Theatre review: In Praise of Love

1973's In Praise of Love is one of Terence Rattigan's last plays, a time when his star was in the descendant, and at times it does feel like we're going to be in for the work of a playwright whose best days are behind him. But like its characters, it's got hidden depths to take you by surprise. Sebastian Cruttwell (Dominic Rowan) is a literary critic for a Sunday paper, a vocal Marxist with undisguised contempt for anyone who doesn't share his belief in the theory, but not particularly keen on discussing how the USSR worked out in practice. After the end of WWII he met Estonian refugee Lydia (Claire Price) in Berlin's British quarter, and married her so she could come back to England, with the intention of divorcing once she got her citizenship. Decades on they're still married, and have a 20-year-old son, Joey (Joe Edgar,) who to his father's disgust campaigns for the Liberal Party.

Theatre review: The Frogs

Director Georgie Rankcom seems to have established a very specific niche: Revivals of Stephen Sondheim obscurities that I'd previously seen at Jermyn Street Theatre, given bigger, better productions at Southwark Playhouse that still aren't enough to rehabilitate them. After Anyone Can Whistle it's the turn of The Frogs, Sondheim (music and lyrics) and Burt Shevelove's (book) short 1974 adaptation of the Aristophanes satire, expanded to a full Broadway musical by the composer and Nathan Lane in 2004. In a setting that's simultaneously Ancient Greece and the present day, the god of wine and theatre Dionysos (Dan Buckley) enlists his slave Xanthias (Kevin McHale) to help him travel to the underworld to bring back the deceased playwright Bernard Shaw: He believes Shaw's no-nonsense brand of wisdom is the solution to a modern world he despairs at.

Theatre review: This Is My Family

First seen in Sheffield in 2013, Tim Firth's (book and music) This Is My Family has taken twelve years to make it to London, and after seeing Vicky Featherstone's production at Southwark Playhouse I have to wonder: Why the rush? Nicky (Nancy Allsop) is a 13-year-old girl who's entered a competition to explain why her family is perfect, and has told the truth, but left out a few salient details: Parents Steve (Michael Jibson) and Yvonne (Gemma Whelan) have been together since they were 16, but they're drifting apart and Steve is considering taking a job in Abu Dhabi. Older brother Matt (Luke Lambert) used to be very close to her but now he's having a teenage druid phase and obsessing over his girlfriend. And grandmother May (Gay Soper) has the mischievous side she describes, but she's now also got fast-encroaching dementia.

Theatre review: After the Act

Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation whose phrasing is so vague it seems to have been drafted by people who don't understand any of the words in it may be recent news in the UK, but unfortunately it's hardly without precedent: That sense of déjà vu comes from Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which passed on a wave of "won't somebody think of the children?" moral panic and ended up, in practice, banning teachers from acknowledging to their students that gay people existed, even when those students were clearly dealing with a crisis of their own sexuality. The latest of David Byrne's (not that one) transfers from the New Diorama to the Royal Court deals with Section 28's toxic legacy, but while it's a subject I think is always worth revisiting and educating people on, for me Billy Barrett and Ellice Stevens' After the Act, a play with music composed and performed (with Calie Hough) onstage by Frew, feels the strain of expanding to a bigger stage.

Theatre review: Marriage Material

Split between the late 1960s and the present day in Wolverhampton, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's Marriage Material, based on Sathnam Sanghera's 2013 novel, makes a connection between the politics of the two times that's hard to miss: In the first act, Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech is still fresh in everyone's memories, both the white racists who felt emboldened by it, and the immigrant communities who had to deal with the consequences. In the second act there's no single obvious instigator mentioned, but disenfranchised young white men are once again being encouraged to blame their problems on anyone with a different skin colour. These scenes are hard to miss, and they provide an important background to everything that happens to the central characters. What's impressive though is how this comes across without ever becoming what the story is really about.

Theatre review: The Comedy About Spies

Mischief Theatre return to the London stage, and to their trademark incredibly literally-titled shows with The Comedy About Spies, a 1960s-set espionage spoof that sees Soviet spy Elena Popov (Charlie Russell) stake out a London hotel to meet a British double agent who's going to hand over state secrets. She prefers to work alone but she's been given a partner in Sergei (understudy Niall Ransome,) who's way too invested in his own cover story as a spleen doctor. Trying to stop them making the exchange are CIA agent Lance Buchanan (Dave Hearn,) who's accompanied by his mother Janet (Nancy Zamit,) who wants to ensure he doesn't get his cover blown again like in every other mission. Meanwhile hotel manager Albert (Greg Tannahill) thinks all the suspicious behaviour is because a mystery shopper is in the building to assess him.

Theatre review: Radiant Boy - A Haunting

Nancy Netherwood's Radiant Boy is subtitled "A Haunting," and is framed as the story of an exorcism. But horror fans will probably be disappointed as this is a gentler, more elusive kind of haunting, more Emily Brontë than William Peter Blatty. It's 1983 and Russell (Stuart Thompson) has returned from London, where he's been studying singing at a conservatoire, to the home where he grew up in a small town in the North-East of England. He and his mother Maud (Wendy Nottingham) are awkward and chilly around each other, and while Russell claims to be ill, he seems wary of whatever cure his mother might have in mind, to the point of making you wonder why he's come back in the first place. It transpires he's had a kind of fit that's affected him before, and this time it almost caused him to hurt someone he cares about.

Theatre review: Shucked

Shucked by the power

Shucked by the power of love

OK they don't actually do that one, but Robert Horn (book,) Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally's (music and lyrics) Shucked does provide some catchy tunes of its own once it gets going. Contrary to what I said last year, apparently this is actually the official first show in the Open Air Theatre's Drew McOnie era (given La Cage Aux Folles was much-trumpeted as Timothy Sheader's swansong I guess the whole 2024 season was an extended perineum period?) A piss-take of the stereotype of small American towns with no interest in the outside world, Cob County is literally cut off from everyone else by a dense circle of cornfields that surrounds it, but when the crop the entire town depends on starts to fail, plucky Maizy (Sophie McShera) goes against everyone's advice to find a solution outside: She finds a way out and seeks help in the big city (Tampa, FL.)

Theatre review: The Deep Blue Sea

The Deep Blue Sea isn't the easiest watch in the Terence Rattigan canon but it's considered among his great works; that, and Tamsin Greig in the lead role, were reasons enough to revisit a play steeped in despair and redemption in its first return to London since the late Helen McCrory led it at the National a decade ago. The play opens with a suicide attempt: Hester (Greig) is found on the floor of her room in a dilapidated boarding house, unconscious but still alive next to the hissing gas fire. In an early example of how the play juggles the banal with the profound, her life was saved when the gas ran out because she forgot to top up the meter. Landlady Mrs Elton (Selina Cadell) and neighbours Mr & Mrs Welch (Preston Nyman and Lisa Ambalavanar) will get her help, but their meddling will also bring everyone from Hester's complicated life right back to her.

Theatre review: Romeo and Juliet(Shakespeare's Globe)

After Hamlet on the Titanic and Much Ado About WAGs, this spring's trio of super-high concept Shakespeare productions concludes with Romeo and Juliet: The Western. Although out of these three, Sean Holmes' production at the Globe is the one that engages the least with its high concept, right from the start when it becomes apparent that the cast will be using their own accents instead of going all-in to match the Wild West imagery. Paul Wills' design does fill the stage with cowboys and cowgirls, against a backdrop of swinging saloon doors - though apart from one ominous splash of blood it does all look rather new and clean in the town of Verona, where two families' feud has been a headache for the Sheriff (Dharmesh Patel) for many years. He finally concedes that he can't stop them attacking each other in private, but doing so in public will be on pain of death.

Theatre review: The Fifth Step

Back to @sohoplace, the theatre with a name so current it thinks it's figured out what the "F" stands for in TFI Friday, for David Ireland's latest play. And while one of the characters is a lapsed Catholic and the other embraces Protestantism during the course of the story, this sees the playwright widen his scope from the legacy of the Troubles that has been the backdrop to his previous work. Not that Luka (Jack Lowden) and James (Martin Freeman) don't have their own troubled histories, but theirs are with alcohol. Luka has just joined Alcoholics Anonymous and in the opening scene, following a discussion about the importance of choosing the right sponsor in which James could be construed to be pitching for the job, he does indeed ask the older man to mentor him. The sometimes fractious and combative relationship that follows starts to get even more personal once they reach The Fifth Step of the programme.

Theatre review: 1536

Anne Boleyn looms large over Ava Pickett's 1536, although she never actually makes an appearance*: Instead we're in a field in Essex with three regular young women, who we catch up with over the course of a few weeks as gossip reaches them of the queen's arrest for treason, increasingly lurid accusations of sexual impropriety, and eventually her execution. In the process we see them deal with the slow, horrifying realisation of just how precarious their lives are as women in Tudor England. Central to the story is Anna (Siena Kelly,) whose outlook on her own body and sexuality is very modern - she enjoys her power over men as much if not more so than the actual sex, doesn't particularly care if she's got a reputation in the village, and is currently hooking up with Richard (Adam Hugill,) even when she discovers he's about to enter into an arranged marriage with her best friend Jane (Liv Hill.)

Theatre review: Here We Are

Stephen Sondheim's final completed musical makes its UK debut at the National with a transfer of Joe Mantello's original off-Broadway production, although "completed" might be a bit of a stretch: The composer had given permission for this version to be staged, but mainly because he was aware he was unlikely to live to write a final version. So we end up with a show whose music and lyrics are very recognisably Sondheim, but which doesn't actually have that many songs mixed into David Ives' book. Inspired by two films by the avant-garde filmmaker Luis Buñuel, Here We Are looks at first to be a fairly straightforward social satire of the criminally rich: Leo (Rory Kinnear) and Marianne Brink (Jane Krakowski) are surprised by a visit from Marianne's sister Fritz (Chumisa Dornford-May.)

Theatre review: Much Ado About Nothing (RSC / RST)

Theatrical 2025 looks set to be memorable in part for Shakespeare productions whose high concepts tip over from the eccentric to the downright daft, and following Hamlet on the Titanic onto the RSC's main stage is Much Ado About Nothing, with Michael Longhurst's debut for the company moving the play from the world of soldiers and orange groves to that of professional footballers and WAGs. FC Messina have just won a European championship and the celebrations will be held at the home of the team sponsor, Leonato (understudy Nick Cavaliere,) a media mogul whose sports channels show all their games, with his niece Beatrice (Freema Agyeman) as one of the post-match interviewers. This is how she knows one of the players, Benedick (Nick Blood,) and the two have a brief sexual history that makes their encounters spiky to this day.

Theatre review: My Master Builder

Henrik Ibsen seems to be the current favourite classic playwright for modern writers to rewrite, rework and reimagine, in plays billed as inspired by his work rather than straightforward adaptations. And I'm sure sooner or later we'll get something that genuinely feels like it's reinventing the wheel, but right now I'd settle for something I can see the point of: Lila Raicek's My Master Builder isn't that. Henry (Ewan McGregor) is a superstar architect (or "starchitect,") who has just completed work on a new chapel adjacent to his weekend home in the Hamptons. On the tenth anniversary of his son's death, the building is to be officially unveiled as a memorial to the child, and his publisher wife Elena (Kate Fleetwood) is organising a launch party. As she plans the evening with her assistant Kaia (Mirren Mack) she reveals a somewhat twisted sense of mischief in some of the invitations and seating arrangements, but one guest has been invited for an even darker purpose.

Theatre review: Cockfosters

Taking its title from the station tourists mistakenly think has the smuttiest-sounding name on the Tube (only because they don't know how Londoners pronounce "Hainault,") Hamish Clayton and Tom Woffenden's Cockfosters is a short, affable and affectionate comedy about the London Underground. Technically the genre is romantic comedy, as it follows a journey on the entire Piccadilly Line route from Heathrow Airport to Cockfosters as Tori (Beth Lilly) returns from a relaxing holiday to Mexico and James (Sam Rees-Baylis) tops off a much more disastrous trip to Venice with the airline losing his luggage. But while the journey serves as an extended meet-cute it's really a framework for a series of comic sketches in which they encounter the various characters and situations that regular commuters will recognise - and generally dread.

Theatre review: Titus Andronicus (RSC / Swan)

There's splashguards for the front row of the Swan and grates have been installed on the voms to drain off a variety of bodily fluids, it must mean Titus Andronicus is back at the theatre where I first saw it. This time, a few decades after Actor Brian Cox famously advised him to play the role, it's finally Simon Russell Beale's turn to take on the Roman General who finds out to his (and his family's) cost that the trouble with hanging out with mad emperors is that they're mad, and also they've got the power of emperors. Titus is given the casting vote on who should be the next autocrat of Rome, and chooses Saturninus (Joshua James,) who instantly decides to abuse his power by demanding the hand (in marriage) of Lavinia (Letty Thomas,) his own brother's (Ned Costello) fiancée. When she refuses, her whole family are considered to have offended his honour, and as he's her father that instantly takes Titus from kingmaker to pariah.

Theatre review: The Brightening Air

Playwright and director Conor McPherson recently received a massive tax bill - at least that's the most obvious explanation for the frantic flurry of activity he's got planned for this year, when he'll be writing new shows, directing some of his old ones and, to start with, doing both: His new play The Brightening Air gets its debut production at the Old Vic, with the playwright himself directing and, to be honest, not doing much to dissuade me from my general rule of thumb that this is A Bad Idea. With nods to Chekhov that are acknowledged when one character jokingly refers to another by a Russian patronymic, the play sees a family reunite a few times at a remote family home - in this case a dilapidated farmhouse in Ireland. Middle child Stephen (Brian Gleeson) lives there with his Nonspecifically Neurodivergent little sister Billie (Rosie Sheehy,) who finds as much comfort in the familiar place as she does in discussing her wide range of fixations.

Theatre review: Dealer's Choice

Dealer's Choice is a play I've got a bit of history with: I saw the original 1995 production at what was then called the Cottesloe at the National, and was so impressed with it that I chose one of its scenes to workshop as part of my university directing course. I also caught the Menier's 2007 revival, and that clearly made an impact too, as it turns out my memory of who originally played the characters was a mix of those two casts. So it was hard to resist Matthew Dunster's 30th anniversary production at the Donald and Margot Warehouse, now coming to it as a play I'm in many ways very familiar with, but at the same time haven't encountered in 18 years. Patrick Marber's debut play takes place in a small, barely-afloat restaurant owned and run by Stephen (Daniel Lapaine,) with the help of an all-male skeleton staff who join him every Sunday night after closing for their weekly poker game.

Theatre review: Ben and Imo

When Elizabeth II became Queen in 1952, composer Benjamin Britten (Samuel Barnett) was commissioned to write a grand opera to be premiered as part of the Coronation celebrations. With only 9 months to do it in, he was forced to take on a musical assistant, something he agreed to only if he could hire his friend Imogen Holst (Victoria Yeates,) who had fulfilled a similar role for her late father Gustav. Mark Ravenhill's Ben and Imo, originally seen at the RSC last year, is a fictional imagining of their personal and professional relationship as they worked on Gloriana, an opera about Elizabeth I in honour of her sequel. The two-hander is an uneven but often interesting look at the toxic behaviour of genius - a common theme of American drama, but here given the twist of a very British type of toxicity.

Theatre review: Ghosts

I dithered over whether to see the Lyric Hammersmith's new version of Ghosts: The Swanamaker's 2023 production was possibly the best I've seen, and when something like that is comparatively recent I can be loath to spoil the memory with something that might not live up to it. In the end I gave Gary Owen's version, which reunites him with regular director Rachel O'Riordan and star Callum Scott Howells, a go in part because it sounded like it would essentially be a new, entirely different play. After all, Iphigenia in Splott and Romeo and Julie took only loose inspiration from the classics their titles alluded to. But Ghosts isn't quite the same kind of complete reinvention, nor is it really a version of Henrik Ibsen's original as advertised: Instead it starts with Ibsen and goes off in a different direction, and it's in being neither one thing nor the other that I found it stumbled.

Theatre review: Midnight Cowboy

Technically not a screen-to-stage adaptation as it's officially based directly on the novel by James Leo Herlihy, Midnight Cowboy is regardless a musical that's fated to be compared to the beloved 1969 movie; which I actually haven't seen, as it turns out, but Ian's a fan and informs me that Max Bowden's performance as Rico 'Ratso' Rizzo is... shall we say not entirely uninfluenced by Dustin Hoffman's performance in the film. Bryony Lavery (book) and Francis 'Eg' White's (music and lyrics) adaptation follows Joe Buck (Paul Jacob French) from Texas (or possibly Arkansas) to New York, where he intends to make his fortune selling sex for cash. Given his homophobic comments early on it's clear that one of the many ways he's deluded himself is in thinking this will involve vaginal sex, but he's soon disabused of this notion.

Theatre review: Manhunt

In 2010 Raoul Moat, a former nightclub bouncer from Newcastle, was released from prison after serving two months, and within days had got hold of a sawn-off shotgun which he used to shoot at his ex-girlfriend, injuring her and killing her new boyfriend. He also blinded a policeman before escaping into the countryside, setting off one of the most notorious (and sometimes downright bizarre) police manhunts in British history, that only ended when he shot and killed himself. In 2025, Moat's story inspires Robert Icke's Manhunt, his contribution to the recent spate of dramas exploring violence and toxic masculinity that have included high-profile entries like Punch and Adolescence. Opening with him stalking around Hildegard Bechtler's prison yard-like set while CCTV films him from above, Moat (Samuel Edward-Cook) turns to address the audience in what looks like it'll be very much his side of the story.

Theatre review: Speed

I wouldn't entirely put it past producers to try and put a bus that will blow up if it slows below 50 mph on stage, but until someone with more money than sense has that particular fever dream this Speed is something a bit different: Mohamed-Zain Dada's play is set in the basement of a Holiday Inn outside Birmingham, where three dangerous drivers who can't afford any more points on their licences have come for a speed awareness course. But if there's something odd about course leader Abz (Nikesh Patel) it goes a bit beyond his jittery enthusiasm. And if the participants feel like they've been racially profiled when they look around, they wouldn't be entirely wrong either: In a session the DVLA would probably have some notes about, Abz is actually piloting his own scheme aimed at dealing with anger issues among South Asian drivers.

Theatre review: Apex Predator

Hampstead Theatre's prices are getting so high I increasingly need a bloody good reason to fork out for a ticket for the Main House, but the playwright behind one of my past Shows of the Year would fit that bill: In the case of Apex Predator that's John Donnelly, of 2014's The Pass. This time instead of gay men the central pair are straight(ish) women, and instead of starting out at the top of their game one of them at least seems to be spiralling out of control. Mia (Sophie Melville) has recently had her second child, and is suffering from sleepless nights thanks to the baby and an inconsiderate neighbour's loud music. Her husband Joe (Bryan Dick) can't provide much moral support as he works most nights in a special police operation - he's not allowed to discuss it but she suspects it's connected to a grisly recent series of murders.

Theatre review: The Score

Actor Brian Cox has described J.S. Bach as a "forgotten composer," although given it's only a few years since SSRB played him at the Bridge and now it's Cox's turn in the West End I'd argue London theatre at least remembers him. In Oliver Cotton's The Score, the 62-year-old Bach is respected but largely sidelined in a comparatively lowly position of his own choosing: A very religious man, he composes choral work for all the churches in his adopted home of Leipzig, grumbling his way through the demands for a new piece every week. In recent years the city has suffered the effects of war, as Frederick II's expansionist policies have left behind an army demanding to be housed. Their drills and manoeuvres disrupt everyone at all hours, before we even get to the drunken, violent and dangerous night-time behaviour of the traumatised soldiers.

Theatre review: Playhouse Creatures

With Playhouse Creatures April De Angelis completes a loose trilogy of plays about some of the first women to achieve fame - or notoriety - in something like the modern sense. Whether the connection was intentional I don't know, although I'm guessing the fact that all three of the plays have been underwhelming to one extent or another wasn't part of the plan. In the 1660s Nell Gwynn (Zoe Brough) is still an orange-seller wishing she could join the ranks of the new female actors, only recently allowed onto the stage by Charles II. After being pipped to the only open spot for a new actress by Mrs Farley (Nicole Sawyerr) she eventually tricks her way into a minor role, securing a more permanent spot after catching the eye of the men in the audience - and the King himself.

Theatre review: Rhinoceros

Omar Elerian continues to be a big advocate of Eugène Ionesco's work, returning to the Almeida after The Chairs to adapt and direct Rhinoceros, a play whose wildness, chaos and horrors mirror the real-life situations it satirises. A quiet Sunday in a small village that may or may not be in France is disrupted when a rhinoceros charges through the square, later followed by a second one (or the same one doing a loop.) Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù plays Berenger, who's already got problems with alcohol before the play starts, and is unlikely to find it easier to cope once the rhinos start arriving - particularly as everyone else in town seems to view them as a minor inconvenience at most. But as the week goes on and everyone tries to get back to work, things are further disrupted as it becomes apparent this isn't an incursion of pachiderms from outside: The human residents are, one by one, turning into rhinos.

Theatre review: Cry-Baby, The Musical

Not actually a Jemini jukebox show, Adam Schlesinger (music,) David Javerbaum (lyrics,) Mark O'Donnell & Thomas Meehan's (book) Cry-Baby, The Musical is in fact an adaptation of the 1990 John Waters film. Perhaps not the most obvious candidate to be turned into a musical, given that the original film already was one, but in terms of story it's a good candidate to follow Hairspray to the stage. Another trashy piss-take of the myths of mid-20th century Americana, this one sees the teenagers of 1954 Baltimore divided into two groups: The rich, preppy and virginal Squares, and the poor, rebellious and horny Drapes. Allison (Lulu-Mae Pears) is a Square, but she secretly wants to be a Drape, especially when she meets their bad-boy leader Wade Walker (Adam Davidson,) known as Cry-Baby because the last time he cried was when both his parents were sent to the electric chair for a crime they didn't commit.

Theatre review: The Seagull

Hot on the heels of a Three Sisters that found a bit more humour than usual in one of the bleaker Chekhovs comes a Seagull that focuses on the melancholy of one of the ones that's officially a comedy. Duncan Macmillan and director Thomas Ostermeier's adaptation keeps all four acts in the al fresco location where only the first usually takes place: The lakeside dacha of retired civil servant Peter Sorin (Jason Watkins,) whose insistence that the fresh country air doesn't agree with him helps him and everyone else ignore just how bad his health actually is. Spending the summer there as usual is his sister Irina Arkádina (Cate Blanchett,) a famous actress, with her new boyfriend Alexander Trigorin (Tom Burke,) a bestselling novelist. But we begin with Arkádina's son Konstantin (Kodi Smit-McPhee,) an aspiring playwright who's premiering an experimental play he's convinced is the future of art.

Theatre review: Unicorn

I usually tend to catch shows pretty soon after press night but it's taken me until midway through the run to get round to Mike Bartlett's latest, Unicorn; it's interesting timing though as one of its stars, Erin Doherty, is currently having a bit of a moment thanks to her role in Adolescence, and everyone's interest in her sandwich. Here she plays Kate, a postgraduate student with a bit of a crush on her former tutor, Polly* (Future Dame Nicola Walker,) who's also one of her favourite poets. We meet them having drinks on what is sort of a date, but a bit more complicated: Polly is married to Nick (Stephen Mangan,) still very happily, but they'd both admit their sex life has tailed off. Polly is attracted to Kate but isn't looking for an affair behind her husband's back: Instead she wants to propose that the younger woman join them as a third in the relationship.

Theatre review: Clueless

If there's a musical theatre assembly line more relentless than the one that produces Strallens, it's the one that adapts classic teen movies for the stage, and the latest is Amy Heckerling (book,) KT Tunstall (music) and Glenn Slater's Clueless, based on Heckerling's 1995 film, itself based loosely on Jane Austen's Emma. Set among the obscenely wealthy and spectacularly un-self-aware teens of Beverly Hills, Cher (Emma Flynn) sees herself as the school's problem-solver and matchmaker, although she's regularly challenged on her supposedly altruistic motives by her ex-stepbrother Josh (Keelan McAuley,) acquired during one of her father's brief marriages. When grungy New Yorker Tai (Romona Lewis-Malley) transfers to the school, Cher and best friend Dionne (Chyna-Rose Frederick) take her on as a project.

Theatre review: Punch

James Graham's widest audience has arguably come from Sherwood, the TV crime drama not only located in the Nottinghamshire area where he grew up, but also with a story built entirely on the very specific historic tensions that have a ripple effect there to this day. He stays in Nottingham for his latest return to the stage with a production that originated there, and a play based on a true story: Jacob Dunne (David Shields) was 19 when he joined some of his friends in a drunken fight, and punched a stranger, James Hodgkinson, who fell to the street and hit his head. Jacob ran away from the scene and more or less forgot about the assault, but nine days later James died of his injuries and Jacob was suddenly facing a murder charge. Punch follows his life leading up to that point, as well as the surprising turns it took after he served a 30-month prison sentence for manslaughter.

Theatre review: Alterations

When Indhu Rubasingham took over what was then the Tricycle, her first step was to ask audiences what they did and didn't like about the theatre, and responded with the practical changes people asked for. She'll be officially taking over at the National soon, so if she wants any early suggestions for the new gig might I recommend some new padding for the seats in the two main houses? Or if they can't afford that just yet, maybe no more 2hr+ shows without interval until they can? I genuinely don't know to what extent I felt lukewarm about Alterations, and to what extent I just spent half of it in pain from a seat that doesn't seem to have been reupholstered since Michael Abbensetts' play was brand-new. That would be 1978, and the story plays out over 48 hours in a Carnaby Street tailor's shop in September of the previous year (going by the prop newpaper announcing the death of Marc Bolan.)

Theatre review: Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: This review is of the final preview performance.

Whatever the clichés might say, US and UK humour do generally travel fairly well between sides of the Atlantic, although I personally find that the sillier brand of comedy can be more hit and miss in its travels. We've already had one demented New York spoof hit the right mark in London this year with Titaníque, so could a second work the same trick? Well, maybe not quite as successfully, but Gordon Greenberg (also directing) and Steve Rosen's camp take on Bram Stoker definitely has its moments. Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors takes the basic elements of the classic vampire story, changes them and swaps a couple of characters' names around for no discernible reason, and after a shaky start has a lot of fun to offer. Charlie Stemp plays a particularly timid and gormless Jonathan Harker, the English estate agent on a journey to sell London property to a Transylvanian noble.

Theatre review: Macbeth (ETT / Lyric Hammersmith)

Déjà vu at the Lyric Hammersmith, which hasn't seen such a burst of European Director's Theatre-style expressionism since the Sean Holmes years, but makes up for it with English Touring Theatre's take on Macbeth: Richard Twyman throws everything except the nudity and the food-fighting (I'd say the kitchen sink but there is one of those) at the story of Scotland emerging from war only for the king to be assassinated and his successor to throw the country into tyranny and chaos. In a production the projections tell us is divided into three parts, Home, Kingdom and Nation, we begin with a very domestic Macbeth in which Lady Macbeth (Lois Chimimba) opens the show in a luxurious but clinical modern apartment, listening to a voice note from her husband.

Theatre review: Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew

If there was a touch of damning with faint praise to me calling Otherland "nice" a couple of days ago, the term feels as appropriate, but without the backhanded element, for Coral Wylie's gentle family drama Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew. As families go it's an eccentric quartet, in that the member with perhaps the biggest influence over the others has been dead for decades. In Debbie Hannan's production Wylie also plays Pip, who came out as bisexual to their parents a little while ago to little drama, but whose more recent coming out as non-binary still has Lorin (Pooky Quesnel) and especially Craig (Wil Johnson) struggling to get used to. To Pip this all blends in with their general feelings about their parents being rather distant and uncommunicative; Craig tends to disappear to his allotment, which they're vaguely aware has some connection to his dead best friend Duncan.

Theatre review: Otherland

Chris Bush's Otherland opens with an otherwise happy couple divorcing over one insurmountable issue; the rest of the two and a half hours follows each of them through the huge physical and emotional changes that come next. Jo (Jade Anouka) has always known her husband identified as a woman but had no intention of transitioning, and it never caused any problems. But after ten years together Harry (Fizz Sinclair) has decided it's time to be her real self, and while bisexual Jo is primarily attracted to women, it turns out the woman Harry has become isn't one of them. They separate and largely lose contact, and while Jo meets a new partner in Gabby (Amanda Wilkin,) Harry has to navigate both the legal obstacles to having her gender recognised, and the personal milestones with her family: Her initially supportive-seeming mother Elaine (Retired Lesbian Jackie Clune) is actually constantly deadnaming her and dismissing her transition.

Theatre review: Edward II

After half the RSC Artistic Director made her debut in the role last summer, the other half also opts to do so in the Swan - although after mostly directing for the last couple of decades, Daniel Evans returns to acting in the company where he first launched his career. Christopher Marlowe's Edward II begins with the funeral of Edward I, and Daniel Raggett's production has the Stalls audience file respectfully past the old king's coffin lying in state before the new King Edward II (Evans) is crowned. But even before the funeral is over Edward is busy reversing one of his father's decrees: The banishment of Gaveston (Eloka Ivo,) his closest friend and lover. Not only does he immediately bring Gaveston back, he showers him with honours and positions of power (to such a ridiculous extent there's even a Mitchell & Webb sketch making fun of it,) and the assembled barons aren't happy about it.

Theatre review: Backstroke

Future Dames Celia Imrie and Tamsin Greig play mother and daughter in Anna Mackmin's Backstroke at the Donald and Margot Warehouse. Beth (Imrie) has had a stroke, and is in hospital unable to move or communicate. When her daughter Bo (Greig) arrives, she bombards the medical staff with demands to know how long her mother has left to live, and for them to take out her drip and stop feeding her. What initially seems like a callous hope that she can get rid of her mother as soon as possible turns out to be genuinely heartfelt concern: Beth spent her entire life insisting that if she ended up in this situation she should be nil by mouth, and there should be no attempts to prolong her life; if anything she asks to be put out of her misery. But as with so much in her life she never actually put her wishes down on paper, and now Bo fears she'll get the prolonged death she always dreaded.

Theatre review: The Habits

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: Hampstead invites the official critics in next week.

I imagine Stranger Things has caused something of a Dungeons & Dragons resurgence in recent years; apparently lockdown saw games spring up as well, which is where Jack Bradfield got the idea for The Habits, set in a failing board game-themed café in Bromley. Owner Dennis (Paul Thornley) had been hoping to mostly host the role-playing games he fondly remembers from his teen years, but has ended up surrounded by Monopoly players if anyone turns up at all; so he's excited to see a young group set up a weekly D&D game. But there's a sad reason behind these meetings: 16-year-old Jess' (Ruby Stokes) brother died a few months ago, and his best friend Milo (Jamie Bisping) and ex-girlfriend Maryn (Sara Hazemi) have agreed to meet her every week, to help her move on by playing the game her brother loved.

Theatre review: KENREX

My online Show of the Year 2021 and even better live in 2022, nobody could accuse Cruise of lacking in ambition, but that's how its creator Jack Holden's follow-up makes it feel. Less obviously personal but with much more of an epic scope, KENREX takes Holden's monologue-with-songs format and applies it to a true crime documentary, one of those violent stories of isolated and twisted Americana. The isolated place in question is Skidmore, a Missouri town so small and remote it doesn't have a sheriff - if anyone makes a 911 call it'll take an hour for the police to turn up. This is something that local bully Ken Rex McElroy has taken advantage of throughout the 1970s, and his reign of terror has included violence, physical and sexual assault, arson, killing pets, theft of livestock, and general menace and intimidation of the town's population.

Theatre review: Churchill in Moscow

Howard Brenton's history plays have an eclectic scope that's previously seen him tackle everything from Ancient Greek philosophers to the Partition of India. He's also dealt with the life of Harold Macmillan, but for his latest play he goes for the British Prime Minister who must have been interpreted on stage and screen more than any other, as Roger Allam plays the title role in Churchill in Moscow (he plays Churchill, not Moscow.) Set in 1942, things look particularly dark for the Allies as the Nazis are making inroads into Russia and approaching Stalingrad. Meanwhile British forces have been depleted to the point that they'd be wiped out instantly if they attempted to invade Europe via the Channel - US troops will eventually supplement them, but they're not really feeling it just yet. Winston Churchill is on a secret diplomatic mission to Moscow to inform Joseph Stalin (Peter Forbes) of the bad news that D-day won't come until at least the next year.

Theatre review: Richard II (Bridge Theatre)

Never mind his global fanbase post-Bridgerton and Wicked, those of us who frequent London theatre have wanted to see Jonathan Bailey's Dick for years. Bailey returns to Shakespeare and to director Nicholas Hytner for the Bridge's in-the-round Richard II, in which a capricious king who has never doubted his divine right to rule has tanked England's finances, raising money for wars that never happen, then spending it on himself while the country's military reputation becomes an embarrassment. The Lords might put up with this to avoid upending centuries of tradition, but Richard makes the mistake of making things personal: Intervening in a dispute between Henry Bullingbrook (Royce Pierreson) and Thomas Mowbray (Phoenix Di Sebastiani,) he banishes both - essentially for disrespecting him. He later adds injury to insult when Henry's father John of Gaunt (Nick Sampson) dies, and Richard commandeers his inheritance to finance one of his doomed expeditions.

Theatre review: Much Ado About Nothing(Jamie Lloyd Company / Theatre Royal Drury Lane)

I went on quite a bit in my review of Jamie Lloyd's Tempest about the fact that the entire production seemed to exist only to satisfy an obscure beef that His Exalted Brittanic Excellency, The Right Rev. Dr Baron Dame Sir Andrew Lloyd Lord Webber BA (Hons) MEng, QC, MD, P.I, FSB had with a dead man, and the way that was reflected in a production the director's heart didn't seem to be in. At least, whatever other reservations I might have with the second half of this Shakespeare season at Drury Lane, Lloyd's Much Ado About Nothing has the feel of a show he actually had an idea for. Another heavily edited text doesn't only lose a whole swathe of characters but also the play's military context: Soutra Gilmour's design leaves the huge stage mostly bare except for constantly-falling pink confetti, turning it into the dance floor of an 80's/90's- themed disco (although the amount of plot that's dependant on texts and people checking each other's Instagrams suggest we're in the present day.)

Theatre review: More Life

Billed as a sci-fi gothic horror, Lauren Mooney and James Yeatman's More Life is a riff on Frankenstein (something it acknowledges several times) set in 2075, when medical advances have allowed those who can afford them to slow down the ageing process by a couple of deacdes, but haven't quite eliminated human mortality altogether yet. But the next step towards that might just have been taken: Alison Halstead plays a synthetic human that doesn't need to eat, sleep or breathe. Vic (Marc Elliott) and his assistant Mike (Lewis Mackinnon) now need to find the right consciousness to animate it, out of many brains donated to their shadowy organisation over the years. Many can't handle the realisation that they've died and been brought back in a new body, but eventually the scientists find Bridget, a young woman who died in a car crash in 2026 (caused by one of the company's own prototype driverless cars.) A few adjustments to the code that stores her consciousness, and she's ready for a new life.

Theatre review: Hamlet (RSC / RST)

It's 14 years since Rupert Goold last worked at the RSC, and almost a decade since he last directed a Shakespeare play. Now he returns to close off the new leadership's first year in the main house, and in his time away the director who brought us horror movie Macbeth, emo Romeo & Juliet and The Merchant of Vegas hasn't forgotten how to come up with a high concept. Although whether he can still pull the concept off might be a matter of opinion. Goold brings with him one of his big discoveries from his time at the Almeida, throwing Luke Thallon into the deep end for his first professional Shakespeare role as Hamlet. The titular character is Prince of Denmark, having recently lost his father but not succeeded him as king. That title has gone to his uncle Claudius (Jared Harris,) who as well as his brother's crown has also claimed his widow: Weeks after the old king's funeral Claudius has married Hamlet's mother Gertrude (Nancy Carroll.)

Theatre review: Three Sisters

Last winter season saw the Swanamaker take a successful first crack at Ibsen; this year, and in the annual onstage appearance by the Artistic Director, Shakespeare's Globe adds Chekhov to the repertory. In a remote part of Russia the titular Three Sisters live in the house their father bought when he was appointed commander of the resident military garrison. A year after his death, his children are still there, talking about moving back to Moscow but tied to the area by a few circumstances. Over the next five years, instead of freeing themselves from them, they'll end up with ever more reasons they can't escape the depressing small town they only ever thought was a stopgap. Olga is the eldest, the schoolteacher who has little love for the job and certainly doesn't see it as a career she'll progress in.

Theatre review: Scissorhandz

Another day, another jukebox musical movie parody transfers from the US to London. And where I thought New York hit Titaníque's confidence in going straight for the West End was warranted, LA export Scissorhandz landing at the more modest Southwark Playhouse was probably also wise: Its underlying theme could not be more relevant to the current darkest timeline, but it's just a shame the creatives who came up with the idea couldn't follow through on its promise. Based, of course, on Tim Burton's 1990 suburban fairytale satire Edward Scissorhands - which has already inspired a Matthew Bourne ballet - Bradley Bredeweg's version ditches the "Edward" part to make Scissorhandz (understudy Lauren Jones) a non-binary humanoid creature, built by The Inventor (Dionne Gipson) out of various spare parts. But their mother dies before replacing the scissors with real hands, and Scissorhandz is left alone in her mansion/lab.

Theatre review: Elektra

My second star-led Sophocles in the space of a week provides some interesting points to compare and contrast with Oedipus: Both revivals use translations that stick pretty closely to the rules, format and structure of the original conventions. But where that show was dominated by its visuals, this one is all about the sounds. And while anyone unfamiliar with Greek mythology will get a pretty clear telling of the story South of the river, they'll probably find themselves in somewhat muddier waters in the West End. Celebrity Dairy Product Brie Larson leads Daniel Fish's production of Elektra as the daughter of Agamemnon who's in mourning for her father, murdered by her mother Clytemnestra (Stockard Channing) and her lover Aegisthus (Greg Hicks.) This is the part of the myth that's covered in the middle play of the Oresteia, but here it's entirely told from Elektra's point of view, and she's leaving out some fairly important details.