West End Theatre News and Reviews

Review: HAND TO GOD at the Vaudeville Theatre

By Phil Willmott Thursday, February 18 2016, 15:06

Sometimes as a theatre critic you find yourself expressing a minority view. In such cases I think it's important to stick to your guns so although most established critics have damned HAND TO GOD as tedious and puerile, I loved it in New York and I loved it here, laughing throughout.

18 Feb

Reviews

Review: UNCLE VANYA at the Almeida Theatre

By Phil Willmott Thursday, February 18 2016, 14:45

Uncle Vanya - Almeida Theatre The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's comic drama UNCLE VANYA is indisputably one of the greatest plays ever written and the director Robert Icke is one of the rising stars of British Theater thanks to his acclaimed productions of the Oresteia and 1984 so the combination of the two is irresistible.

I must say I was hoping he would take a more radical approach to the oft performed classic, in the event the only departures from the norm are modern dress and sparse cube of a set that revolves occasionally to give different perspectives.

15 Feb

Reviews

Review: BATTLEFIELD at the Young Vic

By Phil Willmott Monday, February 15 2016, 14:09

Battlefield There’s a lot of context you need to be aware of before you can appreciate the significance of this hour or so of drama.

Firstly you need to understand the status of the director in the history of theatre. He’s Peter Brook, working here in collaboration with Marie-Hélène Estienne, who I sat near to and whose eyes flashed angrily at anyone not sitting quietly during the performance.

12 Feb

Reviews

Review: THE END OF LONGING at the Playhouse Theatre

By Phil Willmott Friday, February 12 2016, 13:01

I make a point of trying to see the positive in everything I review unless the piece is lazy and cynical. THE END OF LONGING is lazy, cynical and cruel. It’s a first play by Matthew Perry who starred in the world’s best loved U.S TV sit-com, FRIENDS, in the 1990s.