2024’s Olivier awards remain too white, too male – and too safe
Arifa Akbar
A string of seven awards for Sunset Boulevard was hardly radical, and many more daring theatrical successes went unrewarded
November 2023
The Witches review – frights played for fun in rollicking musical
Roald Dahl’s villains are given a makeover with a gag-filled script by Lucy Kirkwood and a couple of storming numbers
December 2022
2022 in TV
The 50 best TV shows of 2022
A great year for bingeable boxsets, streaming successes and your set-top box – see what you missed as the top telly shows of the year are revealed
July 2022
Observer TV reviews
The week in TV: The Control Room; Maryland; Unvaccinated; Better Things
An emergency call handler is bombarded with improbable plot twists in the BBC’s new thriller; playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s fury sears on the small screen; and Covid vaccine sceptics get the needle
June 2022
On my radar
On my radar: Lucy Kirkwood’s cultural highlights
That Is Not Who I Am review – all is not what it seems in tricksy thriller about truth and power
November 2021
Rage, fury and noise – the new wave of feminist theatre is more vital than ever
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
Plays such as Maryland, written in the wake of the killings of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, are rallying points for protest, says Guardian columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
October 2021
The week in theatre: Maryland; The Tragedy of Macbeth; White Noise
‘This had to happen now’: Lucy Kirkwood on Maryland, her 30-minute ‘howl’ of a play
October 2020
TV tonight
TV tonight: Adult Material explores the ins and outs of the pornography industry
Lucy Kirkwood’s latest drama focuses on the world of adult film. Plus: Prince William tries to save the planet. Here’s what to watch this evening
February 2020
At the National, the past really is a foreign place
Richard Brooks
Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin isn’t quite speaking everyone’s language
January 2020
The week in theatre: The Welkin; Krapp’s Last Tape/ Eh Joe/ The Old Tune; The Sunset Limited – review
A pregnant question hangs over Lucy Kirkwood’s elegant new courthouse drama, while a superlative Beckett triple bill could teach Cormac McCarthy a thing or two
The Welkin review – Maxine Peake leads Lucy Kirkwood's jury of matrons
Twelve bickering, bantering women must determine an accused murderer’s pregnancy claim in this admirable drama
On my radar
On my radar: Lucy Kirkwood’s cultural highlights
The award-winning playwright on deconstructing the Wu-Tang Clan, her love of Alasdair Gray and the genius of Jürgen Klopp
September 2019
Best culture of the 21st century
The 50 best theatre shows of the 21st century
A hip-hop history lesson, a dizzy Dahl musical and a continent-hopping barbershop … we pick the finest new works of theatre since 2000
July 2019
The Children review – a toxic past refuses to remain buried
Domestic-seeming drama with the underpinning of a Greek tragedy
April 2019
Chimerica could be the UK’s Crazy Rich Asians moment for actors
David Tse
Play that charted the rise of China updated for Trump era as Chimerica comes to TV
March 2019
The Children review – Lucy Kirkwood's taut tale of human and atomic meltdown
Three nuclear physicists are reunited in this engrossing drama about ageing, marriage and sexual rivalry, directed by Oonagh Murphy
June 2018
Knockouts, nobles and nukes: the 25 best British plays since Jerusalem
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
