Reviews
Ghosts, Octagon Theatre, Bolton (Rated 3/ 5 )
For his second production at Bolton Octagon, David Thacker has returned to Ghosts, Ibsen's scathing commentary on 19th-century morality. His earlier production, in the 1980s, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Tom Wilkinson, won an Olivier. This latest revival – sometimes fascinatingly watchable yet also frustratingly mediocre – is unlikely to win it many new admirers, far less awards.
Inside Reviews
Mixed Up North, Wilton's Music Hall, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Monday, 16 November 2009
Lamda, arguably the most enlightened and inclusive of all London's drama schools, has a highly creative component in its third-year acting course.
Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, Coliseum, London
Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sadler's Wells, London
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Stravinsky's juggernaut gets an Irish makeover and Birmingham Royal Ballet hit on a winning formula
Mixed Up North, Wilton's Music Hall, London
The Kreutzer Sonata, Gate, Notting Hill, London
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Multi-cultural Burnley is viewed through the travails of a youth drama group, and a short story by Tolstoy gets a long-awaited staging, with a violin sonata at its heart
The Kreutzer Sonata, Gate Theatre, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Thursday, 12 November 2009
The motion of a train loosens the tongue, confides Pozdnyshev, our companion in a railway carriage for the 85 minutes of this extraordinarily compelling stage adaptation of Tolstoy's great, warped novella The Kreutzer Sonata.
Architecting, The Pit, Barbican, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Awakened by an American dream
First Night: Staff Benda Bilili, Barbican, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Homeless and paraplegic, but they still tear the roof off
Uncle Vanya, Old Vic, Bristol (Rated 2/ 5 )
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
The best news is that the Bristol Old Vic is up and running. The artistic director, Tom Morris, will announce his plans on Friday and the stage of the great Georgian theatre has been extended beyond the proscenium, making more sense of the exquisite architecture.
Royal Ballet Triple Bill: Mark Morris Dance Group, Royal Opera House/Sadler's Wells, London (Rated 2/ 5 )
Monday, 9 November 2009
Three steps behind the competition
Seize the Day, Tricycle Theatre, London
Category B, Tricycle Theatre, London
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Two entertaining new plays tackle race and power in both the political and criminal classes
Rambert triple bill, Sadler's Wells, London
Royal Ballet triple bill, Royal Opera House, London
Sunday, 8 November 2009
An evening of short works can be hard to bring off, as these parallel programmes show, for all their innovation and sensuality
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FIVE BEST PLAYS
Pains of Youth (NT: Cottesloe, London)
Katie Mitchell helms a rare revival of Ferdinand Bruckner’s brilliantly odd 1923 play about six bored, sexually entangled medical students in 1920s Vienna.
(020-7452 3000) to 21 Jan
Bedroom Farce (Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames)
Nicholas Le Prevost and Jane Asher star in Peter Hall’s staging of Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy, which is paired in the theatre’s Behind Closed Doors season with Stephen Unwin’s production of August Strindberg's 1888 tragedy, 'Miss Julie'. (0871 230 1552) to 28 Nov
Spring Storm
(Royal & Derngate Theatre, Northampton)
Laurie Sansom’s sensitive production of Tennessee Williams’ 1937 drama features actors for whom the parts seem to have been written.
(01604 624 811) to 14 Nov
Seize the Day
(Tricycle Theatre, London)
This entertaining new play by Kwame Kwei-Armah explores the real possibility of a new black mayor for London with a sharp-edged clarity in both argument and stage design.
(020-7328 1000) to 17 Dec
War Horse
(New London Theatre, London)
The National Theatre’s moving adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel, adapted by Nick Stafford, about a horse sold to the cavalry and pitched into the First World War.
(0844 412 4654) to 12 Feb