Harold Pinter’s Old Times
“This astonishing production toils with Pinter’s themes of identity and memory to confuse the audience, and the result is nothing short of electric.”
Browsing: The Culturist
Quartermaine’s Terms
“Rowan Atkinson’s return to drama on the West End stage for the first time since the 1980s was keenly anticipated, though many might have wondered why he chose the role of St John Quartermaine in Simon Gray’s drama.”
Di and Viv and Rose
‘Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship’, said Samuel Johnson in The Idler. This is the jubilant message of Amelia Bullmore’s ode to youth and female solidarity which will delight women in its hilarious honesty.
The Turn of the Screw: Hauntingly Good
“I need a double brandy!” exclaimed the gentleman behind me as we filed out of our seats for the interval at The Almeida. Lindsay Posner directs the world première of Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s adaptation of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
Manet: Portraying Life
“This retrospective at the Royal Academy provides a fascinating insight into the relationship between Manet’s work as a portraitist and those of his realistic scenes of modern life.”
The Royal Ballet: Onegin
“Onegin is one of the most powerful ballets in the general repertory. It stems from Pushkin’s verse-novel of the same name, a staple of Russian literature published in the nineteenth century.”
Cirque du Soleil’s Koozå
“I grew up seeing snippets of Cirque du Soleil’s wonders on the Royal Variety Performance (back when it featured acts worth watching), never quite believing how the tricks and talents could be real.”
The ENB’s Sleeping Beauty
“If Anna Pavlova was dainty enough to lend her name to a meringue dessert, then the English National Ballet dancers of this Sleeping Beauty remind one of a selection box of Ladurée macaroons.”
Simon Callow on A Christmas Carol
As winter’s gnarled fingers claw at our cores and we battle the last-minute shopping to…
Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty
“Matthew Bourne might not be for the purists in the audience, but for those of us eager to see a new take on traditional ballets he consistently succeeds in creating excitement and surprise for old and young alike.”
Old Money at the Hampstead Theatre
“When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, with a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves , and satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.”
(S)he is a Dreamer: Julius Caesar
“I found myself at the Donmar Warehouse, preparing to watch Phyllida Lloyd’s Julius Caesar – arguably the most masculine of Shakespeare’s plays – performed by an all-female cast.”