At a dress rehearsal on the stage of the Royal Opera House in the summer of 1954, a woman of sixty-nine in ordinary day clothes…
By Sara Bright The National Theatre, designed by Denys Lasdun and opened in 1976 on London’s South Bank, embodies postwar Britain’s commitment to public culture…
From 7 to 31 August the Edinburgh Festival Fringe takes over the city again, and the numbers alone explain why it exhausts and thrills in…
Simon Stone has built a career on taking the oldest stories and refusing to keep them at arm’s length. His new production of The Oresteia…
How does the National’s new Hamlet build its meaning? We decode a visual language of stark sets & modern dress to reveal the production's thesis.
By Tessa Nolan When Michael Blakemore collected his second Tony Award on the same evening in June 2000 – becoming the only person in history…
By Sara Bright Sara Bright West End box office revenue topped £1.07 billion in 2023. In 2025, London’s theatre district pulled in 17.64 million theatregoers…
By Tessa Nolan When Kenneth Branagh strode onto the stage of Wyndham’s Theatre on 21 October 2023, dressed in animal skins and wielding a dagger…
By Sara Bright For six decades, Sir Ian McKellen has inhabited virtually every major male role in the Shakespearean canon – Richard III, King Lear,…
By Sara Bright George Orwell – born Eric Arthur Blair, the man who became the legendary George Orwell – wrote 1984 as the final statement…