Minette Marrin
Is Angst Adolescent?
Simon McBurney and Complicité have created a memorable production of Beckett’s Endgame
Making Dramas Out of a Crisis
The sheer scale of the economic meltdown may be too complex to explain on stage — yet
Train Crash and Mother’s Ruin
Seventy years after the start of the Second World War, two pre-war plays still resonate
The Stuff of Dreams
Two contrasting productions of Shakespeare prove that the plays can still be made to work for us
The Stars Come Out
The London stage is both winner and loser from super-celebrity casting
Out of Tune With the Crowd
Two musicals – Spring Awakening and A Little Night Music – have been rapturously received. Can so many be wrong?
In Rude Health
Political power and its abuses are the central concerns of three fine new productions: England People Very nice, Burnt by the Sun and King Lear
Obvious Remedy
The politically correct use euphemism as a means of control, but language itself resists this and fights back
Magical Mystery Tour de Force
A British production of a Japanese work, Shun-kin is a near-perfect triumph
To See or Not to See
Some plays just don’t stand the test of time: Twelfth Night at the Wyndham Theatre; Loot at the Tricycle Theatre
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal