Waterloo are gallantly trying to pose as the party spot for hipsters in the world’s coolest city.…
Spiteful, cynical, structurally flawed – why on earth are critics raving about Gloria?
Hand it to the Americans. They know how to hype a young talent to death. The latest to be asphyxiated…
Royal Court’s Anatomy of a Suicide deserves a prize – for most obtuse script of the year
Anatomy of a Suicide looks at three generations of women in various phases of mental collapse. They line up on…
Barber Shop Chronicles assembles some of the finest comic talents around
The National Theatre could hardly resist Barber Shop Chronicles. The play shines a light on a disregarded ethnic community, black…
Amusing, surprising, diverting and uplifting portrait of John Betjeman at Theatre Royal
Sand in the Sandwiches is the perfect show for those who feel the West End should be an intellectual funfair.…
The play’s design is all wrong: Woyzeck reviewed
Georg Büchner, a justly neglected German playwright, died at the age of 23 leaving a half-finished script about a mad…
Torture porn done with the trite slickness of a Vogue photo shoot: Salomé reviewed
The Olivier describes Salomé by Yaël Farber as a ‘new’ play. Not quite. It premièred in Washington a couple of…
A good show but some way short of a classic: Jez Butterworth's The Ferryman reviewed
Jez Butterworth’s new play The Ferryman is set in Armagh in 1981. Quinn, a former terrorist, has swapped the armed…
Worthless as entertainment, priceless as platitudes-to-avoid-at-all-costs: Obsession reviewed
Obsession at the Barbican has a complicated provenance. The experimental Belgian director Ivo van Hove adapted the show from a…
The ultimate gap-year video diary: Paul Mason's Divine Chaos of Starry Things reviewed
Left-wing groupie Paul Mason has written a costume drama about the suppression of the Paris commune in 1871. We meet…
I can't praise this show highly enough: The Philanthropist reviewed
Christopher Hampton’s 1968 play The Philanthropist examines the romantic travails of Philip, a cerebral university philologist, forced to choose between…
Adventures in boozy slapstick: Shit-Faced Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing reviewed
Even the Bard’s staunchest fans admit that ‘Shakespeare comedy’ may be an oxymoron. That’s the assumption of the touring company…
Original, astute, unnerving, sexy, funny, brutal: Dorfman Theatre’s Consent reviewed
It’s like Raging Bull. The great Scorsese movie asks if a professional boxer can exclude violence from his family life.…
David Tennant is magical: Don Juan in Soho reviewed
Don Juan in Soho rehashes an old Spanish yarn about a sexual glutton ruined by his appetite. Setting the story…
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