Supplementary talks have become an increasingly useful way for theatres to open out their productions, giving the audience greater context on the creative process as well as an additional income stream. Some venues have long-standing programmes of curated events including the focused National Theatre Platforms or The Old Vic Voices Off talks in which selected cast members and more often ...

Writer: Tom Stoppard Director: Rachel Kavanaugh Reviewer: Steve Turner Set on a transatlantic liner during the 1930s, Rough Crossing is the story of the attempt by two playwrights to get their new work ready for Broadway. Given that it’s a four-day crossing and they don’t have a satisfactory ending, the beginning still needs knocking into shape and they haven’t got ...

Writer: Malorie Blackman Adaptor: Sabrina Mahfouz Director: Esther Richardson Reviewer: Michael Gray This ambitious new adaptation by Sabrina Mahfouz of Malorie Blackman’s seminal Young Adult dystopian masterpiece has a tough job on its hands; It has to make the story accessible and immediate to those who’ve read the books and those who haven’t. A whole alternative society, divided, we quickly ...

Produced by Belgrade Theatre in association with Tamasha and Yellow Earth Theatre, the world premiere of Amy Ng’s new play, Under the Umbrella storms into Coventry this weekend for a two-week run ahead of a UK tour. Nicole Craft caught up with Amy just before a rehearsal run to find out more about her inspirations for the story, the challenges ...

After twenty years of working at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, Sarah Frankcom has announced that she is stepping down as the theatre’s Artistic Director. Frankcom joined the Company as Literary Manager in 1998; ten years later she was made Joint Artistic Director and in 2014 took up her current position as sole Artistic Director. Frankcom is leaving the Royal Exchange ...

Most shows at the VAULT Festival only run for five days, but a select few have longer runs including this year’s feature show Counting Sheep. Based on the Kiev uprising in 2014, audience members restage the revolution in a thrilling show designed by people who were there and by the Free Theatre of Belarus. The Reviews Hub caught up with ...

Even though it’s week six of the VAULT Festival, currently being held in the cavernous tunnels under Waterloo station, it seems as if London’s biggest fringe festival has never been busier. One of the most exciting features of the festival is the diversity of the shows, and in The Reviews Hub’s occasional roundup of queer slanted plays Richard Maguire talks ...

Writer: Noel Coward Director: Stephen Unwin Reviewer: Alice Fowler In a Swiss hotel room, great novelist Hugo Latymer (Simon Callow) embraces his dotage. His afternoon attire – stripy dressing gown and monogrammed slippers – tells us all we need to know about this vain and self-indulgent man. After 20 years, his marriage to the elegant Hilde - once his secretary, ...