Leopoldstadt
February 20, 2020
Tom Stoppard’s deeply personal play at Wyndham’s Theatre has a cumulative and moving power.
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Interview: Mica Paris
August 22, 2019
The actress and singer talks Fame at the Peacock Theatre – plus her collaboration with Prince.
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The Doctor
August 22, 2019
Juliet Stevenson is the wounded soul of Robert Icke’s examination of identity at the Almeida Theatre.
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Interview: Dael Orlandersmith
August 15, 2019
The actress and playwright discusses powerful piece Until The Flood at the Arcola Theatre.
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Three Sisters
April 18, 2019
Olivier Award-winning Rebecca Frecknall returns to the Almeida with an expressive Chekhov revival.
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Shipwreck
February 22, 2019
Anne Washburn’s new Almeida play takes aim at President Trump.
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An electrifying, raw and funny coming-of-age tale
September 6, 2018
The thrilling Dance Nation at Almeida Theatre is defiantly and candidly female.
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‘Dance is incredibly life-affirming’
August 23, 2018
Clare Barron discusses her play Dance Nation, making its UK debut at the Almeida Theatre.
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Intimate and tender tale of love and lingo
June 7, 2018
Brian Friel’s exquisite Translations at the National Theatre is a tender and wondrous epic.
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The Birthday Party
January 25, 2018
Ian Rickson’s starry 60th-anniversary Pinter revival, at Harold Pinter Theatre, proves the play still has the power to unsettle.
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Hamilton
January 4, 2018
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical, now at Victoria Palace Theatre, more than lives up to the hype.
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Loss, loneliness and love in Crouch End
October 19, 2017
David Eldridge’s Beginning at National Theatre is a meticulously crafted, real-time gem of a romcom.
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Five Guys Named Moe, Marble Arch Theatre
September 21, 2017
Clarke Peters’ toe-tapping tribute to Louis Jordan is threadbare plot wise, but a jumpin’ joint and a great night of music.
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Follies, National Theatre
September 14, 2017
In Dominic Cooke’s revival, Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s musical is thrilling, heartrending, spectacular.
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A rich, timely piece but tonally uneven
August 24, 2017
Ben Whishaw ably anchors Christopher Shinn’s well-intentioned but unwieldy Against at Almeida Theatre.
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Darkly comic and provocative
April 13, 2017
Nina Raine tackles the judicial system and its emotional effects in the incendiary Consent at National Theatre.
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Women in combat, virtual reality
March 9, 2017
Kate Fleetwood anchors Lindsey Ferrentino’s flawed but compassionate Ugly Lies the Bone at National Theatre.
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Playful, sometimes bonkers
February 23, 2017
Patrick Marber helms a dazzling revival of Stoppard’s Travesties at Apollo Theatre.
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All-female trilogy is immersive and thrilling
December 1, 2016
Phyllida Lloyd’s Shakespeare Trilogy at King’s Cross Theatre is a kinetic portrait of wide-ranging humanity.
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Anne-Marie Duff is magnificently complex
October 20, 2016
Ella Hickson’s sprawling odyssey Oil at Almeida Theatre is vivid and unsettling.
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Branagh is assured but lacks true desperation
September 8, 2016
The Entertainer finishes his Garrick residency with a flourish, but doesn’t dig deep enough.
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Admirable, engaging comment on liberal guilt
September 8, 2016
Adam Brace’s They Drink It In the Congo at the Almeida is educational, but overloaded.
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Pitch-perfect, spine-tingling ’90s nostalgia
August 18, 2016
Choirgirls break bad in Lee Hall’s irresistible Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour at the National Theatre.
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Piper is primal from the soul
August 11, 2016
Simon Stone’s updating of Lorca’s Yerma at the Young Vic features a shattering lead performance from Billie Piper.
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Urgent, devastating storytelling from Syria
July 14, 2016
Female refugees share their experiences in the profoundly moving Queens of Syria at the Young Vic.
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France-England clash is timely and thoughtful
June 30, 2016
Michelle Terry anchors a reflective Henry V at Regent’s Park Open Air.
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Smart dialogue, but too much millennial self-analysis
June 9, 2016
Jesse Eisenberg writes and stars in cynical sitcom The Spoils at Trafalgar Studios.
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Style over substance but Lily shines
June 2, 2016
Kenneth Branagh’s starry Romeo and Juliet at Garrick Theatre is more great beauty than great tragedy.
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Hard to invest in tale of altruistic formula
April 8, 2016
Laura Farmworth and Lydia Adetunji’s Calculating Kindness at Camden People’s Theatre is overstuffed.
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Dark portrait of addiction
April 1, 2016
Denise Gough reprises her tour-de-force performance in Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places & Things at Wyndham’s Theatre.
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Modern passion in a revitalised Chekhov
February 19, 2016
Robert Icke puts his contemporary spin on Uncle Vanya at Almeida Theatre.
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Pit drama is grim but gripping
November 5, 2015
Husbands & Sons, Ben Power’s inspired melding of three DH Lawrence mining plays at the National Theatre, is an intimate epic.
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A schmaltzy but sizzling hit
October 22, 2015
In the Heights at King’s Cross Theatre has a weak book, but is elevated by choreography and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s propulsive score.
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A whimsical vehicle for star Mark Rylance
October 22, 2015
Claire van Kampen’s Farinelli and the King at Duke of York’s is a sumptuous but featherweight showcase.
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Unfunny Brand satire finds nothing new
October 9, 2015
Daniel Dingsdale’s Dark Tourism at Park Theatre is as mean-spirited and vacuous as the celebrity culture it’s trying to satirise.
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Clumsy look at Jewish Broadway history
September 3, 2015
You Won’t Succeed On Broadway If You Don’t Have Any Jews at St James Theatre is dubiously framed, but toe-tapping nostalgia.
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An engaging study of love’s intoxication
August 7, 2015
Three Days in the Country, Patrick Marber’s adaptation of Turgenev at the National Theatre, is a hazily erotic hit.
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Love tale has astronomical ambition
July 31, 2015
Nick Payne’s ingenious theoretical physics romcom Constellations tracks the roads not taken in a strong Trafalgar Studios revival.
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Compassionate but too conventional
July 24, 2015
Andrew Keatley’s family drama The Gathered Leaves is a curiously old-fashioned choice for Park Theatre.
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Unemotional Kafka is a trial
July 3, 2015
Richard Jones’s stylishly surreal version of The Trial at the Young Vic fails to engage.
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Savile victims honoured in chilling story
June 19, 2015
Jonathan Maitland’s An Audience With Jimmy Savile at Park Theatre is respectful, though dramatically limited.
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A poignant take on a post-apocalyptic world
June 12, 2015
Sydney Theatre Company offer a warm but studied Waiting for Godot at the Barbican.
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Restoration revival packs a modern punch
June 6, 2015
Farquhar’s The Beaux’ Stratagem is a sumptuous and surprisingly thought-provoking joy at the National Theatre.
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Skewering of tabloid excess packs an urgent topicality
May 1, 2015
Former hack Mark Jagasia’s incisive and darkly funny tell-all Clarion at the Arcola is anchored by an indelible performance.
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Moody and modern Greek tragedy lacks emotional core
March 20, 2015
Ivo van Hove’s take on Sophocles’ Antigone at the Barbican, starring Juliette Binoche, is less than the sum of its illustrious parts.
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Topical fable shines light on darkest corners of life online
March 6, 2015
Jennifer Haley’s The Nether, transferred to Duke of York’s, offers a gripping dystopian view of urgent issues.
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Worthy but thin tale of broken Britain fails to engage
February 13, 2015
Tian Glasgow’s Changing State at Hen and Chickens tackles youth disenfranchisement with blunt statistics, not resonant theatre.
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Odd-couple love story is soulful and snappy but nothing new
February 5, 2015
Peter Souter’s Hello/Goodbye, though losing intensity in its promotion to the Hampstead main space, is a romance for our times.
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Dark, resonating epic keeps it in the family
December 12, 2014
Tena Štivičić’s terrifically impressive Croatian epic 3 Winters at the National Theatre puts female experience centre stage.
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Dance grippingly explores world of social outsiders
November 14, 2014
DV8’s verbatim physical theatre work JOHN at the National Theatre is electrifying viewing.
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Strange tale of odd couple is ambitious but elusive work
November 6, 2014
Robert Holman’s offbeat, existential Jonah and Otto at Park Theatre frustrates as much as it intrigues.
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Stripped-back piece makes us focus on human condition
October 24, 2014
David Cromer’s revival of Wilder’s Our Town at the Almeida is startlingly profound in its seeming simplicity.
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A solid enough production let down by its predictability
October 17, 2014
Damien Tracey’s Warde Street at Park Theatre diminishes real tragedy – the 7/7 London bombings – by adding overwrought and over-familiar melodrama.
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Not quite a train wreck but Lohan’s inexperience shows
October 10, 2014
The real drama is offstage in Lindsay Posner’s miscast revival of Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow at Playhouse Theatre.
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Henry’s comedy lacking in originality but has charm
October 2, 2014
Rudy’s Rare Records at Hackney Empire betrays its old-fashioned radio sitcom roots, but offers irresistible entertainment.
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Shock factor gone…but haunting tale is worth revisiting
September 18, 2014
Ridley’s Ghost from a Perfect Place gets a chilling revival at the Arcola, where its East End setting has particular resonance.
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Colliding worlds of innocent schoolboy and trapped prostitute are a powerful experience
September 12, 2014
Anna Jordan’s provocative Chicken Shop at Park Theatre conveys the discovery of horror close to home, but is hamstrung by sluggish subplots.
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Evening with Nunn’s Lady is pleasurable and provocative
August 15, 2014
An amiable updating of Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan at the King’s Head is anchored by Ellie Nunn’s star turn.
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McCrory magnetically powerful
July 31, 2014
Carrie Cracknell’s riveting modern staging of Euripides’ Medea at the National Theatre is all the more devastating for placing tragedy in a familiar context.
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Playwright fails to hit heights of acting career in this protracted saga
July 11, 2014
Oliver Cotton’s Daytona at Theatre Royal Haymarket takes so long getting to its big twists, there’s no time to deal with the emotional fallout.
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Thought-provoking encounter with an articulate ‘monster’
June 5, 2014
Nicholas Wright’s riveting A Human Being Died That Night at Hampstead Theatre presents an unsettling portrait of South Africa’s infamous Eugene de Kock.
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Powerful tale lost as tensions evaporate in open air
May 29, 2014
Miller’s All My Sons gets a solid rendering at Regent’s Park Open Air, but needs to feel more unbearably oppressive to be truly devastating.
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Mostly build-up…debatable climax
May 8, 2014
Carl Djerassi’s didactic Foreplay at King’s Head Theatre is more seminar with a dash of thriller pastiche than full-blooded drama.
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Drama reflects on oversharing and concerns in world of data
May 1, 2014
James Graham’s Privacy at the Donmar Warehouse presents urgent ideas with
a disarming lightness of touch.
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Swimming pool tale unafraid to tackle horror in deep end
April 24, 2014
Josep Maria Miró i Coromina’s Archimedes’ Principle at Park Theatre, which tackles paedophilia and trial by social media, falls short of fully formed work.
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Like Banksy himself, offering is ‘frustratingly out of reach’
April 11, 2014
Tom Wainwright’s topical Banksy: The Room in the Elephant at the Arcola debates art, value and social responsibility, but surrenders emotional engagement.
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Crime does pay in this silly but inventive comedy sketch
October 25, 2013
The gleeful whodunit pastiche in The People Show 121: The Detective Show at the Old Red Lion is fun old-fashioned entertainment.
MARIANKA SWAIN ~ WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW 