Wallace Shawn on reading plays: ‘the written play has its own music’
The actor, playwright and Princess Bride star is also an essayist. Here, he explains why reading dialogue away from its performance has a magic of its own
February 2022
Wallace Shawn calls backlash against Woody Allen ‘a miscarriage of justice’
‘I didn’t care for the fact that so many of my fellow actors just assumed he was guilty,’ said The Princess Bride actor
September 2020
Rifkin's Festival review – Woody Allen's latest is a cinephile's dream (but only literally)
A neurotic writer unravels in a European hotspot as the director treads familiar ground to salute Bergman, Buñuel … and himself
February 2017
Evening at the Talk House review – Wallace Shawn's dark comedy plays it safe
Despite a strong performance from a perfectly cast Matthew Broderick, this play about a play doesn’t cut as deep as it should
November 2015
Evening at the Talk House review – Wallace Shawn says the unsayable
Evening at the Talk House review – Wallace Shawn throws a hell of a party
Theatre Q&A
Wallace Shawn: ‘I don’t know what I am. A highbrow wannabe?’
Mark Lawson's theatre studies
All the world's a stage: how theatre fell in love with itself
Mark Lawson
June 2015
On my radar
On my radar: Richard Ayoade’s cultural highlights
The actor and film-maker on Björk’s powerful brilliance, the gritty films of Mike Nichols and the perfect sound of TS Eliot’s poetry
January 2015
The Fever review – an evening of wine, chocolates and guilt
Wallace Shawn: ‘I live off doing animal voices in cartoons’
The Fever review – grappling with privilege and guilt in a Mayfair hotel
Mayfair hotel stages The Fever, a play scrutinising affluence, starring Tobias Menzies
April 2014
The Double review – Richard Ayoade's dark doppelganger drama
Jesse Eisenberg and a strong cast bring Richard Ayoade's paranoid dystopia to life, writes Mark Kermode
February 2014
Wallace Shawn defends Woody Allen against abuse allegations
Shawn, known for his comedy acting as well as his respected theatre productions, has said Dylan Farrow's accusations of sexual abuse against Allen are as shocking as if they were levelled at Desmond Tutu or Franklin Roosevelt
January 2010
Behind the scenes at the Royal Court: Dominic Cooke's year of living dangerously
The Royal Court's artistic director looks back (without anger) at a dazzling, if controversial year, and hopes for a more enlightened age for theatre, possibly under the Tories. By Rachel Cooke
June 2009
Shock to the system
What to say about
What to say about ... Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon
May 2009
Theatre reviews: All's Well that Ends Well, When the Rain Stops Falling, Aunt Dan and Lemon
