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

A companion to 1998’s The Fire People, Kayo Chingonyi’s anthology creates a space for a new generation of voices to express the wide range of their work

Aleshea Harris sets the Royal Court alight with her blazing family drama

Home, Manchester
A show about the relationship between seeing and reading feels like a return to Romanticism – a belief in the passionate expression of the spirit

Named the ‘winner of winners’ of the Women’s prize, Bernardine Evaristo, Maggie O’Farrell and others ask the author about the #EndSars protests in Nigeria, writing about Trump, and the culture that got her through 2020

The poet and playwright on the Terry Pratchett book that changed his life, basketball and Oliver Twist

A hip-hop history lesson, a dizzy Dahl musical and a continent-hopping barbershop … we pick the finest new works of theatre since 2000

The poet and playwright on Equus and the pleasure of hip-hop

Inua Ellams’ play barely stops to breathe as it shuttles between London and Africa, so full is it of authentic male dialogue and connections

It is the hit that transformed British theatre. As Jez Butterworth’s epochal drama returns, our critic chooses the 25 best plays since Jerusalem – from exploited boxers to warring kings