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

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

Yesterday, I took a break from my sunny local park and turned a room in my house into the Finborough fringe theatre.

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

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

Brilliant new writing: new play about a paedophile ring foregrounds the voices of British Pakistani women

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

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.

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

Return of Miriam Battye’s adaptation of Rebecca Watson’s 2020 debut novel is powerfully emotional and modernistic

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

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

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

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

Nick Stafford’s sturdy beast rides again — and retains its colt-like freshness and wild beauty

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

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

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

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

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

Quote of the day: “Being a practised liar doesn’t mean you have a powerful imagination.”

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

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

Philip Ridley continues to surprise and delight with this brilliant new monologue — in the teeth of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown

Gig theatre piece about the pain and redemption of a pioneer reggae artist reaches out for serenity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Over the past three weeks, several journalists and commentators have tried really hard to make a fuss about London Road, the National Theatre’s verbatim theatre musical by Alecky B…

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

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

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

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…

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

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

New play about the plight of children in a Palestinian town has good moments, but lacks a really compelling story

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

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

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

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

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

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