There’s a welcome alternative to panto hijinks in this gem of a Trevor Nunn musical revival – more attuned to the biting hardships of winter, and to the elegiac aspect of change, than to festive jollies. Which is not to say that there … Continue reading
American playwright Rajiv Joseph’s latest certainly doesn’t lack for ambition, spanning 90 years, three countries, and mixing history and fiction in its form to make a point about, well, mixing history and fiction. Storytelling through to the pertinent “fake news” … Continue reading
Chess, by Tim Rice and ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, hasn’t had a major West End revival since its Eighties heyday, but it’s back with a bang in a semi-staged production that features aerial silk acrobatics, cheerleading stunts and drunken Cossack dancing. But … Continue reading
Offstage drama infamously hijacked the 1995 premiere of Simon Gray’s play, with star Stephen Fry walking out mid-run – hastening the production’s early closing. Here, then, is a chance to put the focus back on the work itself in Edward … Continue reading
After putting a modern spin on the Oresteia, with memorable results, director Robert Icke takes on another classic. No samovars here: Icke has stripped back, anglicised and revitalised Chekhov, obliterating the space between story and spectator. His zoomed-in vision offers … Continue reading
A month in the country is shortened to 72 hours in Patrick Marber’s sardonic, hazily erotic 135-minute distillation of a Russian classic. The influence of Turgenev’s 1850s country-house tragicomedy on fellow countryman Chekhov is clear, with its aristocratic family suffering … Continue reading
To coincide with the opening of Three Days in The Country, Patrick Marber’s new adaption of Turgenev, I’ve rounded up 10 other great plays set in the summer, from bucolic romance and adolescent yearning to fiery conflict and family combustion. Read my … Continue reading
