As politicians and pundits dissect the local election results, Duncan Macmillan serves up a blistering new adaptation of an 1886 work that feels eerily like a 2019 commentary. Move over, James Graham – it turns out Ibsen has supplied the … Continue reading
With This House enjoying an acclaimed revival last year, and Almeida hit Ink now situated just metres away from new offering Labour of Love on St Martin’s Lane, the West End currently belongs to the fantastically prolific playwright James Graham. Read my full BroadwayWorld review here
Bridget Christie and flamenco in Edinburgh, family-friendly Green Man Festival and will The Man From U.N.C.L.E will be a Cold War hit, or just lukewarm? Read my full theartsdesk newsletter here
As The Queen gains an audience with the latest royal addition, her theatrical alter ego returns to the West End, with Kristin Scott Thomas inheriting Tony-nominated Helen Mirren’s role in Peter Morgan’s updated revival. Callaghan is out; au courant gags … Continue reading
Morris Honeyspoon is a monster. In editorial conference, he halts objections with a blast of his air horn, and when a puppyish staffer challenges his blanket anti-immigration policy, Roman helmet-clutching Morris takes sadistic pleasure in ritually humiliating him. It’s not … Continue reading
As we stagger towards electoral chaos, isn’t it comforting to think there might be a master plan at work? That Russell Brand’s meddling is preordained, or Cameron’s ‘brain fade’ an act of divine intervention? The second play in Rufus Norris’s … Continue reading
“Fury Over Sharia Law For Toddlers!” No, not a prime example of spoof headline generator Daily Mail-o-matic, but the latest piece of fantastical scaremongering from the Clarion, a 125-year-old (semi-)fictional rag that’s upped sales by splashing on immigration every day … Continue reading
While seven-way debate rages, broadcaster and debuting playwright Jonathan Maitland takes us back 25 years to a radically different political landscape: a time of regents, and of regicide. It’s 1990 – Thatcher the leader claiming divine right to rule, Geoffrey … Continue reading
Eighteen months on, and Ed Miliband is still intoning “Cost of living crisis” in the hope of persuading disillusioned voters that someone at Westminster understands their plight. Yet the gulf between rhetoric and experience seems ever widening, making art that … Continue reading
