Julia Grogan’s Playfight at the Soho Theatre: Superbly Punchy Teen Drama That Electrifies The Senses And Engages The Emotions
Coming of age stories are more or less all the same. But what distinguishes Julia Grogan’s...
Read MoreAleks Sierz FRSA is a British theatre critic. He is author of In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (Faber, 2001), The Theatre of Martin Crimp (Methuen, 2006), John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (Continuum, 2008) and Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today (Methuen, 2011). He has also written, co-authored with Lia Ghilardi, The Time Traveller’s Guide to British Theatre: The First Four Hundred Years (Oberon, 2015). His latest book is Good Nights Out: A History of Popular British Theatre 1940–2015 (Methuen, 2019). Sierz has written for publications including Tribune, The Arts Desk and The Stage, as well as newspapers such as The Independent.
Posted by Aleks Sierz | 15th Apr 2025 | LGBTQ+ Theatre, Review, United Kingdom
Coming of age stories are more or less all the same. But what distinguishes Julia Grogan’s...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 11th Apr 2025 | Documentary Theatre, Dramaturgy, Review, United Kingdom
Are we really in “a new era of male anger, societal discontent and rage”? This is what Royal Court...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 28th Mar 2025 | Acting, London, Review, United Kingdom
Anxiety. Apprehension. Angst even. Yes, that’s the feeling that rises in me as I come into the...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 21st Mar 2025 | London, Playwriting, Review, United Kingdom
One of the joys of contemporary playwriting is its openness to flexible casting. In Ruby Thomas’s...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 5th Mar 2025 | Acting, Playwriting, Review, United Kingdom
How long would you wait for your soulmate? In “The Demon Lover”, a short story by Elizabeth Bowen,...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 26th Feb 2025 | London, Playwriting, Review, Theatre and Decolonization, United Kingdom
Diaries are dynamite — they hold secrets, and secrets can tear families apart. In Coral Wylie’s...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 21st Feb 2025 | Playwriting, Review, Theatre and Gender, United Kingdom
British people are socially awkward: this explains why we talk about the weather, queue...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 10th Feb 2025 | Adaptation, London, Review, United Kingdom
Marketing is the new real. For many years, in theatre as elsewhere in society, the most important...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 22nd Jan 2025 | Covid-19, London, Playwriting, Review, United Kingdom
Even the best streamed theatre can’t compete with the live version. It’s simple — with this art...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 20th Jan 2025 | Adaptation, London, Review, Theatre and Decolonization, United Kingdom
Is resilience the most powerful character trait? When you think about the suffering of the...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 1st Nov 2024 | London, Playwriting, Review, United Kingdom
Fringe venues perform a vital role on the ecology of London theatre. While many shows at these...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 20th Oct 2024 | Adaptation, London, Review, United Kingdom
The myth of Oedipus is so central to our psychic world that I was really surprised how many people...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 7th Oct 2024 | Books, Review, Theatre and Politics, United Kingdom
Roald Dahl evokes mixed feelings. He’s one of the greatest children’s storytellers, whose macabre...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 12th Sep 2024 | Review, Theatre and Politics, United Kingdom
Although the idea of deporting people to Rwanda as a punishment is now, following the defeat of...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 6th Sep 2024 | London, Review, Theatre and Politics, United Kingdom
Adultery is the great staple of modern British playwriting. The anguish of marriage, and the...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 4th Jul 2024 | Dramaturgy, Review, United Kingdom
Every day this week I’m watching a football match, and now — after April’s production of Lydia...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 30th Jun 2024 | London, Review, United Kingdom
The death of Marilyn Monroe, on 4 August 1962, is a wet dream for conspiracy theorists. Like the...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 30th Jun 2024 | Review, Theatre and Politics, United Kingdom
Good timing — as the UK’s general election campaign goes into its final week, this large-scale...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 25th Jun 2024 | Nigeria, Review, United Kingdom
Following the huge success of Benedict Lombe’s Shifters, which transfers soon to the West End, the...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 10th Jun 2024 | London, Review, Theatre and Politics, United Kingdom, United States of America
Sanaz Toossi’s English at the Kiln Theatre: Pulitzer Prize-winning play shows the impacts of a second language on identity
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