Sputnik Sweetheart review – Haruki Murakami’s love triangle staged in style
The enigmatic 1999 novel about three entwined lives is sleekly adapted by Bryony Lavery and sharply directed by Melly Still
December 2021
King’s Head theatre toasts Victoria Wood and Tom Stoppard in season of rare plays
Dramas by Bryony Lavery, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Stephen Jeffreys also feature in readings to mark the venue’s 50th birthday
The week in theatre: The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage; Life of Pi; Measure for Measure
The familiar and the fantastic are as one in the Bridge’s Philip Pullman spectacular; more puppet magic powers Life of Pi; and a coolly convincing 70s Measure for Measure
The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage review – a theatrical marvel
Nicholas Hytner brings a dazzling wizard’s touch to this adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy tale
July 2021
Lockdown culture
Last Easter review – a lovable drama about life, death and theatre
Bryony Lavery’s play, revived by director Tinuke Craig, celebrates friendship with truths, humour and good punchlines
November 2020
15 Heroines review – a triumphant revoicing of Ovid
Lockdown culture
15 Heroines: The Labyrinth review – defiant women rise up from the myths
February 2020
Oliver Twist for all the senses: Leeds makes Dickens fully accessible
Deaf and disabled actors are bringing a fresh dimension to the much-loved tale in Leeds Playhouse’s new production. The creative team explain its ‘aesthetics of access’
January 2020
2020 culture preview
Star debuts and happy returns: theatre, dance and comedy in 2020
Tom Stoppard gets personal, Cush Jumbo does Hamlet, Hollywood names bring everything from tragedy to comedy … plus dance confronts shame and there’s standup open heart surgery
August 2019
Gillian Hanna obituary
Actor, translator and founder of the feminist theatre group Monstrous Regiment
September 2018
The Lovely Bones review – sorrowful tale retold with startling verve
Some of the heartbreak is lost but this adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel, in which a murder victim watches events from the afterlife, is a mesmerising spectacle
August 2018
Playwright Bryony Lavery: ‘We have to watch our backs, particularly in this strange climate’
As her adaptation of The Lovely Bones opens, the 70-year-old playwright and director talks family, feminism and gender-blind theatre
February 2018
The week in theatre: Frozen; Brighton Rock – review
Brighton Rock review – ingenious staging curtails Greene's Catholicism
Frozen review – Suranne Jones is riveting as mother facing child's killer
Suranne Jones on stage, from Snow White to Frozen - in pictures
January 2018
Unmissable culture of 2018
All-star Pinter, a Suranne Jones thriller and Carey Mulligan goes solo: 2018's essential theatre
Brace yourself for The Birthday Party, an EasyJet love story, Sting’s shipyard musical and Ben Whishaw as Brutus
July 2016
Top playwrights join fight to save drama in schools
Patrick Marber and James Graham tell Vanessa Thorpe why it’s vital performing arts stay on syllabus
May 2015
On my radar
On my radar: Bryony Lavery’s cultural highlights
The dramatist on Elena Ferrante, Maxine Peake in The Skriker, star-studded Netflix drama Bloodline and the magic of the Chelsea Flower Show
December 2014
2014 in review
Alfred Hickling’s top 10 theatre of 2014
Sea Breeze sent shivers down the spine in Morecambe, National Theatre Wales took us to Dylan Thomas’s village inspiration and Liverpool hosted a giant walkabout, writes Alfred Hickling
