Monthly Archives: December 2015

The good news is that Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen, a witty black comedy thriller about capital punishment and miscarriages of justice, originally staged at the Royal Court, has now transferred to the West End. It could be in the running for … Continue reading →

Samuel Pepys saw Macbeth eight times. What he liked best, apart from the acting of Thomas Betterton, was the singing and dancing. But then he didn’t see Shakespeare’s version; he saw William Davenant’s adaptation. I suspect the only place you … Continue reading →

Penelope Skinner’s play is about women getting to 50 and being under-represented and marginalised and feeling ignored, invisible and irrelevant. It’s a rallying cry to women to refuse to be defined by their age and outward appearance. Kim Cattrall was … Continue reading →

The trouble with the adaptation of Mark Twain’s novel is that nothing really happens and there is no urgency about the £20,000 wager. It’s like watching a travelogue without the scenery and a schoolboy adventure story without the adventure. Laura … Continue reading →

Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf has never been popular and has remained the least performed of his major works. It had its English premiere in 1896 when even William Archer, Ibsen’s champion, translator and director, thought “the soul-searching might be too … Continue reading →

When Nora in Ibsen’s The Doll’s House walked out on her husband and two children in 1879, the sound of the door slamming behind her reverberated throughout Europe. People were deeply shocked. 136 years later the taboo still remains. Mothers … Continue reading →

Leopold Lewis’s The Bells, which opened at the Lyceum on the 25th November 1871 and ran for 151 performances, was a major turning point in Henry Irving’s career, a sensational triumph, bringing him lasting fame. All my theatregoing life I … Continue reading →

For many people The Homecoming is Harold Pinter’s masterpiece. Jamie Lloyd celebrates the play’s 50th birthday with a highly stylized and totally non-realistic production. The sparse set, the tableaux, the loud music and the black-outs increase the artificiality. Rich in … Continue reading →