Theatre

It takes some arrogance to rewrite Shakespeare, says TIM WALKER. The sheer size of the National Theatre’s Olivier stage seems to have thrown everyone involved in this production of Macbeth into a state of utter panic. Set designer Rae Smith tries to make it feel more manageable by throwing down several vast curtains of cheap […]

TIM WALKER says Martin Shaw has his vote in this Gore Vidal stage drama Ronald Reagan used to say that politicians shouldn’t merely represent the people, but they should represent them at their best. I look at Donald Trump – and, on this side of the Atlantic, Boris Johnson – and I’ll admit that I […]

Why the West End show starring Suranne Jones is certainly not one for the faint-hearted. It never ceases to amaze me what little due diligence some people are willing to put in before they commit the best part of a couple of hundred quid – not to mention a couple of hours of their lives […]

In his latest stage review, TIM WALKER watches Girls and Boys at Royal Court Theatre, London. Girls and Boys Royal Court Theatre, London, until March 17 FOUR STARS It’s rather an annoying thing watching a play you’ve decided isn’t any good – and, in my case, have a rather nasty two-star review already composed in […]

In his latest stage review, TIM WALKER watches Mad as Hell at Jermyn Street Theatre, London. Mad as Hell Jermyn Street Theatre, London, until February 24 FOUR STARS More than 40 years on, Peter Finch’s anguished cry in the Oscar-winning film Network – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it […]

In his new stage review, TIM WALKER watches Long Day’s Journey into Night at Wyndham’s Theatre, London Long Day’s Journey into Night Wyndham’s Theatre, London, until April 7 FIVE STARS Nudging 70, Jeremy Irons is a brave man to make his West End comeback in, of all plays, Long Day’s Journey into Night. Eugene O’Neill […]

BONNIE GREER on the late Sir Peter Hall, a man who revolutionised English-speaking theatre Peter Hall called his memoir Making An Exhibition Of Myself, a phrase his mother would hurl at him from time to time. An only child, and the grandson of Queen Victoria’s ratcatcher, he was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, a […]

This is a sumptuous revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s 1971 homage to departed American musical theatre, says Martin McQuillan After the success of La La Land a canny producer at the National has decided to bring back the original musical of unhappy endings to create a theatrical blockbuster, a glorious hit that can […]