Tag: Play

I’ve been a fan of Tamsin Greig ever since the first episode of the criminally underrated Episodes, so I’d have been quite happy just watching her sit on stage—like Sigourney Weaver in that recent disaster of The Tempest. Luckily for all of us, Greig didn’t just sit. She took on some heavy material in The Deep Blue Sea and delivered it without theatrics or showy breakdowns—just pure pain and flashes of quiet fury.

George Bernard Shaw’s 1893 play Mrs Warren’s Profession is a bit of a mouthful. For the current production at the Garrick Theatre, the creative team trimmed the text, but it still feels a touch too long. That said, its core themes—sex work, limited opportunities for women, institutional hypocrisy—remain relevant in 2025. And when the cast is this good, you almost don’t mind the extra speeches.

I’m all for reuse and recycling, but modern reimaginings of classic plays rarely work. More often than not, they feel like conceptual show homes: stylish on the surface, structurally unsound underneath.

British children’s books have a long tradition of subjecting their young characters to varying degrees of neglect, abuse, or outright peril. From Harry Potter crammed under the stairs to the nightmarish lessons handed out in Willy Wonka’s factory, no child is safe when a British author picks up a pen.

A play about football sounds as good an idea as staging Macbeth in a penalty box. Yet, Dear England turned out to be good—unlike, one might say, the actual England team. Just kidding—Gareth Southgate and his boys are great both on the pitch and as characters in this show.

Apparently, I have a thing for Agatha Christie’s plays. After The Mousetrap, I ventured further into her repertoire and saw Witness for the Prosecution. While it’s undeniably gripping, I’d say this one has aged less gracefully—especially the overly melodramatic ending.

I recently saw To Kill a Mockingbird on the West End with Matthew Modine as Atticus Finch. The acting was excellent—Modine brought a quiet strength to the role, and the cast delivered across the board.

Best of Enemies was one of the most memorable plays I’ve seen. David Harewood and Zachary Quinto were fantastic—two leads I’d admired on TV, and seeing them live was everything I’d hoped for. They delivered spectacular performances as ideological opposites. It felt like watching the very foundation of the modern liberal vs conservative divide being built before your eyes.

For my first London play, I had to go with a classic. The Mousetrap. It’s been running for 70 years or something—had to be good, right? And it was. The original true crime, inspired by real events, it weaves a story of suspense, secrets, and misdirection.