Hattie Morahan & Sam Troughton Juniper Blood. Photo: Helen Murray
Despite the mixed reception to Unicorn, his play advocating the merits of a menage-a-trois as an alternative to the traditional couple, Mike Bartlett continues to push radical re-thinking in his latest play. This time he explores farming and the land. A couple played by Sam Troughton and Hattie Morahan consider extreme living off the grid. Many ecological and generational debates are explored, with a state of the nation motif running through it. It was too didactic for some critics but others liked the challenge. Most found it funny. If you want to read a thoroughly positive review, go to Sarah Crompton’s at WhatsOnStage. Her customary insight and meticulous detail make her one of our best reviewers. For the polar opposite point of view, try the damning review from Clive Davis in The Times.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton called it ‘a questing, knotty, philosophical piece, often circular and didactic but always utterly gripping as the arguments twist and turn. Juniper Blood does exactly what theatre has always done: offers a forum for debate, lining up the arguments with a clarity and courage that is rare.’ As for the set, ‘Designer Ultz has turned the Donmar into a patch of the countryside, with a living bank of grass surrounding a wooden platform.’ She concluded : ‘It has the feeling of being ancient myth and a report from the front line. It is utterly absorbing.’
The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish reassured us: ‘Although Juniper Blood suffers from some trowelled-on exposition, Bartlett’s ability to dig deep into a rich subject with flair and wit is again to the fore.’ ‘Hattie Morahan and Sam Troughton lead the small cast, superbly, as a flaky middle-aged couple making a go of it as “permaculture” farmers in north-west Oxfordshire, forging a sustainable life in the sticks. Think Chekhov meets Clarkson…Bartlett’s asking if something more radical is needed.’
Aleks Sierz at The Arts Desk found it ‘more cerebral than emotional’. He decided ‘The main problem with the play is that the deadlock between its conflicting ideas is never really resolved in a satisfying way…Nevertheless, for all its imperfections, this is a compelling evening mainly because of James Macdonald’s directing and the acting of his cast. Macdonald’s production has the vibe of hyperrealism.’
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar had reservations: ‘The cast give excellent performances and the action is intriguing, the arguments holding us, but the story in itself seems contrived around the play’s ideas.’ However, ‘Despite its lecturing and trowel-load of ideas, it is compelling and ambitious, Chekhovian in glimmers. Bartlett masterfully weds levity through social satire with complexity and depth of subject matter.’
Holly O’Mahony popped up at Time Out with an equivocal review: the ‘production directed by Barlett’s regular collaborator James Macdonald is really very funny. But for a play that holds a mirror up to the gaping chasm between idealism and pragmatism, it has some disparities of its own. Though rivetingly performed all round, several characters become wildly different people between its three acts, while its form is slippery too.’
For Marianka Swain at LondonTheatre ‘There are keen observations here and sharply witty lines, but rather than developing the characters’ inner lives’.
Adam Bloodworth at CityAM took a similar line: ‘Bartlett’s writing, as it always has been, is often funny, though too much of the script feels didactic. The talk about tech solutions to climate problems, and idealism versus pragmatism, starts to feel a little too on-the-nose and gets a bit dreary.’
Mary Beer for LondonTheatre1 summarised: ‘As a showcase for a thoroughly brilliant cast, including younger faces to watch, Juniper Blood succeeds. With some decent bits of theatrically and a winning set by ULTZ along with some zinging lines, there is pleasure to be found in taking in this play. But it is not fresh or revelatory or frankly remotely important or urgent despite the themes that underpin it.
After a long analysis at BroadwayWorld, Cindy Marcolina summed up her review regally: ‘It generates enough of a conversation to get you going, but is it Bartlett at his best? We don’t think so.’
2 stars ⭑⭑
The Times’ Clive Davis had no time for it, calling it ‘a maddeningly self-indulgent play of ideas, tosses around one half-formed notion after another…you sit there, gazing at the mound of turf on the set, wondering who thought this script was worth inflicting on the audience at the Donmar’.
The Standard’s Nick Curtis was of the same mind: ‘the play itself feels thin and undercooked, the plot twists and emotional revelations unearned. Every character is underwritten’.
Sam Marlowe’s review in The Stage was also dismissive: ‘Static, effortful and irredeemably verbose, it pits its dislikeable characters against one another in a series of overworked debates…James Macdonald’s rather languid production…fails to inject Bartlett’s contrivances with much nuance or urgency.’
Twelfth at Shakespeare’s Globe. Photo: Helen Murray
Carnival’ and ‘carnivalesque’ were words that cropped up frequently in reviews of Twelfth Night at The Globe. However there were contrasting views on Robin Belfield’s production (‘joyous’ vs ‘empty’, ‘strongest rapport with an audience’ vs ‘may try a little too hard to engage the crowd’), the performances (Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ as Viola gives a ‘delicious central performance’ or needs to play the part ‘with more depth’), and the design. Take from them what you will.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
4 stars ★★★★
There was a rare but welcome review from Dzifa Benson in the Telegraph. With her usual perspicacity she analysed the gender themes of the play and how the production exploits them before praising the actors and concluding: ‘this summer jamboree is riotous fun and joyfully tongue-in-cheek’.
Rachel Halliburton for The Times liked the way ‘in Robin Belfield’s joyous, kaleidoscopically coloured production, Quigley makes (Malvolio’s) humiliation in love every bit as resonant as the gender-swapping romances of the main characters.’ She said: ‘Amid the prevailing colourful whirligig, this is the production’s darkly beating heart.’
Dave Fargnoli for The Stage stated: ‘Belfield’s production never lets us forget that a dangerous current of lust and cruelty lurks beneath the whimsical frivolity.’ He was not alone in praising the design: ‘The bold aesthetics of Jean Chan’s gorgeous costumes are integral to evoking the play’s weird world and marking shifts in the characters’ emotional states.’
The Standard’s Nick Curtis said: ‘Inclusion and exclusion are the keynotes of Robin Belfield’s carnivalesque production of Shakespeare’s play, which features a delicious central performance from as Viola. The cast build what’s possibly the strongest rapport with an audience that I’ve ever felt at the Globe and the comedy is delightfully on point.’
3 stars
Matt Wolf for LondonTheatre disagreed with The Standard (above) about Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́, finding that ‘this fine performer only intermittently lands the passion and pathos that help drive the play forward’. He also disagreed about the rapport with the audience: ‘The production may try a little too hard to engage the crowd in a vapid clap-along’. However he was impressed by ‘Jos Vantyler’s beautifully spoken (and danced), Harlequinade-adjacent Feste’ who ‘steers an expert course through the contrasting shores of the sublime and the sad between which this play navigates.’
Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski was unimpressed: ‘Robin Belfield’s production falls into a very Globe-ish trap of having a lot of fun individual turns but failing to really cohere into a whole that makes much sense. And the lack of set changes leaves it without any sense of place, just groups of characters mucking about in front of Jean Chan’s unhelpfully abstract sun-ray set design.’
Clementine Scott for BroadwayWorld felt ‘Belfield’s direction too often allows the complex, gender-bending love triangle between Viola (in disguise as ‘Cesario’), Olivia and Orsino to play second fiddle to the Saturnalian slapstick.’ To support this view, she pointed out: ‘it’s a shame that our audience avatar, Viola (Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ), the only character who’s experiencing this fantasy world for the first time alongside us, isn’t played with more depth.’ She conceded: ‘This production might not probe Twelfth Night’s nuances as far as it could, but even the most hardened critic can’t resist the serotonin hit.’
2 stars ★
The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar summed up: ‘A period-dress production with passing modern-day asides, it is extremely knockabout, steering away from the play’s anguished layers.’ She explained: ‘You do not feel the pangs of unrequited desire, and much of the verse is dampened by unremarkable delivery in general.’ For her, Malvolio was ‘ almost loveably crabby’ and his ‘gulling never enters the realm of the tragic’. It was, she said, ‘a baggy production whose japery spills into messiness, leaving some plot points opaque.’
Alun Hood at WhatsOnStage was disappointed: ‘Belfield certainly rips through the play with commendable pace and attack, but the overall lack of subtlety or real emotion robs this entrancing comedy of much of its magic. When the majority of the characters are reduced to clownish ciphers, it’s pretty hard to care about them and that ultimately renders this Twelfth Night, for all its freewheeling irreverence and high energy revelry, a disappointingly empty experience.’
Critics’ average rating 3.2★
Twelfth Night can be seen at Shakespeare’s Globe until 25 October 2025. Buy tickets directly from shakespearesglobe.com
Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon is rarely seen, and for good reason thought quite a few of the critics. Even though Rona Munro had updated the book to make it more authentically Scottish and changing the visitors from lost tourists to crash-landing World War 2 pilots, they still found the plot about a village that only appears every hundred years somewhat silly. Other reviewers were carried away by the romance, Drew McOnie’s choreography and the look of the production.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
It put LondonTheatre’s Marianka Swain in a romantic mood . She reported that it ‘has been ingeniously and gloriously revamped by director-choreographer Drew McOnie and Scottish playwright Rona Munro. Why, it’s almost like being in love.’ She laid responsibility clearly at McConie’s dancing feet: ‘McOnie’s detailed production balances (a) poetic, psychologically rich reading of Brigadoon with a realistic, lived-in village.’ She continued: ‘McOnie’s choreography is absolutely knockout. He embraces the lush romanticism by evoking Agnes De Mille’s lyrical Golden Age dances, and incorporates Scottish folk like a reel and sword dance (we also get accompanying bagpipes), while also infusing the whole thing with thrilling, contemporary expressiveness’.
Holly O’Mahony for The Stage was also impressed, although perhaps not as much as Marianka: ‘it’s charmingly whimsical.’ It is, she said, ‘a tight, traditional production – winningly so – with Agnes De Mille’s original dances interwoven with McOnie’s sprightly ballets’. She also noted: ‘Sami Fendall’s costumes of rustic tartan in meadowy shades of yellow and green’ and ‘Basia Bińkowska’s atmospheric set’.
’The show is delightful’ wrote Claire Allfree for the Telegraph. She found: ‘McOnie’s production retains Brigadoon’s old-fashioned MGM musical quality with beautifully choreographed Oklahoma!-style scenes of swirling village women in full skirts and lace-up boots, and men merrily loading wagons with milk churns, images that knowingly lean into the idea of the art form itself as escapism incarnate.’
WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton declared: ‘It is a truly magical evening. Drew McOnie’s…production…has a shining clarity of purpose. With the help of a book by Rona Munro that keeps the emotion but strips away the sentiment, the production sweeps along on a wave of luscious songs’.
Fiona Mountford at the i is a fan of Brigadoon (‘a tune-stuffed delight’) and thought Drew McOnie’s production did it proud: ‘a sumptuous spectacle of movement’.
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
For Aliya Al-Hassan at BroadwayWorld, ‘the production feels like an odd choice for a revival. The characters are thinly drawn, the plot bizarre and uneven and the musical numbers are just not memorable. Much of the mawkishness of the romance has been stripped back, but it still feels a little cloying.’ Although she did admit: ‘The ensemble bounds with energy and their movement is as beautiful as you would expect from McConie.’
The Standard’s Nick Curtis was reserved, saying it ‘just about works thanks to some fine performances, spirited choreography and a strikingly effective Grand Designs set by Basia Bińkowska. But it’s an effort to tough your way through the more saccharine moments.’ His review is an amusing read for its list of holes in the plot.
The Independent’s Alice Saville called it ‘a strange fable that feels out of step with the times, however beguiling its dance may be.’ She acknowledged Mcconie ‘lovingly recreates and reimagines golden age Hollywood choreographer Agnes de Mille’s balletic sequences of yearning and skittish flirtation. Lerner and Loewe’s score is sumptuously romantic, too, and beautifully rendered here by a sizeable orchestra placed centre stage.’ But in the end, ‘no amount of sylvan magic can hide the fact that this is a very, very silly kind of story.’
The Times‘ Clive Davis acknowledged the changes to the story but felt ‘The results are less sentimental, but still haven’t solved the problem of how to inject pace, not to mention plausibility, into a meandering book…we’re left trying to keep track of a tangled narrative’. He did like many other aspects of the show: ‘The dozen or so musicians led by the MD Laura Bangay generate just the right mixture of velvet and tartan… Basia Binkowska’s diagonal set design, which evokes the stark timber lines of a Frank lloyd Wright house, is topped by an assortment of heather shimmering under Jessica Hung Han Yun’s subtle lighting.’
2 stars ⭑⭑
The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar called it a ‘too tame, too purposeless revival seems simply to be a love letter to Scotland with bagpipes and drumming galore’. On the plus side: ‘The cast is filled with strong singers…but the songs sound anodyne and generic…McOnie’s choreography is beautiful and balletic in itself’.
Lenny Henry in Every Brilliant Thing at @sohoplace. Photo: Helen Murray
After over ten years of performing in the UK and around the world, Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe finally made its West End debut, and the critics were delighted. The solo show will star Minnie Driver, Sue Perkins, Ambika Mod, and Jonny Donahoe over the next few weeks, but the run started with a much appreciated Lenny Henry in charge.
When a mother attempts suicide when she has acute depression, her child decides to make a list about all the things that make life worth living. They keep adding to the list as they move through adolescence into adulthood.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
Ke Meng for TheatreWeekly was impressed that ‘Macmillan’s writing is both endearing and nostalgic, a feeling I haven’t encountered in ages. His language is equally funny and poetic’. She said: ‘Lenny Henry masters the space as if it’s his own living room—chilled, playful, and chatty.’
Marianka Swain reviewing for the Telegraph was uplifted: ‘the communal storytelling format remains a neat demonstration of the play’s central thesis: it’s vital to reach out and connect with one another, whether through therapy or theatre. This life-affirming show proves that and more – an absolute tonic.’ As for Lenny Henry, she found it ‘enormous fun watching him take charge of the intimate, in-the-round @sohoplace auditorium and roll with the punches.
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
The Standard‘s Nick Curtis described it as ‘a unique show with the texture of theatre but the communal immediacy of stand-up.’ He found Lenny Henry was perfectly suited: ‘Thanks to his pre-thespian career in comedy, his natural bonhomie and the indulgence granted to him as a bona fide national treasure, Henry manages the crowd and the pivots of mood adroitly.’ He declared ‘the auditorium of @sohoplace, with its uncluttered intimacy, suits the material perfectly’
In her review for Time Out, Anya Ryan took a different view of the venue: ‘With a much greater capacity and the audience spread across three tiers, creating the world of the play feels less like a communal endeavour and more the responsibility of a select few.’ However, she added: ‘If there’s any larger venue fit to house Macmillan’s mini masterpiece, it is @sohoplace.’ She concluded: ‘For all its sorrow, the play gleams with hope. It is a truly brilliant thing.’
Fiona Mountford at the i reported: ‘Jeremy Herrin’s appealing production plays to Henry’s many strengths – twinkling with joy and mischief, he exudes an affable affinity with the audience from the get-go. This rapport is all-important, as we are integral to the action…Our fellow spectators, with all their quirks and idiosyncrasies, are delightful in their contributions’.
Helen Hawkins, sitting on The Arts Desk, thought: ‘Henry is a natural for this assignment, still a livewire performer (watch him fly as he listens to his favourite bongos solo), but warm and accessible, a born communicator and improviser who can coax even the shyest person to deliver.’ She declared: ‘In its decision to balance grief and glee and not to allow one to exclude the other, this is a clear-sighted, heartening show.’
Dave Fargnoli in The Stage described Lenny Henry’s technique: ‘Lenny Henry demonstrated his consummate facility for building a rapport with an audience through a mix of playful mockery and easy-going warmth. Henry owns the part, filling out the narrator’s character with precise personal detail. When he plays a taciturn father, a hint of a gruff Jamaican accent creeps in. When he’s representing a child, his words become clipped, shy, hesitant. There is always a smile or a wince about to break out on his face, a hitch in his voice as he prepares to share some melancholy memory.’
Holly O’Mahony at LondonTheatre compared Lenny Henry’s version to the original: ‘While there’s plenty of warmth and humour to it, I felt a depth missing. Watching Donahoe perform the part, it truly felt like his story, his depression. This version never quite plumbs those depths, and the plot is held aloof, as if secondary to the audience participation. Yet what Henry pulls off is no small feat – as a collective, participatory experience, it’s really quite brilliant.’
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
Miriam Gillinson reported for The Guardian that ‘there’s something about the scale and downright snazziness of this production that doesn’t quite gel’ and found ‘It’s only when Henry isn’t trying to be funny that the show settles. There’s a stillness and steeliness to him when he talks about the importance of protecting our mental health.’
At BroadwayWorld, Alexander Cohen found ‘Where other performers have leaned into the childlike innocence of the narrator, Henry opts instead for something heavier. Memories are explored with emotional clarity rather than nostalgic whimsy, a choice that lends this iteration a quiet gravity that avoids sentimentality.’
Good Night, Oscar at The Barbican. Photo: Johan Persson
With a couple of exceptions, the critics loved Good Night, Oscar. Plays don’t always travel well across the Atlantic, even a big hit like this, and, as the 2 and 3 star reviews pointed out, the subject of the play, Oscar Levant, is not well known over here and author Doug Wright doesn’t enlighten us. Also, the true story of how this musician-comedian-actor-raconteur was temporarily released from a psychiatric hospital to appear (and be exploited) on a popular TV show may seem very American. However, the 5 and 4 star reviews acclaimed one of the performances of the year by Sean Hayes in bringing the troubled artist to life.
5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
For Gary Naylor at BroadwayWorld it was the Sean Hayes show: ‘He simply inhabits the part. There’s the desperate vulnerability of the addict, the ticks that speak of a roiling mind, the ruthless exploitation of the decency of others. But there’s also the speed of the wit, the grudging willingness to do the right thing, the sheer chutzpah of the man. Most of all, and this elevates the performance to the very best of any I’ve seen, there’s the charisma – Levant’s and Hayes’ – that bounces around this large house like a laser show.’
LondonTheatre’s Julia Rank also praised him: ‘Hayes…has the hangdog expression and an abundance of tics and twitches… To make the casting even more ideal, Hayes trained as a pianist before becoming an actor and plays a rendition of “Rhapsody in Blue” that’s essentially a nervous breakdown on the piano.’ She was one of many who complemented the set design: ‘Rachel Hauck provides a series of mid-century modern sets, the piece de resistance being a soundstage with sound-absorbent walls that could double as a padded cell. What is television if not another madhouse, one of the characters notes.’
Chris Omaweng at LondonTheatre1 called it ‘A delightful, memorable and charming night out.’
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
Dave Fargnoli in The Stage liked the writing: ‘Through a series of focused, fast-paced scenes, the play touches on themes of artistic integrity, the exploitation of performers and drug addiction.’ And he liked the production: ‘Director Lisa Peterson gives the production a slick, effective staging, conveying both the exhilarating momentum and crushing time pressure of a live broadcast’. And he definitely liked the star: ‘Sean Hayes gives a consummate, larger-than-life performance as Oscar, channelling a profoundly unsettled, manic energy’.
Helen Hawkins at The Arts Desk was also taken with the star: Hayes gives an impeccable physical performance, one part or another of his body constantly in motion, a jiggling foot, a rocking upper body. After he downs a bottle of Demerol, he makes his body move in slo-mo, each casual gesture attenuated. His features are unrecognisable as fresh-faced Jack’s, drawn and haggard, like a mournful spaniel’s. He pratfalls and slumps and tumbles.‘
Tom Wicker for Time Out commented: ‘Hayes is extraordinary as Levant, crumpling into himself even as he makes the one-liners prompted by Paar sing off the stage. His well-honed way with comedy is the play’s secret weapon. Our laughter is complicit in the implosion we know is happening.’
The Standard’s Nick Curtis wrote about Sean Hayes: ‘Doug Wright’s play is a fast-paced, highly polished, zinger-packed vehicle for his astonishing performance, which culminates in an electrifyingly expressive live rendition of Rhapsody in Blue’.
Ben Dowell in The Times noted: ‘What sets this dazzling, considered Tony award-winning Broadway transfer apart is the fantastically energised performance from Sean Hayes… (He) puts the versatility and high-octane physicality that fans of that show will know to brilliant use, timing Levant’s sizzling wordplay…smoking furiously, anguish written on every twist of his face.’ He was impressed by the director: ‘Lisa Peterson snaps sure-footedly through the action, while allowing the tender moments to breathe’.
Alun Hood for WhatsOnStage concluded: ‘Inevitably, Good Night, Oscar won’t resonate with British audiences as keenly as with their American counterparts…but this remains a waspish, compulsive, meticulously well-crafted piece of theatre. Hayes’s brilliance elevates it into a must-see.’
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
The Independent’s Alice Saville accused the play of ‘delivering a glimmering, beguiling surface without looking too hard at what’s going on underneath’ while acknowledging ‘Sean Hayes drenches this role in pathos and awkward brilliance’.
Mark Lawson for The Guardian commented: ‘Hayes gives a performance of such busyness – twitches, tics, lip curls, cigarette business – that you wonder if the stage has a fast-forward button. He also, in the moment that surely guaranteed his Tony award, delivers the piano climax live at a Steinway with exceptional panache. Lisa Peterson’s slick, whizzy production, co-starring Rosalie Craig as Levant’s wife June, is a thrilling theatrical experience but, perhaps perversely for a play arguing for television to be more serious, does not bear looking at too closely.’
2 stars ⭑⭑
Fiona Mountford writing for the Telegraph complained: ‘we leave this 100-minute play no wiser as to the real man behind this troubled facade. Although we understand that Wright has serious points to make about the shifting morality of what is served up in the name of ratings and entertainment, we cannot help but feel a little bit grubby.’
JJ Feild & Emmanuel Akwafo in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Bridge Theatre. Photo: Manuel Harlan
The Bridge Theatre’s immersive production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is tremendous fun. Then again, I recently spent the day at Peppa Pig World, and that was a lot of fun too. For me the question is, is The Bridge’s Dream more than a party? Of course I could ask, do we need an excuse to enjoy a joyous night out inside one of our favourite theatres?
Before I go on, let me be clear: Nicholas Hytner’s production A Midsummer Night’s Dream was better theatre than Peppa Pig World. The acting including J J Feild as Oberon, Susannah Fielding as Titania, David Moorst as Puck and Emmanuel Akwafo as Bottom was excellent; Bunny Christie’s bed-strewn set and Christina Cunningham’s costumes were wondrous; Arlene Phillips’ movement, and the effects, the lighting and the sound were the best you could hope for. Even so, it felt like being immersed in shallow water.
I have no doubt that creating a pseudo anarchy is in the spirit of Shakespeare’s play. Faeries fly above you, characters appear and disappear all over the place, while you are being moved this way and that wondering where the action will erupt next. And yes, swapping the lines of Oberon and Titania sets up even more laughs as the King of the Fairies falls in love with an ass.
And there are lots of laughs, not only the predictable humour of the Rude Mechanicals, but also from everyone else as a punk-like Puck unleashes mayhem. Lysander loses his trousers, there are accidental gay encounters, modern phrases enliven the Elizabethan text.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Bridge Theatre. Photo: Manuel Harlan
The problem for me is, what is lost when everything becomes an excuse for a laugh or a party is an involvement in the characters and their fate. There is little sense of a major theme of the play- what happens to people’s emotions when their world is turned upside down. In every production I’ve seen until now, the Athenian women are genuinely upset when their lovers swap affection, the King of the Fairies, or Queen in this case, shows remorse at the effect of their magic.
I had the same feeling when I saw Punchdrunk’s The Burnt City. The feeling of wonder at what I was seeing, and the almost thrill of being lost as I stumbled into the mixed up scenes was fantastic, but I didn’t give a jot about the Greek tragedy that was unfolding.
Guys And Dolls, another immersive production at The Bridge, worked, for me, because, no matter how impressive the fluidity of the set was, the characters, book and music were allowed to speak for themselves. So, no matter how much the audience were lost in the action, we never lost ourinvolvement in the love stories.
I can see why for many critics it was a 5 star party. Sharing laughter is good for us, and I would totally recommend getting one of the not-very-expensive promenade tickets. But when I go to the theatre, I am also expecting to come out changed, if only a little bit, by what I have experienced, and on this occasion I wasn’t.
Samira Wiley & Claudia Jolly in Intimate Apparel. Photo: Helen Murray
The intimate apparel in question is a corset which back in 1905 when this play is set, helped women present to the outside world a body shape that conformed with that era’s restrictive standard of female beauty. But corsets aren’t the only deception going on in Lynn Nottage’s twisty play. Intimate Apparel shows us women faking it in a man’s world, while revealing their intimate feelings about their lives to each other when the disguise is off. At times, it is so believable, you forget you’re watching actors. This despite a minimal set and an audience on three sides.
It’s a play centred on women’s place in society at a time when black people were emerging from slavery and only men had the vote. The central character is Esther played by Samira Wiley. She is a black 35 year old unmarried seamstress who makes the intimate apparel of the title. She is shy and self deprecating about her looks. Her lack of confidence has kept her away from a social life, until she is now 35, has never had sex, and is effectively ‘on the shelf’. It is a monumental piece of acting, mixing downtrodden subservience with naive optimism, that totally convinces.
Esther’s clients are her world: they are quasi friends despite the difference in status. A motherly Mrs Dickson played by Nicola Hughes owns a boarding house in which Esther rents a room; Mrs Van Buren (Claudia Jolly) is a brittle white woman with a rich husband who neglects her; Mayme played with panache by Faith Omole achieves her independence through prostitution.
In a lesser play, these characters might be two dimensional ciphers representing different types of women in that society. We are told very little about their backgrounds or personal lives but Lyn Nottage’s special skill is to know her characters so well that every word they speak seems coated with the truth of a fully formed human being. It helps that these talented actors are there to inhabit the carefully created characters and give them a three dimensional reality.
The high quality of the acting extends to the two male characters- Kadiff Kirwan swaggers and whines as George, the kind of man who has never grown up, and Alex Waldmann gives a touching performance as the gentle, humorous Mr Marks, a haberdasher who is genuinely attracted to Esther and a would be a perfect match for her, but is held back by a religious faith that prevents him having physical contact with women outside his family.
Intimate Apparel at The Donmar. Photo: Helen Murray
When Esther gets a letter out of the blue from a man looking for a pen pal, the other women encourage her to respond. Because she can neither read nor write, they pursue the correspondence on her behalf until a remote love affair takes place and Esther accepts a marriage proposal without ever having met her fiancé.
So, a marriage has been built on something every bit as fake as the bodies created by intimate apparel. Might it still work out or will Esther’s world come crashing down? That’s the subject of the second act. I’d love to talk about what happens but it would be unfair to spoil the dramatic twists and revelations which actually provoked gasps from the audience- an indication of how involved we were. Credit to director Lynette Linton for the romantic build-up that drew us in and the explosive pinball machine speed with which it blew up in our faces.
Alex Berry’s set used the cramped space of the Donmar well- key props like a bed and sewing machine nimbly moving around while the male characters appeared from high up at the back like Gods. Her costumes were fabulous and I assume accurate representations of the clothes- and underwear- of the period.
Ruth Wilson & Michael Shannon in A Moon For The Misbegotten. Photo: Marc Brenner
I admit there were moments when I thought Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon For The Misbegotten could hurry I up a bit but I came to appreciate this is a play where every word- and the unspoken words- count, and I appreciated the way that director Rebecca Frecknall deliberately made space to let this time bomb of a play achieve its impact.
It’s a kind of sequel , or perhaps an epilogue, to A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. It features Jamie Tyrone, one of the sons from that play, now known as Jim, and refers to his late mother and father. He is landlord to Josie Hogan and her father Phil. He seems benign but Phil fears he will sell their farm, so hatches a plot by which Josie will seduce Jim and he will be forced to marry her. Which is ironic because they do actually desire one another.
At first Josie comes across as a confident, independent woman, able to handle herself and the men around her, including her cynical, mean father. Playing the part is Ruth Wilson, at first swaggering and fearless, striding confidently and literally wielding a big stick. But from the beginning we sense a brittleness behind the bravado. We also see she is selfless, and, as the play progresses, this aspect of her character manifests itself in her approach to Jim and Phil. The gradual cracking of the shell she has built around herself is shown by Ms Wilson in multiple small ways. She becomes increasingly tender, as she admits the truth about herself and sees the reality of others It could be the acting performance of the year.
Michael Shannon’s Jim, an alcoholic, is clearly a broken man but a gentle one who seems to be drowning his sorrows not only in booze but in casual encounters with women. His falsetto laugh and sad face hint there is more to him than a drunken womaniser, and his deliberate movements are not only those of a bourbon-soaked body but also of a man who hates his own being. As he moves from destructive self hate to a kind of temporary redemption, a calm takes over his body.
Ruth Wilson & David Threlfall in A Moon For The Misbegotten. Photo: Marc Brenner
What emerges over the length of the play is a gradual peeling off of the images Josie and Jim project to cover their insecurity and the discovery of the reasons they feel vulnerable, which are very much tied up with their parents- hence the ‘misbegotten’ of the title.
There are wrong assumptions and misunderstandings, especially over what they actually desire, and many moments in which there are two steps forward and one step backward, before a finale when their true feelings are laid bare. I called it a bomb earlier but I don’t want to imply the end is explosive- it’s softer and more moving than that, but there are some dramatic incidents on the way.
Rebecca Frecknall’s slow unwinding of the play would not be so mesmerising without actors of the calibre of Ruth Wilson and Michael Shannon, not to mention the inimitable David Threlfall, who totally convinces as a wily old farmer whose twinkling eyes betray his love for his daughter.
Tom Scutt’s circular set, made of battered wood conveys the poverty of the farm business. Jack Knowles’ lighting design centres on a moving spot high up at the back of the stage which moves its beam across the scene and the characters. It powerfully represents a moon which witnesses and encourages their revelations.
Maybe O’Neill could have written a shorter play, but I wouldn’t want to mess in any way with this perfect production.
Lucy St Louis & Phillip Attmore in Top Hat. Photo: Johan Persson
Every year I look forward to the Chichester Festival Theatre musical. Among the first class revivals of recent years have been Oliver!, South Pacific, Crazy For You with the incomparable Charlie Stemp, and Gypsy with Imelda Staunton. This year, they have chosen Top Hat, and, while it may not reach the heights of the aforementioned hits, it does not disappoint. There’s already an extensive UK tour booked for it, so you will have the chance to see for yourself.
Once again, Chichester have put together a mouth watering feast. Top Hat is primarily a tap dance show- it was written for Fred Astaire- and the dancing here is creme de la creme. Choreographed, as well as directed, by the great Kathleen Marshall, who was responsible for the London hit Anything Goes, the solo dances, the what you might call Fred and Ginger numbers and the chorus line work are all masterclasses in how it should be done. The sound of the tap is music in itself and 16 dancers or thereabouts combining to stamp the floor at the same time is explosive. The discipline, especially of the chorus lines, is genuinely awesome, as arm-in-arm they make a circular movement, all the while high kicking. Ms Marshall’s choreography is exuberant, uplifting and joyous.
A brief word about the story. A superstar tap dancer called Jerry falls in love with a woman called Dale but, owing to a misunderstanding, she thinks he’s his friend Horace, husband of her friend Madge. Spoiler alert- it all works out in the end.
Then there’s the music. Irving Berlin wrote 1500 songs throughout a long career but the five he wrote for the original film represent him at his peak and extending his ability to write songs that serve the story: No Strings establishes the carefree character of Jerry, as well as his prowess as a tap dancer; Isn’t This A Lovely Day starts with Jerry and Dale in a standoff but reveals her increasing attachment to him as the song progresses; Cheek To Cheek, the centrepiece of the musical, shows Jerry seducing Dale through the power of dance- a true representation of the saying ‘dance is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire, with climactic moments as he swings her through the air; and then there are the two big chorus line numbers Top Hat, White Tie And Tails and The Piccolino, which end the first act and begin the second in the stage version. All praise to Stephen Ridley and the 10 piece orchestra for their swinging sound.
Top Hat, released in cinemas in 1935, only became a stage musical in 2011 when it was adapted by Matthew White and Howard Jacques. There are many more Berlin tunes added, quite a few plundered from other Fred and Ginger movies, including Puttin’ On The Ritz, I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket, Let Yourself Go and Let’s Face The Music And Dance.
Top Hat at Chichester Festival Theatre. Photo: Johan Persson
The six principals are superb, and the ensemble is wonderful. The hardest task goes to Phillip Attmore. How to step into the shoes of Fred Astaire? Not to mention that the show itself refers to him as a world-class dancer. And, unlike the legendary star, he has to perform live. He may not quite be Fred Astaire (who is?) but he is a likeable lead and an accomplished dancer.
Lucy St Louis as Dale is the full package. She has a powerful singing voice, acts well and dances beautifully. For me she was a revelation, although I shouldn’t be surprised, because she’s already played Glinda in Wicked and Christine in The Phantom Of The Opera (you may have seen her perform at the Platinum Party At The Palace).
Clive Carter and Sally Ann Triplett as Horace and Madge provide a weight of experience and a huge dose of comedy. James Clyde as Horace’s servant Bates in various disguises, and Alex Gibson-Giorgio as Alberto, a comical Italian fashion designer and Dale’s would-be lover also keep the laughs coming. I know it’s no longer acceptable to make fun of foreigners who don’t speak English as well as us- ‘I am very displeased to meet you!’- but such lines were written a long time ago.
There is a great deal of funny lines, or perhaps corny jokes would be a better description. Here are a couple of examples: Horace is afraid of flying because the first word you see on signs at the airport is ‘Terminal’. He also explains that a man is incomplete until he’s married- ‘Then he’s finished.’ But that’s very much in the mood of this light comedy which, as I said, is about dance first, then music, and only then comedy to fill the gaps.
Peter McIntosh‘s luminous art deco set is very clever. The thrust stage is kept clear for dancing, although there are semi-circular rises. At the back there is a revolve that swiftly takes us from one bedroom to another bedroom to a bar. He along with Yvonne Milnes also designed the costumes which have the loose, easy-going feel of the 1940s rather than slavishly copying the 1930s style of the film.
I left the auditorium on a high. Top Hat on stage may not have the wow factor of Crazy For You or Anything Goes. But then again there were no equivalent films to compare them with, so it is disadvantaged by not being able to match the perfection of the film. On the other hand, the fact that it is performed live, and you can see a group of supremely talented people right there in front of you creating beautiful, athletic, complex dance together to some of the greatest songs ever written, makes Top Hat at Chichester Festival Theatre, despite any imperfections, a joy better than any flickering screen.
Lyttelton at the national theatre / Wyndham’s Theatre
Rosamund Pike in Inter Alia. Photo: Manuel Harlan
Comparisons with Prima Facie abound in reviews for Inter Alia: same writer (Suzie Miller), same director (Justin Martin), and a major star playing a female lawyer specialising in rape cases (then Jodie Comer, now Rosamund Pike). The latter is universally praised for her performance as Judge Jessica, juggling marriage, motherhood and meting out justice to misogynists, before her life spirals out of control. Some critics found the plot predictable and preachy.
The production has transferred to the West End but not all media chose to review it twice. Some did but sent a different reviewer. The average rating was slightly higher from the West End reviewers.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
Reviews of the West End transfer
5 stars ★★★★★
Clementine Scott for BroadwayWorld gave out top marks: ‘Pike is an inherently physical performer, and flaws in the script are glossed over by her constant bounding around the set, morphing from courtroom gravitas to dinner party femininity and back again.’ She pointed out: ‘it does more than simply present ethical dilemmas. At its heart is a compelling character study of a woman forced to be everything at once’.
4 stars ★★★★
WhatsOnStage‘s Sarah Crompton declared: ‘It is Pike’s play and Pike’s night, and she seizes it with such relish, whether belting out a karaoke number and downing shots with the girls before getting in a taxi exhausted at 9pm, or facing her worst fears of failure as a wife and mother. She is supremely witty and sharp, but also devastatingly exposed and tender.’
Caroline McGinn for Time Out noted: ‘Multitasking is the watchword for Justin Martin’s bold, high-energy production, which really relishes the plate-spinning scenario of working motherhood, sending Pike bouncing all over Miriam Buether’s wonderful set, a pistachio-green kitchen-diner whose cupboard doors pop open to supply the props needed for the various different aspects of her life: a slinky red husband-pleasing dress; her judge’s wig; a steaming iron; a tray of baked fish; a karaoke mic.’
Olivia Rook commented for LondonTheatre: ‘What Miller does so adeptly is explore the impossible burden often placed on women, specifically the task of protecting your child whilst honouring your own principles. Pike masterfully works her way through Miller’s demanding script, hurtling through the lines with precision from the moment she enters the stage, poised with a microphone in hand, as though ready to begin her opening set in a rock band. Her arena is her courtroom, and the fans, her jury.’
The Standard‘s Nick Curtis, who reviewed the production at The National, noted: ‘This transfer feels slightly tighter, the ending tweaked and the architecture of a West End playhouse pulling the story and Pike’s bravura central turn into closer focus.’
The Daily Mail’s Patrick was enthusiastic: ‘Marmion Pike’s one hour and 40 minute whirlwind of a performance, changing in and out of judge’s wig and robes and slipping into silk blouses and a scarlet cocktail dress, ensures we don’t get too much time for lateral thinking. It’s a gripping, socio-political railroad. Justin Martin’s production steams ahead, powered by Pike’s breathless performance’.
The Times’ Dominic Maxwell was more taken by the play than his colleague Clive Davis who reviewed the premiere: ‘Take this as a story about the wild challenge of balancing morality and legality, of protecting your children and letting them go, and you have something fine indeed. All rendered vivid by a remarkable central turn that is all action yet deeply felt.’
3 stars ★★★
Holly O’Mahony in The Stage was disappointed (although not as critical as her colleague Sam Marlowe last time out): ‘The play breathlessly unpicks its knotty moral conundrum, packaged in a style that grates. Pike’s Jess Parks is narrator as well as main character, and she describes her situation (high-flying career woman diminished to a doormat at home) and the events that befall her family (18-year-old son Harry gets accused of something life-shatteringly terrible) with so much exposition that it never scorches as it might.’
Critics’ average rating 4.0⭑
Value rating 42 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating combined with the typical ticket price)
If you’ve seenInter Alia, please share your comments, review and/or rating at the bottom of the page
Reviews of the National Theatre premiere
4 stars ★★★★
The Standard‘s Nick Curtis got straight to the point: ‘Rosamund Pike gives a hectic, vital, riveting performance at the centre of Suzie Miller’s gut-punch of a play, as a judge, Jess Parks, who discovers that the toxic masculinity she sees in the courtroom has taken root in her own home’
As The Mail’s Patrick Marmion put it: ‘the wheels come off Jessica’s dream.’ He added: ‘The fact that we can see it coming a mile off simply adds to the sense of dread in Martin’s helter-skelter production’. Pike, he said, ‘blazes alone: multitasking in the kitchen and in her judge’s chambers, walking a mental tightrope and talking us through her 360-degree collapse.’
Emma John for The Guardian called it ‘a searing commentary on the justice system and a purposefully uncomfortable insight into contemporary parenting.‘ She had a reservation: ‘Determined to give every issue and angle a fair hearing, Inter Alia sheds its nimbleness and wit as it grapples with the serious stuff in its later stage’.
Dominic Cavendish of the Telegraph couldn’t stop thinking about Prima Facie: ‘the play revisits the emotive subject of sexual offences and how the law works, only this time involving teenagers. It grips, too, and is gut-wrenching, but in comparison feels sketchier’…’Once again, the piece calls for a transfixing, shape-shifting performance from its star, and the hurtling 105-minute action showcases Pike’s theatrical bravura’…’if the evening stirs debate about how one generation guides the next, how men should behave and how the culture can foster respect, safety and justice for women, it’s all to the good. Whether it will have the same impact of Prima Facie is open to question.’
About Rosamund Pike, Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski declared: ‘she is good: of course she’s posh, but she’s earthy, likeable, open, vulnerable, somewhat demystifying of her profession. And it’s not entirely unsubtle writing, just full tilt. We’re bouncing around in Jessica’s head, and being asked to consider that she is attempting to fulfil several impossible roles: neither the perfect mother nor the perfect judge really exist, and certainly not a seamless mix of the two.’ He ended: ‘Inter Alia is kind of a big performance lecture exploring a subject that is close to Miller’s heart to the point of artistic fixation. It is a contrivance that her plays concern women who are high up in the legal profession and thus able to clearly explain the mechanics of what’s going on. But once warmed up Inter Alia hits home thoughtfully and forcefully…Inter Alia benefits from a gale-force Pike and a sophisticated production from Martin – its final image will chill you to the bone.’
Lucinda Everett for WhatsOnStage enjoyed Rosamund Pike’s performance: ‘Pike streaks out of the blocks with just the right blend of possessed energy and blindsiding anxiety. Shimmying expertly in and out of clothes and roles, swapping judges’ gowns for aprons for dinner party dresses, she addresses the audience, actors and her courtroom in quick succession without misstep. The play keeps Jessica’s mental anguish close to the surface, as images from her cases and concerns about Harry (unpopular and often bullied) plague her…Pike also relishes a script which beautifully captures the singularity of motherhood – the beaming pride and protective fury, the pain of letting go, the seesaw of smugness and shame – as well as the effect Jessica’s job has had on her parenting.’
Alice Saville of The Independent was bowled over by all aspects of the evening: ‘Inter Alia’s impact builds and builds until it’s almost unbearable. That’s a testament to Martin’s production, which uses jagged bursts of light and sound to turn this intimate story into a swaggering epic – while Miriam Buether’s design creates a stage that feels like the contents of Jessica’s brain, childhood scenes emerging from the blackness. But most of all, it’s down to Pike’s immaculately judged performance, as the principles Jessica has built her life upon start to crumble to dust.’
LondonTheatre1‘s Chris Omaweng summed up his experience thus: ‘Rosamund Pike is a convincing tour de force, giving her central character a wide range of palpable emotions. A worthy and worthwhile experience’.
3 stars ★★★
The Times’ Clive Davis declared: ‘Pike will surely be in line for the big prizes at the end of the year. In an interval-free piece that is more monologue than straight play, she’s forever centre stage, flitting between courtroom and kitchen’. The production also pleased him: ‘Justin Martin… ensures that the tempo never falters. It’s an intensely choreographed evening, executed on a fluid set design by Miriam Buether that brings a rare sense of intimacy to the Lyttelton’s stage.’ However, ‘Miller’s tale is actually quite slender fare. The writing may be more nuanced than in Prima Facie but you can still see where the story is heading long before the final scene…for all the quality of the production, I have the nagging feeling that deep down it’s really a lecture.’
2 stars ★★
The Stage‘s Sam Marlowe was unimpressed: ‘We cycle through all the obvious, well-worn topics: the stranglehold on power of the patriarchy, working mothers’ feelings of guilt and their struggle to “have it all”, the devastating travesty of rape trials and their pitiful conviction rates. These still merit discussion, but the baldness and lack of nuance or originality with which they’re raised here feels hackneyed.’ She conceded: ‘Martin’s staging strives to dress all of that up in some style. Miriam Buether’s set, a multi-room composite of the family’s tastefully pistachio-painted home, dissolves cleverly into a courtroom, robing room or a murky fairytale forest where nightmarish horrors might lurk, threatening to encroach on these comfortable lives.’ She ended; ‘Pike does her impressive best to galvanise the material, bringing intelligence, humour and sparkle to even the most heavily contrived moments. But it’s an unenviable task. She is, frankly, much better than this lumpen play deserves.’
Critics’ Average Rating 3.7★
Value rating 43 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)
Inter Alia premiered at the National Theatre and closed on 13 September 2025.
If you’ve seenInter Alia, please share your comments, review and/or rating below
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