Alan BennettDirected by Christopher Luscombe★★★★ Pros: Alan Bennett’s script is superb and David Haig’s performance is outstanding. Cons: We can’t think of any… Our Verdict: A resounding success and highly recommended. Not ground breaking, but just very, very good theatre. Courtesy Tristram Kenton for The Guardian Having never seen the film or play before, I was really excited to see this production of Alan Bennett’s The Madness of King George III, and I was not disappointed. Without wasting any time, ...

We have yet more exciting news on the Musicals front to share with you all! Following a hugely successful run at the Chichester Festival Theatre, the classic Hollywood musical Singin’ in the Rain will be playing in London’s Palace Theatre from 4th February 2012. It’s supposed to be excellent if you believe the mainstream reviews, all of which were 4 or 5 stars. Obviously this is good news in it’s own right, but we’re also pleased that Priscilla has finally ...

William ShakespeareDirected by Emily Morrison★★★★ Pros: Confident and accessible Shakespeare, excellent portrayal of Angelo, interesting use of TV monitors in the set, talented young company. Cons: Not enough use of TV monitors, very hot theatre, a little expensive for what it is (£13/£10). Our Verdict: A good evening of theatre, definitely worth a trip to remind yourself that theatre doesn’t need money to be good!  So the year of the Shakespeare Festival has begun and in the run up to April, when it ...

Mike BartlettDirected by Thea Sharrock★★★  I was persuaded, just in the nick of time, to give Mike Bartlett another go after I, like many others, left Earthquakes in London feeling disappointed. However, I was determined to go into it with an open-mind and this was helped by the fact that I was walking into the Olivier, which brings with it all the anticipation of encountering a mind-blowing set.  Productions staged in this theatre have each given different answers to the ...

Sorry for the prolonged period of absence, but we were forced to take a brief hiatus whilst we pretended to be busy doing real work that actually pays the rent – although it will come as a surprise to many of you, Everything Theatre doesn’t provide a steady income stream…. In fact, since we started up in March 2011 we have generated an amazing £2.83 from our Google advertising revenue. Score. Anyway, on to more important things: We’ve received news ...

Written and directed by Conor McPherson ★★★★ Courtesy of National Theatre Well, we have just entered the first few days of October, which means that the grueling period of Hallowe’en is upon us. Yes, entire aisles of supermarkets dedicated to low-grade costumes, children banging on your door, asking for the sweets which you inevitably have forgotten to buy (they never seem satisfied with apples or stale digestive biscuits), and, perhaps worst of all, the incessant playing of “Monster Mash” by ...

Edgar and Annabel  Sam Holcroft Directed by Lyndsey Turner ★★★★ The Swan  DC Moore Directed by Polly Findlay ★★★★ The Swan, courtesy of the Evening Standard As you will know from my review of Double Feature 2, I miserably failed to attend Double Feature 1 in late July due to an incident in the Solent. However, last weekend I made it back to the National’s pop-up performance space in the Paintframe to watch the second (well, technically the first…) batch ...

Nightwatchman  Prasanna Puwanarajah Directed by Polly Findlay ★★★★★ There is a War Tom Basden Directed by Lyndsey Turner ★★★★ Courtesy of the National Theatre In an ideal world, I would review Double Feature 1 first, and Double Feature 2 second – I’m sure you’ll agree with my exemplary logic. This was the original intention, as I was booked to see Double Feature 1 in mid-July, and I only saw Double Feature 2 last week. Our plan was to then release ...

www.avignonleoff.com While most UK readers will have heard of, and probably indeed attended the Edinburgh Fringe, I imagine that only few will know about the Avignon Off festival. The similarities between the two are striking: they were both founded in 1947, they both attract hundreds of companies and thousands of tourists, they each last for three weeks every summer and, ironically, they both tout themselves as the largest theatre festival in the world. Sometimes it seems like the organisers of ...

R.C. Sherriff  Directed by David Grindley ★★★★★ Courtesy of TimeOut Ordinarily, we reserve the elusive five stars for productions which have broken the boundaries in some way. Frankenstein was unlike anything I’d seen before, and One Man, Two Guvnors was the single funniest production I have ever had the pleasure of watching. David Grindley’s production of Sherriff’s Journey’s End doesn’t deliver anything ground-breaking – in many ways it doesn’t allow for much artistic license since it is in essence a ...