Caryl Phillips’s “Strange Fruit” at the Bush Theatre: Windrush Generation Classic
I’ve always been a bit sad that so many contemporary classics are so rarely revived. I have even...
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 | 21st Jun 2019 | London, Review, United Kingdom
I’ve always been a bit sad that so many contemporary classics are so rarely revived. I have even...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 17th Jun 2019 | London, Review, United Kingdom, United States of America
The word “Rustbelt” is really eloquent in its evocation of industrial decline. After all, rust is...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 15th Jun 2019 | London, Review, United Kingdom
Since playwright Terence Rattigan’s rehabilitation in the early 1990s, after the comprehensive...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 14th Jun 2019 | Directing, London, Review, Theatre and Gender, United Kingdom
Githa Sowerby is the go-to playwright if you want a feminist slant on patriarchy in the industrial...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 14th Jun 2019 | London, Review, Theatre and Politics, United Kingdom
Last night, I went, for the first time, to the Barons Court Theatre, which is staging a compact...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 5th Jun 2019 | London, Review, Theatre and Politics, United Kingdom
Stasiland is a fascinating mental space. As a historical location, the former East Germany, or...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 1st Jun 2019 | London, Review, Theatre and Politics, United Kingdom
The rewriting of Ancient Greek myth offers a way of creating contemporary stories that have a deep...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 28th May 2019 | London, Playwriting, Review, United Kingdom
Royal Court’s Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone’s commitment to staging a diversity of...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 27th May 2019 | London, Review, United Kingdom
Most of the facts about the Atlantic slave trade are well known; what is less understood is how...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 14th May 2019 | London, Review, United Kingdom
About a year ago, director Rebecca Frecknall electrified this venue with an award-winning revival...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 13th May 2019 | Adaptation, London, Review, United Kingdom
Edward Hall bids farewell to this venue, where he has been artistic director since 2010, with this...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 9th May 2019 | London, Review, United Kingdom, United States of America
Superstar Sally Field has come to town. With two academy awards and countless other accolades, the...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 9th May 2019 | London, Review, United Kingdom
Novelist Andrea Levy’s 2004 masterpiece, Small Island, is a tribute to the Windrush Generation,...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 8th May 2019 | London, Review, Translation, United Kingdom
Rosmersholm is considered a difficult and rarely performed play. But, judging from this...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 8th May 2019 | London, Review, Theatre and Gender, United Kingdom
If British theatre often seems to lack ambition, the same cannot be said of The Half God Of...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 7th May 2019 | London, Review, Theatre and Gender, United Kingdom
Most new writing for the British stage is timid in subject matter, predictable in plotting and...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 25th Apr 2019 | London, Review, United Kingdom
Maggie Smith is not only a national treasure but every casting director’s go-to “old bat” (her...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 23rd Apr 2019 | London, Review, Theatre and Gender, United Kingdom
Caryl Churchill is a phenomenal artist. Not only has she written a huge body of work, but each...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 20th Apr 2019 | London, Review, Theatre and Politics, United Kingdom
Theatre can give a voice to the voiceless — but at what cost? Abhishek Majumdar, who debuted at...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 11th Apr 2019 | London, Review, United Kingdom
Every fairy tale is a cauldron of emotion. These are tales that steam with resentments flare-up in...
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