West End

Writer: Peter Shaffer Director: Ned Bennett Reviewer: Maryam Philpott We hear a lot about the psychology of a play and the relative success of a particular staging based on how well the director and cast have constructed the emotional, physical and intellectual world in which the characters exist. Peter Shaffer’s 1973 play Equus is even more unusual dealing with the practice ...

Writer: Tennessee Williams Director: James Mcdonald Reviewer: Karl O'Doherty The thickness of the air around the clifftop veranda feels almost physical in James Mcdonald’s production of this hot, sticky, sometimes disturbing, always intriguing play. Trapped in a Mexican rainforest at a tin-roofed collection of shacks trying to be a hotel where people can run to when their problems get overwhelming, ...

Book and Lyrics: Tim Rice Music:Andrew Lloyd Webber Director: Laurence Connor Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Way, way back many decades ago, not long after Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice began, a musical phenomenon was born in a school hall. More than 50 years later this gateway show to a lifelong love of theatre is back at the London Palladium for ...

Writer: Ben Weatherill Director: Tim Hoare Reviewer: Scott Matthewman While the Dorfman Theatre is much the smallest of the National’s three stages, it can still be a struggle to make it seem as intimate as some of London’s smaller theatres. For a story of deeply personal relationships as Ben Weatherill’s Jellyfish, it means the cast – and the rest of ...

Book and Lyrics: Jake Brunger Music and Lyrics: Pippa Cleary Director: Luke Sheppard Reviewer: Maryam Philpott London is full of very important theatre, new writing or reimagined classics shaped to reflect our troubled modern times, filled with the greatest actors of our generation giving career-best performances. Everything needs to have something profound to say, serious political points to make or ...

Writer: Michael Dennis Director: Andrew Keates Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Cult sci-fi classics have significant life beyond the rigid episodic structure of television, giving rise to conventions, online forums and fan fiction that allows devotees to live within the world of their favourite show for a few hours. Michael Dennis’ debut play Dark Sublime examines this phenomenon from the point of view ...

Writer: Anton Chekhov  Director: Lev Dodin Reviewer: Gus Mitchell With a double bill of Life and Fate and Uncle Vanya at the Theatre Royal Haymarket last summer, the Maly Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg made a splash in London. Their renowned director Lev Dodin now leads the company back to the West End, with a 10-day run of Anton Chekhov’s penultimate play, ...

Creators: The Wardrobe Ensemble Directors: Jesse Jones and Helen Middleton Reviewer: Stephen Bates Before Afghanistan, Iraq, the banking crisis, austerity and Brexit, there existed hope for a brighter new Millennium for our country. Wardrobe Ensemble’s raucous show is set in a comprehensive school in May 1997, when the Spice Girls, Take That and Oasis filled the airwaves, the United Kingdom ...