performance-oriented

’The Ferryman’: Ephemeral Ideas, Eternal Tragedies

/ 15 December 2017

Staggeringly multi-layered, dangerously fast-paced and rich in characterizations, dialogue and context, Jez Butterworth's new hit about a family during the time of Ireland's the Troubles leaves the audience breathless, sweaty and tearful, in a nightmarish, dry-heaving haze.

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Broadway’s ‘The Play that Goes Wrong’ Is More Tiresome Than Winsome

Sachyn Mital

/ 10 April 2017

The Play That Goes Wrong aims for oversized laughs via an outlandish caricature of a murder-mystery performed within.

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Stage 773’s Comedy Ensemble Unlikely Company Finds Their Footing in Farce

Katie Dyson

/ 13 July 2016

Unlikely Company’s talented ensemble finds both the humor and the melody in adult life, urging us to laugh at our own indulgent banality.

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Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave Re-team in the Almeida’s Excellent ‘Richard III&#8217

Alex Ramon

/ 20 June 2016

Rupert Goold’s spare, intense production divests Richard III of any pantomime associations and boasts an astounding performance from Ralph Fiennes as the treacherous monarch.

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Isabelle Huppert Unites the Diverse Strands of Warlikowski’s ‘Phaedra(s)’

Alex Ramon

/ 13 June 2016

Krzysztof Warlikowski’s characteristically idiosyncratic production reflects on the legend and legacy of Phaedra as icon – and draws much of its interest from Isabelle Huppert as icon.

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Helen McCrory Captivates in the National Theatre’s Revival of ‘The Deep Blue Sea’

Alex Ramon

/ 10 June 2016

Carrie Cracknell delivers a beautiful, sensitive and measured production of the Terence Rattigan masterpiece.

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Island Life: Alexi Kaye Campbell’s ‘Sunset at the Villa Thalia’, National Theatre

Alex Ramon

/ 3 June 2016

Personal and political tensions surface between two couples in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s absorbing Skiathos-set play at the National Theatre.

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Sexing Up Brecht: The National Theatre’s New Version of ‘The Threepenny Opera’

Alex Ramon

/ 1 June 2016

Some fine performances bring Brechtian bite to Rufus Norris’s otherwise disappointing new production of The Threepenny Opera.

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Movie Time: Annie Baker’s Pulitzer-winning ‘The Flick’ Transfers to the National Theatre

Alex Ramon

/ 22 April 2016

Funny, sorrowful, quietly subversive, and a film nerd’s wet dream, Annie Baker’s Pulitzer-prize-winning play mines humour and pathos.

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Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘Les Blancs’ Gets Extraordinary Production at National Theatre

Alex Ramon

/ 4 April 2016

The personal and the political are so interlinked in this play as to be inextricable, and Yaël Farber’s staging offers a dynamic mingling of the intimate and the epic.

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A Curiously Hollow Horror Show: ‘Cleansed’ at the National Theatre

Alex Ramon

/ 25 February 2016

Over-stylised and strangely unaffecting, Katie Mitchell’s staging of Sarah Kane’s controversial play yields mixed results.

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David Mamet and Al Pacino’s ‘China Doll’ Rat-a-Tats Without the Tat

Brice Ezell

/ 26 January 2016

There's an interesting play somewhere in the thin structure of David Mamet's China Doll, but not even a dutiful performance by Al Pacino can bring it to life.