Review: Goodbye to all That, Royal Court

It’s saying something when, fifty minutes into a young playwright’s debut, you can feel let down by a particular scene. Luke Norris demonstr...

Review: God/Head, Ovalhouse Theatre

Written for Culture Wars On the 21st April 2011, Chris Goode was walking home from the supermarket, carrying three shopping bags in two hand...

Review: Brightest and Best, The Half Moon

Written for Time Out Thanks to all-round naivety, 'Brightest and Best' lasts just shy of three hours. It could boil down to a taut 9...

Review: In Basildon, Royal Court

In Basildon is brilliantly full. Were David Eldridge to try and squeeze one more socio-political point (no matter how waff-er thin) into hi...

Review: 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Barbican Centre

Written for Culture Wars Let’s start with Bridget Jones; an unlikely counterpoint to John Ford’s brutal revenge tragedy, admittedly, but one...

Review: The Bomb: A Partial History, Tricycle Theatre

Written for Time Out Talk about going out with a bang. Nicolas Kent's final production as the Tricycle's artistic director is a two-...

Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lyric Hammersmith

The first thing to say about Filter’s remixed Midsummer Night’s Dream – and it cannot be said too loudly or too often – is that it is absol...

Review: The Recruiting Officer, Donmar Warehouse

Written for Culture Wars BRAZEN: “A privateer may be ill-manned.” PLUME: “And so may a playhouse.” Not this one. Josie Rourke’s inaugural pr...

Review: The Shallow End, Southwark Playhouse

Written for Culture Wars If, as an aspiring theatre critic, I didn’t come out of The Shallow End thoroughly depressed, it would be doing so...

Review: Muswell Hill, Orange Tree Theatre

Written for Time Out The pre-show instruction to switch off your mobile phone is also the take-home moral of Torben Betts's comedy of (b...

Review: Absent Friends, Harold Pinter Theatre

Written for Culture Wars Absent Friends is basically Alan Acykbourn’s bread and butter. He is, after all, the grand master of awkward after...

Review: The Devil and Mr Punch, Barbican Centre

A Punch so strong it might well have been spiked, Julian Crouch’s meta-puppet show is the best Improbable piece I’ve seen to date. For anyon...

Review: Paper Cinema's The Odyssey, Battersea Arts Centre

Written for Culture Wars As John Torode and Gregg Wallace might say: poetry doesn’t get more epic than this. Homer’s The Odyssey , a vast tr...

Review: Night of January 16th, White Bear Theatre

Written for Time Out Who knew Ayn Rand was a pioneer of interactive theatre? Her 1934 play signs its audience up for jury service and our co...

Review: The Changeling, Young Vic

Written for Culture Wars As problem plays go, The Changeling is right up there. Primarily because it’s two plots – the first of Beatrice-Jo...

Review: Love Letters Straight From Your Heart, Southbank Centre

Written for Culture Wars Perhaps someone at the Southbank Centre was cracking a joke by placing Love Letters Straight From Your Heart into ...