stage
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London’s powerhouse of new writing is celebrating its 60th birthday. Explore some of its key productions through extracts from our archive, alongside new recollections from Wole Soyinka, Ann Jellicoe, Amanda Redman, Sally Hawkins and others
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The director, who has brought Bret Easton Ellis’s novel to Broadway, explains why he’s drawn to the dark stories of Patrick Bateman, Faustus and Macbeth
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With this heartening production, director Simon Godwin and a largely black ensemble make you feel like you are seeing the play anew
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Can theatre be an effective form of activism?
Lyn GardnerSecret shows, street protests, satire … performance has long been connected to political causes. But does it have mass impact beyond a grassroots level? -
The acting is superb and the dancing has real authority in Peter Wright’s production which opens up dramatic opportunities for the whole cast
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David Morrissey speaks the opening lines from Richard III in which the scheming Richard lays out his plan to turn his brothers, Clarence and the newly enthroned King Edward IV, against each other
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Camille O’Sullivan plays Constance in King John, who laments the loss of her son, Arthur, but disputes the suggestion that she has gone mad
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Daniel Mays speaks Macbeth’s lines from Act II, Scene 1, in which he sees a murder weapon in a hallucination
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Adrian Lester performs Hamlet’s soliloquy in which the prince considers taking his own life
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Roger Allam performs a speech from the tragedy in which the ageing king curses the weather and his daughters
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Joanna Vanderham performs Juliet’s speech from the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet
talking points
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Main goal of first white paper on culture in more than 50 years is to improve access for people of all backgrounds, Ed Vaizey says
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In theatre, amateur is not a dirty word
Lyn GardnerIn the RSC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation, amateur actors feature alongside their professional peers: innovative theatre often has community involvement at its heart -
Scene change: the problems with relocating plays
Mark LawsonMoving The Maids from France to the US adds a powerful racial subtext to Genet’s original, while Anouilh’s Welcome Home, Captain Fox! fares less well when set in America. Not all plays benefit from gaining a new setting -
My singalong journey into jukebox musicals
Michael HannCarole King, Michael Jackson, the Kinks and now Motown. Why are we so obsessed with jukebox musicals? I watched five to find out
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Cira Robinson and Mthuthuzeli November enact courtship to music by Steve Reich in Pita’s ambitious new work Cristaux
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Fielding found mainstream fame in the UK as part of surrealist duo The Mighty Boosh, but didn’t crack the US. Will he find a home with Tim and Eric fans?
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Should comedians stand up for a political party?
Brian LoganPolitics is fertile ground for comics, but there are pitfalls to jumping on particular bandwagons – not least when it questions their loyalty to the punchline -
Dane Baptiste packed in his dead-end job to change the world. Britain’s answer to Chris Rock talks about his new sitcom Sunny D – and laughing at his own jokes
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The token opening of a comedy set – even in its postmodern guise – is becoming tired and uninspired. All hail the trad crowd-work of masters like Al Murray
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In the 1980s, the Everyman youth theatre created work that reflected Merseyside’s stories and struggles. It was fun, free and precious. Now, I’m using hip-hop theatre to help the next generation express themselves
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Doors are slammed and trousers dropped in this bawdy hitman caper which teases out the comic skill of its leads
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The British actor, currently starring in Nell Gwynn in the West End, joined us live to answer your questions about where Alice Creed might have gone, how to make the perfect risotto and whether she’s headed back to the stage
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His Accidental Death of an Anarchist has become an international protest play, but Dario Fo’s biting satire extends far beyond theatre
polls & quizzes
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Here are 10 striking stage directions – can you identify the plays they're taken from?
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Sometimes the description of a character in the stage directions says as much as lines of dialogue. Do you recognise these eight figures as described by the playwrights who created them?
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Many of Shakespeare's lines are used in daily life – but do you know which plays feature these popular expressions?
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Are you a titan of the theatre or have the fates abandoned you? As the Almeida puts on a festival inspired by Dionysus, test your knowledge of Greek drama
from the archive
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Three women, two dresses, one lesson about the politics of fashion. Vanessa Kirby, Pippa Bennett-Warner and Lucy Ellinson star in a microplay made after a conversation with Hadley Freeman
pictures & video
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In a dystopian near-future, Brutus (Mark Stanley, Game of Thrones) and his conspirators plot Caesar’s demise
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Images like the myriad white balloons in Tom Scutt’s design for Constellations have left their mark on audiences. Here, he talks through six shows from his career
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Poet and illustrator Laura Dockrill’s contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet is set on a windswept English beach, where ‘two houses, both alike in common crime’ wage an ice-cream war
you may have missed
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Horrocks belts out the Smiths, Fall, Joy Division and other songs of her youth in this overly slick and choreographed dance-gig-theatre hybrid
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popular
All That Fall review – Beckett's best play brought to life for blindfolded audience