Krapp’s Last Tape sees Gary Oldman at his most captivating Life&Style Krapp’s Last Tape | ★★★★★ | Royal Court As you watch Gary Oldman’s ageing Krapp slowly, methodically eat a banana, and then slowly, methodically eat a second banana, the silence – or rather the lack of silence – is deafening. Every sound in the theatre is amplified: audience members shifting in the Royal Court’s leather [...]
Punchdrunk Theatre founder: These video games changed my life Life&Style Punchdrunk is the company that put immersive theatre on the map. Since it was founded more than a quarter of a century ago, it has built a reputation for creating vast, intricate, freeflowing productions in which masked audience-members are allowed to roam freely through its spaces. Hits include The Drowned Man (2013), Sleep No More [...]
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Old Vic: A blistering revival Life&Style From his searing take on Othello at the National Theatre to his superlative Death of England cycle, Clint Dyer is one of the most distinctive voices in British theatre, deftly exploring and unpacking contemporary black culture. So it is perhaps unsurprising that the patients in his version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are [...]
A Doll’s House at the Almeida: Thrilling, steamy and ambitious April 14, 2026 A Doll’s House | Almeida | ★★★★☆ As Oscar Wilde probably never said, “Everything in the world is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power.” I can’t think of a pithier summary of this propulsive, steamy, ambitious retelling of Ibsen’s most enduring play, A Doll’s House. In this thoroughly modern version by Anya Reiss, [...]
Summerfolk is a witty, ruthless dissection of the bourgeoisie March 18, 2026 Summerfolk | National Theatre | ★★★★★ Maxim Gorky is a giant of the Russian literary canon, a playwright to be mentioned in the same breath as Gogol and Pushkin and even Chekhov. Yet his work is rarely performed on these shores and I’m a little ashamed to admit I have visited more municipal parks bearing [...]
Arcadia at the Old Vic is a brilliant farewell to Tom Stoppard February 5, 2026 Arcadia | Old Vic | ★★★★☆ Arcadia is a dizzying piece of work, as broad as the universe and as self-contained as a jigsaw puzzle. Through it Tom Stoppard addresses some of humanity’s great questions: do we have free will? Is poetry more important than science? Is there anyone Lord Byron didn’t shag? It opens [...]
American Psycho musical at the Almeida review: Bloody brilliant February 3, 2026 American Psycho at the Almeida | ★★★★★ A lot has happened over the years Rupert Goold has been artistic director of the Almeida. In 2013 he opened his tenure at the Islington theatre with this wickedly amoral musical: six British Prime Ministers and one pandemic later, he completes the oroborus with the same riotous show. [...]