It’s not often that I get to say a heartfelt thank you to any newspaper, but I really must acknowledge the good work of the Guardian, and especially its arts website.

The poet laureate’s verbatim play about Brexit sinks into journalistic and untheatrical banality

The love affair between playwright and actor lasted far beyond their early divorce

Can theatre habituate us to extreme violence? Blasted is both a denunciation of the horrors of war and maybe a domestication of them

One of the most important characteristics of contemporary British new plays is that they aim to provide a forum for the discussion of ideas.

In the Brexit era, this site-specific revival of Agatha Christie’s 1953 courtroom drama works like a treat

Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux’s bestselling book gets an enjoyable if problematic West-End staging

Return of the emotionally intense exploration of Palestinian identity — both personal and political

Robert Icke’s latest ancient Greek adaptation: lots of stunning acting compensates for some cumbersome writing

Playwright or director? Who is ultimately responsible for a piece of theatre? Our Critic attempts to find out

Fabulously queer extravaganza: London transfer for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s riotous comedy Western

Favourite stage direction: “The funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth II goes past.”

Text of the day: “Oh yes, we turn on the radio or a TV maybe, or we go to the pictures — if them’s love stories or gangsters — but isn’t that the easiest way out?”

Thrillingly epic account of a defining American institution delights in three superb performances

Artificial Intelligence is much hyped — but can it review a theatre show?

Superbly plotted family drama beautifully explores the relationships between the personal and political

The Royal Court’s international season continues with savage Ukrainian play about women and war

Yes, the sun is out and it’s time for a bit of honest enthusiasm.

David Hare’s latest is set in an alternative reality that is more 2008 than 2018

Populist show is now on its sixth cast, but despite some noisy shocks it fails to chill the blood

Marius von Mayenburg’s latest is a satire on art and anti-Semitism — both absurdist and unsettling

Explore the work of a handful of British theatre’s brightest and most exciting writing talents

Text of the day: “We shall never have all we need.”

Star cast give energy to a superb, if old fashioned, play about the anti-Semitism of Roald Dahl

Maxine Peake struggles to make the voice of reason heard in a rather reactionary feminist history play

Exuberant comedy with a dark edge: Beth Steel’s new play about three sisters is full of energy, but also a bit too populist for me

Bad stuff and change in a time of pandemic: a derivative lockdown poem

One from the archives: film-maker and playwright Mike Leigh uses improvisation extensively in the creation of his work.

The death of David Bowie provokes the Critic to take a trip down the motorways and side alleys of memory

Can the stranglehold of naturalism and social realism in British theatre ever be broken?

Martin Crimp’s Not One of These People has been staged using help from AI — but what does AI think of the show?

Al Smith’s new play was jinxed before it started — and, bogged down in cartoonish detail, it never really recovers

Censorship appears to be simple, but is actually quite complicated.

New West End drama about spicing up marriage is oddly lacking in passion — a wordy and emotionless account of desire

The longest-running play in world history is in good shape, despite the lackluster and mechanical cast

Old-fashioned family reunion play features two real-life parent-and-offspring couples, but is mired in too much complication

Joe DiPietro’s cult hit is enjoyable enough, but rather predictable in both form and content

The Angry Young Men of the 1950s were more of media phenomenon than a coherent movement

As a new production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is about to open in London’s West End, I was lucky enough to get the chance to watch The Impossible Itself (2010), Jake Ad…

Text of the day: “There are good days and bad days.”

Joseph Fiennes is mesmerizing as Gareth Southgate in James Graham’s sport-of-the-nation docu-drama

Anne-Marie Duff and Kenneth Cranham try their best in unconvincing rom-com, which is predictable and portentous

More overviews of British new writing from the In-Yer-Face Theatre archive.

Julia Pascal’s new play is an epic story of Jewish identity from Dublin to Jerusalem in the 1930s and 1940s

Text of the day: “Healthcare is part of the entertainment industry.”

Fear eats the mind: poignant Gaza play about living under terror is both surreally humorous and finally devastating

Peter Morgan’s award-winning story of Putin’s triumph is vivid, but lacks real complexity

Here is a sample from the introduction to my latest book about postwar British theatre — an alternative history

Favourite stage direction: “Note: this is not a play about inverted comma mental health inverted comma nor is it an Angry Black Women issue play.”

Take an imaginative ride through 400 years of British theatre with our fictional guides