London Theatre Reviews

'What If If Only' review - Caryl Churchill's newest play proves small can be mighty

In between two mammoth outings (The Normal Heart at two hours 45, Hamlet at three hours 15), I caught Caryl Churchill's new play What If If Only, which is roughly the length of the interval of those epics. In fact, it was due to be even shorter - it's gone up to 20 minutes from the originally announced 14 - but the indomitable Churchill proves that small can be mighty, particularly when your work is so innately, and potently, theatrical.The opening stage direction is simply "Someone on their...

'Back to the Future' review - sci-fi and theatre blend to create genuine magic

​​Great Scott! Roger Bart, whose positive Covid test kept him from opening night earlier this month, is once again bringing his 1.21 gigawatts of zany energy to Doc Brown. I went back to Back to the Future to see Bart in action (after catching his understudy Mark Oxtoby), and, in both versions of the time-space-actor continuum, enjoyed a show that is, indisputably, a fantastic night out.This West End musical incarnation of the 1985 movie is over a decade in the making, following lengthy...

'The Normal Heart' review - a fascinating mirror of debates with raw power

It is astonishing to think that Larry Kramer's largely autobiographical play debuted in 1985, right in the midst of the AIDS crisis. No wonder it feels like a missive from the battlefield, blood and shrapnel clinging to every word. Staged during a different kind of plague (in fact, this revival was delayed by the pandemic), it takes on new meaning, too, but this is first and foremost a terrible cry from history.The play's standout character is the late Kramer's avatar: infuriating activist Ned...

'Camp Siegfried' review - a compelling, crackling drama heightened by modern politics

Who knew there was a Nazi summer camp on New York's Long Island in the 1930s? While renting a house there during the pandemic, American playwright Bess Wohl began reading about Camp Siegfried in the town of Yaphank, where kids marched down Hitler Street and flower beds were planted like swastikas. In fact, it was one of several such camps in the U.S., fascism and hatred gathering force in plain sight.What a compelling premise for drama, and Wohl takes the astute decision to make this an intimate...

'Is God Is' review - a fiery play that belongs to the here and now

God is a woman in Is God Is, the electrifying Aleshea Harris play that makes every bit as strong an impression on the Royal Court mainstage as it did off-Broadway at Soho Rep in 2018. (The explosive 90-minute work has also been optioned as a film.) Arriving as part of an exciting sequence of American female writers debuting works in London (Suzan-Lori Parks's White Noise and Bess Wohl's Camp Siegfried are both to come, while Paula Vogel's Indecent only just opened), Is God Is weds the sort of...

'NW Trilogy' review - a collection of multicultural plays showcase London's vibrant history

NW Trilogy centres on the people who once resided right on the doorstep of Kilburn's Kiln Theatre where the piece makes its debut. It's a beautifully realised collection of plays where audiences are taken on a vivid tour through the vibrant history of north west London during the 1960s and 1970s. As part of a commission from the Brent Borough of Culture, the plays showcase the lived experiences of the immigrant communities at the time and how they wrestled with adversity. Dance Floor is the...

'Indecent' review - a radiant ensemble finds beauty in the quiet moments

Talk about a delayed thrill: Paula Vogel's lauded play Indecent was primed for its British debut at the Menier Chocolate Factory back in March 2020, when the curtains came down across theatreland. So here it finally is, directed as in New York by Tony winner Rebecca Taichman but even more immediately powerful and moving than I remember from its Vineyard Theatre iteration. (The subsequent Broadway transfer won an additional Tony for Christopher Akerlind's lighting, which is no less virtuosic...

'Frozen' review - a magical spectacle full of humour and heart

Elsa must feel at home in London, where the weather can turn faster than you can say "let it go." After a blustery and blue summer (Elsa, is that you?), the sun emerged for the first 30-degree day in months on the press night for Frozen, a winning sign for a bright new Disney musical in the West End. The legendary ice queen likely feels at home in the completely redone Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which feels positively palatial with vaulted ceilings, detailed frescos, and golden accents. All it...

'The Memory of Water' review - revival is darker, yet wearisome

Time hasn't been kind to The Memory of Water, Shelagh Stephenson's play about three sisters brought together following the death of their mother. I saw Terry Johnson's premiere of this same play at the Hampstead Theatre in 1996, and it's fascinating to note the darker hues that it has acquired under Alice Hamilton's direction. But one could equally argue that so hard-edged an approach only serves to amplify the inconsistencies in the writing, not to mention a wearying quality to the narrative...

'Rockets and Blue Lights' at the National Theatre review - a meditative, surrealist work

Two women look at a painting by J. M. W. Turner: The Slave Ship. We can see the painting only through their descriptions: the blood-red sky, the churning waves, the faceless bodies half-submerged in the sea. It is, as playwright Winsome Pinnock has characters meditate at several points in the play, a scene that is all world and no people: the ship, the sky, the ocean. The enslaved people being thrown to their deaths over the side of the ship are deliberately obscured. Pinnock's new play Rockets...