The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui was written in 1941 by Bertolt Brecht, a German Marxist theatre practitioner, playwright and poet, while in exile in Finland. I was familiar with his style (known as ‘Epic Theatre’) through my university days. Though fascinated with his work during my studies, my initial thoughts were ‘how would a modern day West End audience relate to it?’ Although it’s not essential for the audience to know the details of Nazi Germany or Brecht’s practice methods, it was … [Read more...]
London Theatre Reviews - West End & Off West End
Latest London Theatre Reviews
Read our latest theatre reviews and find out what our team of reviewers thought of London's latest productions of plays, musicals and shows. Browse our website for London Theatre Tickets for London West End Theatres. Book tickets for shows, musicals, plays, drama, opera, dance, comedy & more!
Springs Eternal by Susan Glaspell at the Orange Tree Theatre Richmond
Of all the rescue missions over the years by Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre for the reputations of dead playwrights, few have brought back more lively returns than its pursuit of the American author and journalist Susan Glaspell, who died three years after the Second War. This is the theatre’s fifth Glaspell, directed by its founder Sam Walters in his forty-second and final year here. Remarkably, it is also a world premiere. Somehow her own last play, Springs Eternal, never got staged until … [Read more...]
Review of Once musical Phoenix Theatre London
I’m going to be totally honest and admit that I am a big Once fan. When whispers came from Broadway about the show I immediately watched the film... and burst into tears. So when tickets came on sale for the London West End production I bought them, watched it... and burst into tears. This is my second viewing; the tears are still flowing and still can't quite tell you why. Once is the simple story of guy meets girl, and that's the only cliché you're going to get. Guy is an Irish busker … [Read more...]
Review of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical Theatre Royal Drury Lane
The story of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory is well known from the beloved children’s novel by Roald Dahl: a poor, malnourished child living in destitute lucks out and finds a golden ticket to visit the magical world of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, after which his life will never be the same again. This new musical adaptation playing at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane has music by Marc Shaiman, and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, a book by award-winning playwright and adaptor David … [Read more...]
Review of Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable
Punchdrunk’s immersive style is the theatre equivalent of what a computer game is to film. Linear stories happen throughout the night which, as a masked audience member, you can follow multiple characters and experience the world of ‘Temple Studios’, but you make your own path, either following one story or moving between characters and rooms creating your own sense of the world you have been brought into. The Drowned Man is based on Büchner’s unfinished play ‘Woyzeck’ and follows the stories … [Read more...]
Dark Earth: Eastern Angles – Flag Fen Peterborough
The Eastern Angles touring theatre company, which has just turned thirty, already has a history of site-specific productions. This includes a disused airfield by Rendlesham Forest, an old engine works at Leiston, and now the famous Flag Fen on the outskirts of Peterborough. Sites do not come more specific than this, since the Dark Earth of the current show’s title is the very location of the ancient conflicts which it dramatises. It is set at the end of the seventeenth century, when the great … [Read more...]
Review of Pope Joan: National Youth Theatre
The leadership of the Church of England is preparing to make yet another attempt to persuade members of its governing body, the General Synod, that women bishops are a good idea. Every one of the 400-plus synod members, along with all interested in feminism, religion and the fundamentalist exercise of medieval-style misogyny, should go and see Pope Joan, the new play from the National Youth Theatre. Significantly, it is showing at St James's Piccadilly courtesy of the woman priest there, Canon … [Read more...]