Michael Billington
Disgraced - review
We're used to seeing plays that take a swipe at American liberal guilt. But Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer prizewinner adds an extra dimension to the subject by exposing the dangers of denying one's racial and religious inheritance.
Relatively Speaking - review
This is the play that in 1967 gave Alan Ayckbourn his first West End hit. Seeing it again after all these years, in Lindsay Posner's witty production, I was reminded of the play's brilliance as a theatrical construct.
The Victorian in the Wall - review
The 2004 Perrier award winner Will Adamsdale clearly has a comic following and, as we saw in the National's Detroit , is a creditable actor. But this show, which he wrote with help from the cast, co-directed with Lyndsey Turner and in which he also star
These Shining Lives - review
Many years ago Keith Dewhurst wrote a Guardian column arguing that theatre had to move away from city centres to areas where people actually lived.
Public Enemy - review
There are no rules in theatre. Updating a classic can sometimes work brilliantly, as with Benedict Andrews' Three Sisters at the Young Vic last year.
The Hothouse - review
Trafalgar Studios, London Harold Pinter was, among many other things, a comic writer; and I would distrust any Pinter evening that didn't make us laugh. But, richly pleasurable and boundlessly funny as Jamie Lloyd's new production of this early Pinter pl
The Match Box - review
Leanne Best received glowing notices when she first appeared in Frank McGuinness's demanding one-woman play, at the Liverpool Playhouse in June 2012.
Larisa and the Merchants - review
Why do we know so little of Alexander Ostrovsky? He was the father of Russian drama and a palpable influence on Anton Chekhov, yet his plays get only scattered revivals. So, even if the 1879 piece is socially fascinating rather than a downright masterpiec
Passion Play - review
Duke of York's, London It's a well-known fact that Peter Nichols's play, which first appeared in 1981, forms part of an unofficial trinity of dramas about infidelity: it came after Pinter's Betrayal (1978) and before Stoppard's The Real Thing (1982). But