The Legend of Ned Ludd review – workers stage against the machine
No two performances take the same order as Joe Ward Munrow’s scenes of industrial conflict range across history – led by a machine’s chance decrees
July 2023
Cuckoo review – springy dialogue lifts slow study of a modern family
Three generations of women in a Merseyside house banter, bicker and disappear into their smartphones in this nuanced play from Michael Wynne
March 2023
Top Girls review – Caryl Churchill’s classic with a Toxteth twist
The drama of women trying to get ahead in Thatcher’s Britain is played with kitsch period detail that can distract from its still-relevant story
December 2022
Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh to explore societal prejudices by playing Richard III
The Rock’n’Roll Panto Red Riding Hood review – music is the star in an Everyman institution
November 2022
Watch out for snowball-firing robots! 25 of the best UK stage shows this Christmas
Ian McKellen in Mother Goose, Robin Hood as a rock’n’roll panto, a circus spin on The Little Prince and glitter galore … it’s our selection box of festive theatre
May 2022
Corrina, Corrina review – high seas drama hits the rocks
Corrina, Corrina review – onboard battle gets lost at sea
June 2021
It started on stage
‘Explosively funny’: Victoria Wood’s song-filled slog to comedy glory
Joyce Grenfell inspired her, she wrote her own musical at school and a fringe theatre show with Julie Walters paved the way to TV fame. As Victoria Wood’s Talent returns, we revisit her early stage years
July 2020
Theatres that made us
Theatres that made us: 'We felt giddy seeing our poster up!'
'She threw her arms open to the city': how Gemma Bodinetz lit up Liverpool
June 2020
Foul is fair: stunning shots of Shakespeare's Macbeth – in pictures
As the RSC’s production starring Christopher Eccleston is broadcast on BBC Four, take a look back at some of the most arresting stagings of the ‘Scottish play’
March 2020
Our Lady of Blundellsands review – it's like Ibsen turned up to 11
Josie Lawrence stars in Jonathan Harvey’s story of the dysfunctional Domingo clan who have plenty of skeletons in their cupboards
December 2019
What I've learned from 10,000 nights at the theatre
UK's regional theatre at risk amid funding cuts, say directors
June 2019
Romeo and Juliet, from Ashcroft to Zeffirelli – in pictures
Franco Zeffirelli, who died this month, directed beloved versions of Shakespeare’s tragedy on stage and screen. We look back at productions starring, among others, Peggy Ashcroft, David Tennant and Paapa Essiedu
April 2019
Sweeney Todd review – raging underdog adds politics to the pies
Nick Bagnall’s ingenious revival reminds us that Sondheim’s musical thriller is also a savagely political piece about injustice
December 2018
A Christmas Carol review – riotously silly show puts Scrooge in a spin
Spymonkey riff with pop culture – from funk-anthem carols to Torvill and Dean – in a wonderfully bizarre take on Dickens’s classic
June 2018
The Big I Am review – updated Ibsen epic is a white-knuckle ride
With a cacophonous cast of characters, Robert Farquhar’s new take on Peer Gynt dashes through the second half of the 20th century
May 2018
Why time's up for theatre's 'timeless' classics
How can women or people of colour find a voice in theatre’s classics when so much of the canon - written by white men - confines them to the sidelines? Meet the theatre makers who are reinventing the masterpieces
