Anthony Neilson’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” At The National Theatre: Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic Chiller
Can you really turn a three-page short story into a full-length play? What would you add, and how...
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 | 16th Dec 2018 | London, Review, United Kingdom
Can you really turn a three-page short story into a full-length play? What would you add, and how...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 9th Dec 2018 | Review, United Kingdom
Iona is not having a good day. She’s a super talkative Dublin teen who desperately wants to be...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 27th Nov 2018 | London, Review, United Kingdom
Because of the #MeToo movement, and the revival of feminist protest, the theme of sisterhood now...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 22nd Nov 2018 | London, Review, United Kingdom
Plays about old age are also often plays about death. This is certainly true of American novelist...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 16th Nov 2018 | Adaptation, London, Puppetry, Review, United Kingdom
In the days after the widespread commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the end of the first...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 15th Nov 2018 | London, Review, United Kingdom
How do you judge artistic excellence? Is there such a thing as an objectively brilliant musician,...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 14th Nov 2018 | Adaptation, London, Review, United Kingdom
You can see why artistic director Indhu Rubasingham chose to stage this version of Zadie Smith’s...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 12th Nov 2018 | London, Review, Theatre and Opera, United Kingdom
Sometimes, just sometimes, I see a show which makes me wish that all theatre could be like this. A...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 6th Nov 2018 | London, Review, United Kingdom
In 2017, playwright Nina Raine’s Consent, an excellent National Theatre play about lawyers and...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 4th Nov 2018 | London, Review, United Kingdom
Two countries; two histories. Being black in the US; being black in the UK. Compare and contrast....
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 1st Nov 2018 | London, Review, United Kingdom
On the morning when this stylish revival of Martin Crimp’s 1988 play opens, I wake up to the news...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 28th Oct 2018 | London, Playwriting, Review, Theatre and Politics, United Kingdom
Playwright David Edgar is lucky. To begin with, he appreciates his luck in having been born in...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 27th Oct 2018 | London, Review, United Kingdom
It’s all in the title, isn’t it? Martin McDonagh’s surreal new play comes with a warning that not...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 24th Oct 2018 | London, Review, Theatre and Gender, United Kingdom
There are not that many plays about sport, but, whether you gamble on results or not, you can bet...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 22nd Oct 2018 | London, Review, United Kingdom
We do love our spy stories, don’t we? The idea of betrayal, both political and personal, seems to...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 21st Oct 2018 | Boston, LGBTQ+ Theatre, London, Review, United Kingdom, United States of America
If we call a long journey home an Odyssey, what do you call a journey which is doing everything it...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 18th Oct 2018 | Acting, London, Playwriting, Review, United Kingdom
Blackout. Dark, the color of childhood fear. Black, the color of despair. Black. No light visible;...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 17th Oct 2018 | London, Playwriting, Review, Theatre and Gender, United Kingdom
Director Madani Younis, who since 2011 has transformed the Bush Theatre in West London into one of...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 16th Oct 2018 | London, Review, United Kingdom
Ah. Fear of flying. Yes, this is instantly recognizable: that sense that being propelled through...
Read MorePosted by Aleks Sierz | 15th Oct 2018 | LGBTQ+ Theatre, London, Playwriting, Review, Scotland, United Kingdom
English-born and Scottish-based playwright Jo Clifford has been an astonishingly energetic and...
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