After Amadeus: Brian Cox as Bach is theatre’s latest orchestral manoeuvre
Oliver Cotton’s The Score, a new drama about Bach’s confrontation with Frederick II, continues a rich tradition of plays about great composers
May 2023
Shelley Maxwell: the soul-stirring master mover who makes superheroes dance
From The Secret Life of Bees to The Marvels, she is the choreographer everyone wants. The Jamaican dynamo talks about turning humans into horses, turbo-charging TV debates and her dream Bob Marley gig
October 2022
‘Maybe you set the theatre on fire?’: directors on staging the unstageable
Scenes that skip between universes, 100 eyeballs emerging from the floorboards, whole plays set on a slope … The scripts for Constellations, Wonder Boy and other hits have provided instructions to unleash the imagination
September 2022
Noises Off: the farce masterclass that is truly revealing
Michael Frayn’s comedy is not just extremely funny but also acknowledges the fragile artifice of order – in theatre and the world beyond
October 2020
Books that made me
Petina Gappah: 'Last book to make me laugh? The cheese chapter in Three Men in a Boat'
The Zimbabwean writer and lawyer on crying over Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, the influence of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the books she feels have been overlooked in 2020
June 2020
Lockdown culture
National Theatre announces final free streams including Small Island
The NT’s popular online initiative continues with the ambitious 2019 adaptation of Andrea Levy’s Windrush novel and four more shows
April 2019
If we're all hedgehogs or foxes, what was Shakespeare?
Specialist hedgehog or wide-ranging fox? In an extract from his new book, the late playwright Stephen Jeffreys identifies two kinds of thinkers – and one writer who defies definition
February 2019
Views of the gods: Alan Rickman, Cate Blanchett and more theatre legends – in pictures
Ivan Kyncl: In the Minute, an exhibition celebrating the atmospheric work of the Czech-born theatre photographer, is at the V&A in London until 7 July
Equus review – Peter Shaffer's homoerotic classic is exhilarating
Ned Bennett brilliantly directs the landmark 1973 play about a teenager who has blinded horses
Ned Bennett: 'I want audiences to soil themselves and throw up'
He lit up An Octoroon, had a cult smash with Pomona and let loose deadly bunnies in Buggy Baby. Now the director is set to stun audiences with Peter Shaffer’s psychodrama Equus
October 2018
Top 10s
Top 10 books about psychiatry
Spanning unusual cruelty and extraordinary kindness, authors from Pat Barker to Janet Frame explore an unsettling branch of medicine
April 2018
Film blog
Miloš Forman: the director who brought the spirit of anti-Soviet rebellion to Hollywood
The Czech film-maker forged a brilliant career after overcoming the obstacles of both postwar communism in his homeland and Hollywood to where he escaped
May 2017
Lettice and Lovage review – Felicity Kendal and Maureen Lipman shine
Lettice and Lovage review – Lipman and Kendal join forces for farcical charades
December 2016
Replay for today: why the remake is making a comeback
In theatre as in film and on television, there is a strong sense of deja vu these days, with revivals and remakes filling our screens
October 2016
Amadeus review – a lush, high-voltage revival
Adam Gillen’s Mozart and Lucian Msamati’s Salieri share the honours as Peter Shaffer’s 1979 hit returns to the National
Amadeus review – stunning production pits Salieri against God, Mozart and his own orchestra
Musicians are thrust centre stage to epic effect in Michael Longhurst’s revival, and Lucian Msamati is excellent as the composer locked in battle with the divine
From the scatological to the sublime: why Amadeus strikes a chord
In 1979 Simon Callow was offered the dream role of Mozart in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus. As the play returns to the National, he recalls his early doubts and backstage battles
June 2016
Peter Shaffer wanted to make elaborate theatre – and he succeeded
