Pitlochry Festival theatre Ali Watt is superb in an adaptation of two Chekhov short stories in this pioneering theatre’s fine new outdoor space Pitlochry Festival theatre has been much in the news recently, and for good reason. Over the...
Royal Court Upstairs, London As delivered by the Dutch singer Wende, the diffuse nature of assorted words that “can only be sung” take on the force of nature I often wish I had been in Paris in the 50s when the great French...
Assembly Festival Garden, Coventry Olivia Miller dazzles in this tart and punky solo show, which reimagines the Tudor monarch as an in-yer-face Gen-Z teen You might consider the fraught life of Mary Tudor , England’s first queen, for a...
Almeida theatre, London Adrian Edmondson plays a psychopath in Josh Azouz’s nuanced tragicomedy about Jewish-Arab relations in 1942 A man is buried up to his neck with only a geometrical desert around him – sand dunes made up of boxes...
Traverse theatre, Edinburgh Actor Amy Molloy delivers an elegant monologue that reveals itself as something greater in this supremely thoughtful show Kate Regan is a woman defined by the men in her life. There’s her gentle old Belfast...
Soho theatre, London After months of being starved of social contact, David Selley’s celebration of togetherness couldn’t be better timed Diane Chorley’s show made a splash two years ago on the Edinburgh fringe. But there’s a sense in...
Online@theSpaceUK Guileless hero Christopher Blank is ‘born without a single funny bone in his body’ in a one-man play that paints a near future US in broad brushstrokes C omedians becoming politicians and pundits. Politicians playing...
Available online In her audio play, Frances Poet nimbly entwines Sophia Jex-Blake’s groundbreaking battles with the story of her biographer Sophia is the story of Scotland’s first female doctor and her pioneering campaign against a...
Park theatre, London After a shaky start, this spooky tale gets smarter and scarier as the night goes on, cleverly entwining local history and folklore A hefty storm is brewing outside a ramshackle office on the isle of Guernsey,...
Jermyn Street theatre, London The story of sexual awakening in the second world war could be happening today in this clever production of Rita Kalnejais’s 2017 play Rita Kalnejais’s 2017 play This Beautiful Future tracks the evolution of...
Holyrood Park, Edinburgh This open-air performance brings together a multi-generational company celebrating release from pandemic confinement When your stage is the size of a football pitch and you’ve got all afternoon, you can afford to...
Summerhall, Edinburgh Trevor Lock uses audience participation to satisfy our yearning for community in a show that prioritises connection over action What did we miss most during the pandemic: the entertainment or the audiences? We still...
Theatr Clwyd, Mold Letting the audience choose props and costumes adds both absurd and affecting possibilities to this selection of 15 new short plays Directed by Theatr Clwyd’s artistic director, Tamara Harvey, Curtain Up is an...
Old College Quad, Edinburgh Katharine Mehrling delivers the German master’s songs in ravishing style, accompanied with restraint by pianist Barrie Kosky We’re nearing the end of a medley from Lady in the Dark, the 1941 musical by Kurt...
Traverse 1, Edinburgh; Newhailes House and Gardens, Musselburgh; Pleasance; Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh Domhnall Gleeson is outstanding in Enda Walsh’s revelatory new play about attitudes to mental health. And an off-grid satire feels all...
Available online Gregor Samsa’s sudden bodily dislocation becomes a means of exploring digital-era dilemmas in Hijinx’s irreverent adaptation A few days before the first lockdown, Glasgow’s Vanishing Point opened – and quickly closed –...
Gillian Lynne theatre; Regent’s Park Open Air theatre, London Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical, sparkily scripted by Emerald Fennell, goes to the ball at last. And Carousel gets a salty reworking Is this transformation or a series of...
Royal Court, London Dutch singer Wende performs songs conceived by playwrights – on topics from bloody battles to online dating – with magnetism and a talent for storytelling In this glorious experiment with mixed results, five...
Pleasance theatre, London The real joy of this tale of three working-class friends scheming to save a local hospital lies in its bold, energetic storytelling Writer Amy Guyler has deftly constructed an intricate play about three...
Traverse theatre, Edinburgh On an hour-long circuit guided by headphones, graffiti, sculptures and shops wheedle their way into the dialogue If this were a regular show it would be something like One Million Tiny Plays About Britain ,...