Pieces of a Woman review – shame runs riot after a home birth ends in disaster
Netflix turned Kata Wéber and Kornél Mundruczó’s play into an Oscar-nominated film. Now a world-class ensemble from Poland’s TR Warszawa bring it out its nuanced brilliance
April 2024
The week in theatre: Machinal; Blue Beard; The Cord – review
Richard Jones’s supercharged staging of Sophie Treadwell’s 1920s masterpiece hits like a fist; Emma Rice subverts a dark fairytale with circus gaiety; and a young couple unravel beautifully in Bijan Sheibani’s latest
March 2024
Check tickets, play a dragon, feed the cat: the volunteers who go all out to keep theatres going
Offering up their time and energy, unpaid staff have become a crucial support for an embattled industry. They explain what’s in it for them
December 2023
Strapped, stressed, axed: is it curtains for theatre’s artistic directors?
Indhu Rubasingham has been named as the National’s new head. But elsewhere, theatres are ditching this once coveted role altogether. Can a theatre really manage without one?
November 2023
The week in theatre: King Lear; Lyonesse; Pied Piper – review
Kenneth Branagh savours Lear’s words rather too much; Kristin Scott Thomas and co are left high and dry in Cornwall; but at BAC, a beatbox Pied Piper you would follow anywhere…
June 2023
‘We had both grown up but didn’t know each other’: a mother and son’s dance reunion
Latifa Khamessi’s parents prohibited her from dancing. Now, after years apart, she and her son Mohamed Toukabri share the stage for a duet
April 2023
Hate Radio review – vivid and urgent retelling of ‘Radio Machete’ atrocities
Depicting the Rwandan radio station that spurred on genocide, this harrowing show raises a warning to be heeded today
February 2023
Regional theatres are on their knees – support your local one
Tim Crouch
Covid cut off the communal experience of live performance and venues have taken a battering. Let’s return and reconnect
November 2022
The week in theatre: Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World; The Sex Party
Javaad Alipoor gets meta with an investigation into investigations, while Terry Johnson leaves little to the imagination
Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World review – a theatrical revelation
Javaad Alipoor’s meditation on the grim fate of Iranian singer Fereydoun Farrokhzad develops into a thrilling investigation of the internet
Tanz review – gross-out body-horror ballet is an unlikely laugh
Florentina Holzinger’s show has inspired audience walkouts but others stay and cheer at its bloody-minded audacity
October 2022
The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes review – a frank discussion of disability
Humour and rage intertwine in Back to Back theatre company’s playful debate of ethics, language and philosophy
Other lives
Christine Eccles obituary
Other lives: Theatre director and impresario whose productions in the 1970s had a radical community focus
Cherish Menzo: Jezebel review – a dance deconstruction of MTV misogyny
The Dutch dance artist brings a steely fearlessness to her piece about the hypersexualised depiction of black women in late 90s and early 00s hip-hop videos
June 2022
The best theatre to stream this month
The best theatre to stream this month: Death of England, Grenfell and more
Our roundup of drama to watch at home includes political plays, an assortment from the Brighton fringe, an epic rehearsal at the RSC and a musical about a guide dog
March 2022
He’s Dead review – was Tupac Shakur depressed?
Inspired by the pain that is audible behind the machismo of the rapper’s music, Malik Nashad Sharpe has created an intriguing show
February 2022
Uncanny Valley review – a menacing robot examines the meaning of life
Uncanny Valley: the moving one-man play – starring an animatronic robot
December 2021
Sleeping Beauty and the Beast review – fairytale villains get taught a lesson
Captain Hook and the Big Bad Wolf are sent back to school in a flippant festive mashup that’s carried along by its goofy charm
October 2021
The Body Remembers review – powerful exploration of trauma
Heather Agyepong uses improvised movement, set to a soundtrack of real women’s testimonies, to search for equilibrium amid pain
