Copy: The Stage 15/12/11 >> If you have any little ‘uns in your life that need entertainments over Christmas, forget the tacky charm of the panto and take them to Horse + Bamboo‘s brilliant 55 minute show Red Riding Hood at The Royal Exchange in Manchester. It really is the...

Copy: The National 14/12/11 >> The Southbank’s winter festival this year welcomed a Bollywood show to the shores of the Thames. But a Bollywood show with a difference – this was a Danish theatre company who were aiming to mix western theatrical traditions with Indian...

Copy: The Stage, 07/12/11 >> First of the seasonal shows last night, and thankfully it was the Library Theatre’s offering. You can always rely on them for a thoughtful, considered festive show, and so it was with a lovely version of Kenneth Grahame’s classic, adapted by Alan...

Copy: The Stage, 18/10/2011 >>Nice to see the Royal Exchange in Manchester beginning to try out new directors rather than sticking with the tried and trusted. Polly Findlay says in the programme notes that CP Taylor’s Good, the tale of an ostensibly sensible man in Nazi Germany who...

Got a press release through about Cush Jumbo’s writing debut at the Etcetera Theatre recently. I’m hoping she plans to tour J’ai Deux Amours because Jumbo also stars in it – and she was responsible for perhaps my favourite performance of the year so far, in As You Like...

Merlin is on heavy rotation in our house at the moment. But Richard Wilson isn’t just a primetime fantasy actor these days, he also dabbles in theatre directing. Earlier this year I reviewed his version of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s generation-spanning investigation into sexuality, The...

Claire Tomalin’s excellent Charles Dickens biography reminded me that Library Theatre Company had a pretty good stab at Hard Times in Murrays’ Mills earlier this year. I reviewed it for The Stage – it was patchy, but when it worked it was excellent. The level of ambition,...

In which I got completely bamboozled – in a good way – by a new play which blurred the lines between performance and rehearsal. On tour this autumn and well worth catching “The intrigue lies in never quite knowing where it’s all going to go.” Click here for the full...