Stage | The Guardian

‘Giggly, mischievous and extremely generous’: tributes to Penelope Keith

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:02:59 GMT

After her death this week aged 86, colleagues of The Good Life actor remember a star who remained kind, funny and grounded despite her formidable stage presence

Actor and artistic director at Shakespeare’s Globe

The Swamp Dwellers review – this rare Wole Soyinka drama is a total revelation

Mark Fisher — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 10:48:09 GMT

Utopia theatre, Sheffield
Mojisola Kareem’s excellent production makes no concessions to this 50-seat space, bringing grand historical scope to a story of Nigeria in transition

Utopia is the smallest of theatres, its 50-seat space made all the more intimate by the raffia ceiling and drape-lined walls. Yet this town-centre unit holds the biggest of characters on its stage, a wooden platform designed by Sarah Lewis-Cole that floats above the ground as if to evade the flood waters of the Niger Delta.

They are big, in part, because of Wole Soyinka, whose 1958 play, unseen in this country for more than 50 years, has an archetypal ferocity. In a single act, he summons elemental forces: the twin brothers who have abandoned the family home for the big city; the blind stranger who arrives unannounced and is slow to declare his intent; the venal holy man, exploiting his status for personal gain.

Duke of York’s theatre to be renamed after Tom Stoppard

Chris Wiegand — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 12:11:39 GMT

New name recognises the playwright’s huge impact on British theatre with producer Sonia Friedman saying he would be ‘tickled pink’

The Duke of York’s theatre in the West End is to become the Tom Stoppard theatre in honour of the playwright who died in November.

The theatre is currently presenting Carrie Cracknell’s revival of Stoppard’s 1993 masterpiece Arcadia and the same play was produced there in 2009. The playwright’s wife, Sabrina Guinness, said: “Tom was in his element whenever he had a play on in the West End, so I am thrilled to bits that this theatre will be named after him. It means that his memory will live on, not just through his plays, but also through this building.”

The Guilty review – Russell Tovey is commanding in cop thriller that fills you with dread

Arifa Akbar — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 12:52:56 GMT

Donmar Warehouse, London
Tovey plays a lone officer in a control room dragged into a mysterious case in this gripping drama directed by Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett

The Donmar has had mixed results adapting leftfield films such as Force Majeure and The Fear of 13. But this production, based on the 2018 Danish movie Den Skyldige (by Gustav Möller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen), is a fantastically theatrical experience, part crime thriller and part ghost story.

At 70 minutes, it is shorter than the film but arguably more devastating, with the kind of razor suspense that fills you with dread and leaves you palpitating. As a critic who takes copious notes, I emerged at the end of the show with a near empty notebook as I was too absorbed to look away.

The best theatre to stream this month: all rise for Rosamund Pike’s Inter Alia

Chris Wiegand — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 04:00:27 GMT

The star delivers a breathtaking performance in Suzie Miller’s play about a judge under pressure, while Paddington gets everyone singing and Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy is back

Rosamund Pike rightly won an Olivier award for her restless turn in Prima Facie playwright Suzie Miller’s blistering legal drama – now a judge in court, now with mates at karaoke, now whipping out the ironing board before a party, now facing a family crisis. It’s a breathtaking performance in both senses and Justin Martin, a master at building tension, directs with customary flair. On NT at Home from 7 July.

RSC casts Sharon D Clarke as black lesbian Othello in reimagining of play

Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:00:29 GMT

Three-time Olivier winner to play general viewed through ‘urgent new lens’ of misogynoir in futuristic production

The Royal Shakespeare Company has cast Sharon D Clarke as a black lesbian Othello in a futuristic reimagining of the play which is being billed as projecting the 400-year-old story through “an urgent new lens”.

Clarke, who is a three-time Olivier winner and has starred in West End and Broadway productions, brought the project to the RSC with the twist that Othello would be depicted as a black lesbian general married to a younger Desdemona.

Trafalgar Entertainment acquires Nicholas Hytner’s Bridge theatre

Chris Wiegand — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:39:42 GMT

London Theatre Company founded in 2017 by Hytner and former National Theatre colleague Nick Starr has been sold to company that owns 20-plus venues in UK and abroad

The Bridge theatre in London, opened in 2017 by the former National Theatre duo Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr, has been acquired by Trafalgar Entertainment in a deal that also includes the Lightroom venue for immersive art shows. Trafalgar Entertainment now owns the duo’s London Theatre Company (LTC).

“After nine years, it feels like the right time to be moving on,” said Hytner, who described establishing the Bridge theatre – which has a flexible 900-seat auditorium – as a “thrilling experience”. Hytner directed several of the Bridge’s hits, including its opening promenade-style production of Julius Caesar and a long-running Guys and Dolls which ended with the audience dancing alongside the actors. Away from the Bridge, Hytner recently directed Giant at the Royal Court – which transferred to the West End and Broadway – and is staging James Graham’s new play, The Standard of Living, in the West End in September.

Ania Magliano: Peach Fuzz review – body and soul comedy from superb SNL UK star

Brian Logan — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 19:00:14 GMT

Soho theatre, London
The co-host of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update delivers an expertly constructed set of jokes about her quest to live a more embodied life

After serving an eye-catching apprenticeship in live comedy, Ania Magliano’s profile has now surged as co-host of SNL UK’s Weekend Update, a spoof news bulletin recalling to viewers of my vintage the work of the great Two Ronnies. Would Messrs Corbett and Barker have capitalised on TV success with a standup show about learning to love their sex organs? They would not – but times have changed. Magliano’s new set about living a more embodied life has all the qualities – great jokes; open and endearing personality; and very expert construction – to woo to her stage work the new fans she’s secured by cracking wise on the small screen.

The issue for the 28-year-old is alienation from her own body and its experiences. In Peach Fuzz, she looks longingly at other cultures, so much more corporeal than our own. But then, living in the UK, are there any bodily sensations worth savouring? There’s one obvious answer – but Magliano is already in therapy for her ambivalence about that, which is suggested here by a marvellously British and uncomprehending routine about an online sex influencer claiming to have experienced 27 consecutive orgasms. A later scene finds Magliano prompted by her counsellor to commune with her own genitals via an artfully held hand-mirror – as I dare say Descartes did when first theorising the mind-body problem all those years ago.

At Soho theatre, London, until 4 July. At Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, 7-22 August and touring until 7 May

A Midsummer Night’s Dream review – regal rockers and a fairy folk band strike up trouble

Arifa Akbar — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:08:17 GMT

Regent’s Park Open Air theatre, London
There’s much to love in Atri Banerjee’s fun staging, in particular Titania’s musical crew and a brilliant Bottom, but some of the wonder is missing

The magic comes in the music in Atri Banerjee’s production of Shakespeare’s comic romance. “Rock’n’roll, you can’t beat it,” says one character, and it feels like gig theatre in some breakout moments when fairies and Athenians grab a handheld mic for a musical number.

The lovely folk-infused melodies that accompany the drama – sometimes halting it altogether – are composed by Maimuna Memon. Titania’s fairy crew are a supercool four-piece group, variously playing electric guitar, violin, keyboard and other instruments. Theseus is a rock star; so is Puck.

Springwood review – timely tale of British monarch’s mission to the US

Mark Lawson — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 12:27:02 GMT

Hampstead theatre, London
Robert Lindsay excels as Franklin D Roosevelt in Richard Nelson’s fascinating retelling of King George VI’s diplomatic visit in 1939

The 2012 film Hyde Park on Hudson – fictionalising a 1939 visit by King George VI and his queen Elizabeth to a summer home of President Franklin D Roosevelt and first lady Eleanor – was a modest success, seen (more happily by Republicans than Democrats) as an oblique take on the Clintons: the president hiding a complex private life while his wife was more intelligent and independent than some folk liked.

The film’s screenwriter Richard Nelson treats the material for the third time (he also did a 2009 BBC radio drama) in this related but rebooted stage play, providing a fascinating example of how context can change content. Inflected by this week’s 250th birthday of American independence, a play in which a monarch comes crown in hand on a Foreign Office mission to secure American support for the impending European war also has resonances of the shakiness of Nato under President Trump whom King Charles recently met on a state visit.

Michelle Wolf: The Best Job in the World review – motherhood, mischief and The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s menopause

Brian Logan — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 11:24:22 GMT

Watford Palace theatre
There’s plenty of devilment as the Pennsylvanian flies the flag for the magnificence of women and riffs on pregnancy

The Best Job in the World, Michelle Wolf’s touring show is called. Whether that refers to motherhood (chief among Wolf’s current occupations) or standup (her profession) is left to us to decide. That parenting might be described in those terms prompts a very sardonic response from the Pennsylvanian, whose ear is keenly attuned to society’s dubious regard for mothering, and breastfeeding, and a host of other things women get up to without much fanfare. Wolf is here to redress that balance, in a show that flies the flag, tongue not always in cheek, for the magnificence of women in a society not built to accommodate them.

Exhibit A, as far as the 41-year-old is concerned, is the menstrual cycle – not just a woman’s period, mind you, but the whole (unheralded, poorly understood) month-long shebang. Exhibit B? Pregnancy, which should be discussed less in terms of “your baby is now the size of a grapefruit” and more: today, you’re manufacturing a spine! There’s plenty more where this came from, as our host unfurls the miracle of breastfeeding and (a mother to toddlers drawing her inspiration from near at hand) proposes The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a menopausal parable.

Touring until 5 December

Arthur review – modern girl’s quest yields a good knight for all ages

Miriam Gillinson — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 19:00:17 GMT

Polka theatre, London
Marietta Kirkbride’s enchanting take on the Arthur myth brings silliness and songs when young Grace travels back in time with Merlin the wizard

Here is a sparkling new take on the King Arthur legend for the ages – and all ages – from Bucket Club theatre company. Our tale begins with young Grace waiting in A&E, Lego stuck up her nose and her brother hurt following a squabble. When Merlin appears in hospital, weaving a tale of mysterious adventure, Grace is pulled into an epic quest packed with enchanted forests and sparkling underwater realms. In the closing scenes, when Arthur finally pulls that famous sword from the stone, loud gasps ripple through an enchanted young audience. Magic.

Writer Marietta Kirkbride’s contemporary take has lots of smart jokes for the parents to enjoy and a helping of Gawain the Green Knight thrown in for good measure. There are witty nods to today’s political climate, with a sixth-century England languishing without a king and struggling to find a leader with any sort of vision. But the children always come first and the storytelling is consistently brisk, bold and full of heart.

Archduke review – twisted history goes to war for a sandwich

Mark Lawson — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 12:13:12 GMT

Royal Court, London
Hunger and TB, as much as imperialism, are triggers for the assassination that precipitated the first world war in Rajiv Joseph’s tragicomic reimagining of the plotters’ progress

Most of us have written an essay on the origins of the first world war, exam-cramming the names of Bosnian Serb teenager Gavrilo Princip and his victims – Austrian-Hungarian heir Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie – in Sarajevo almost exactly 112 years ago. A textbook answer is that their assassinations militarised Europe.

However, a student who answered a question on the origins of the 1914-18 conflict with the farcical speculation in Rajiv Joseph’s 2025 play Archduke might face a retake. Unemployed and diagnosed as a “lunger” (consumptive), Princip (Stanley Morgan) receives a “job” offer from Apis (Marc Wootton), a Slav nationalist who recruits Gavrilo and two other starving sick youths, Trifco (Abraham Popoola) and Nedeljko (Chris Walley), by filling their minds with a rant on historical wrongs and their bellies with the menus of his devout housekeeper, Sladjana (Janice Connolly). The lungers’ hunger is a major motivation, a recurring metaphor involving fancy sandwiches.

Brassed Off review – stirring tale of coal and cornets moves Yorkshire audience to tears

Nick Ahad — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 07:00:33 GMT

Leeds Playhouse
In a cavernous venue seemingly designed for a colliery-based story, Amy Leach directs Paul Allen’s adaptation of the 1996 film

It’s odd that this most Yorkshire of stories has never been staged at Leeds Playhouse. That’s remedied with grit and humanity by director Amy Leach and her strikingly relevant production of the Paul Allen play based on Mark Herman’s 1996 film.

The Playhouse’s Quarry theatre is an enormous, awkward space that demands epic storytelling. With a name that suggests it has been dug from the earth, it’s easy to see why Leach thought the colliery story was perfect for this stage.

At Leeds Playhouse until 11 July

Colossus review – masses of dancers, masses of fun in a show that goes whoosh!

Lyndsey Winship — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:57:42 GMT

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Full of surprises, Stephanie Lake’s 2018 piece is a feat of logistics as 60 performers display split-second timing

Mass movement can have a walloping impact. Whether in military parades or Olympic opening ceremonies, Busby Berkeley routines or the corps de ballet, a vast number of bodies chiming together in precise formation equals automatic wow factor.

Australian choreographer Stephanie Lake knows it, and her piece Colossus, which was originally made in 2018, has been performed all over the world. Clips from it went viral online. Now it has a UK premiere with a cast of 60 students from the London Contemporary Dance School – enough of them to fill the stage of the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

At Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, until 27 June

Beyond human: Montpellier Danse festival delivers one feat after another

Sanjoy Roy — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 11:40:21 GMT

This year’s celebration of contemporary dance in the French city is bold, baffling and breathtaking, with some high-voltage performers

Launched in 1981, the pioneering Montpellier Danse festival changed the face of contemporary dance, in France and beyond. In 2024, its own face changed when long-term figurehead Jean-Paul Montanari was succeeded by a four-person directorship of Hofesh Shechter, Jann Gallois, Dominique Hervieu and Pierre Martinez – though the programme currently continues its ethos of spreading dance across the city, and mixing the recherché with the popular.

Gallois’ Imminentes aims squarely at a general audience: an hour-long dynamo for six women that is never abstruse and always striking – if not always subtle. Its signature device, the long build-up, comes in from the start: the women lean in to each other in tender pairs, then gradually meld together into a dynamic and increasingly mobile group, bonded by linked arms and synced energies. Backing them is a crescendo of sound, and a bank of lights that ends up glowing as if powered by the sheer voltage that the dancers generate.

Land of the free movers: how jookin street dancer Lil Buck’s 1776 reframes independence

Lyndsey Winship — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 17:33:46 GMT

In a collaboration with young British dancers, supported by Oxford’s new Schwarzman Centre, the Memphis dancer tackles US history’s ‘broken promise’ of equality in a performance filled with spark

Way back in 2011 – that’s ancient in internet terms – Memphis street dancer Charles Riley, aka Lil Buck, went viral in an unlikely partnership with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, dancing to Saint-Saëns’ The Swan. Buck’s dance, a style of footwork called jookin, sees him glide across the floor with boneless grace, walking on air. Unlike a lot of hip-hop and street dance (and contemporary dance too), which is heavily rooted to the earth, jookin goes the way of ballet, sidelining gravity.

Buck’s career since has seen him dancing with Madonna, Alicia Keys and Mikhail Baryshnikov; he’s worked with Versace, Spike Lee and Cirque du Soleil. Now his latest collab is with Oxford University, where he was invited to be a visiting fellow at the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, built with a £185m donation from US private equity billionaire and Trump donor Stephen Schwarzman, whose portrait hangs at the entrance of what’s an impressively vast and light space with a concert hall, two theatres, gallery and cinema. It also houses a range of the university’s humanities faculties and the new Institute for Ethics in AI, the idea being that these disciplines might work together and close gaps between academics and artistic practitioners.

‘Like swimming through the air’: my thrilling role in Giselle with the Royal Ballet School’s wheelchair dancers

Niamh Ní Hoireabhaird — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:02:32 GMT

I use a wheelchair and yearn to dance like I did when I was a kid. Could I possibly hold my own in a class led by inspirational disabled dance star Kate Stanforth?

From ballroom to hip-hop, I tried many different dance classes growing up, but nothing ever stuck for too long. My body never found its rhythm to any music, I quickly became exhausted from any physical exertion, and I concluded I must just not have been made for exercise.

My theory was confirmed when I was 13 – and I was diagnosed with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), which is a rare, progressive neuromuscular disease that causes nerve damage, muscle weakness and mobility loss. Now, aged 29, I use a wheelchair and a lot of my coordination has been eroded. I still love to dance but it’s increasingly rare I get the chance.

Toe-to-toe boxers, a moving maze and comedy flamenco: Edinburgh festival 2026’s hottest dance and circus

Lyndsey Winship — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:00:23 GMT

This year brings world-renowned choreographers, ballet cabaret and fluffy clowns for toddlers

This was San Francisco Ballet’s big new commission in 2024, now getting its European premiere at Edinburgh international festival. An ambitious production with some impressive visuals, it’s a show for our times: an AI-themed retelling of the Pandora’s box myth by choreographer Aszure Barton. Music is by British producer Floating Points, who performs live, with an orchestra.
Edinburgh Playhouse, 28-30 August

Midsummer morris dancers and their mysterious goat Caprihorn: Hollie Fernando’s best portrait

Interview by Chris Broughton — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 13:05:26 GMT

‘I wanted to celebrate the women who are reinventing morris dancing. They took me to a pub and gave me a pickled egg mashed up in a packet of crisps. I felt like I’d entered a magical world’

Morris used to be a very male-dominated sport, but in 1975 the Morris Federation was created specifically to allow women to join sides. An older organisation, the Morris Ring, didn’t allow teams with women to be members until 2018, yet today women account for more than half of Britain’s Morris dancers. As soon as I heard about Boss Morris, the all-female side in this picture, I wanted to shoot a portrait of them. I was keen to celebrate the evolution of this traditional form of dance by focusing on young women who are both honouring and reinventing it.

When they appeared on stage at the Brits with the band Wet Leg, who I was working with at the time, I thought, “It’s meant to be! If I don’t do it now, someone else will.” It was really hard to pin the group down, as there are so many of them, but as we discussed ideas they all got excited by the idea of doing a summer solstice shoot on Rodborough Common during one of their practice evenings. It’s a great location – an amazing hilly green space right on their doorstep in Stroud.

Show me the funny: essential comedy at Edinburgh fringe 2026

Brian Logan — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:37 GMT

Elf Lyons mixes humour and heartbreak, Frank Skinner works the crowd, Kristen Schaal returns with a secret – and one man sings the same song over and over again

No fringe festival has been complete in recent years without some oddball clown confection – usually animal-based – from the idiosyncratic Lyons. But this year’s offering promises something unusually personal, a reflection on a breakup she experienced while touring her last show.
Pleasance Courtyard, 5-31 August

Louis CK: Ridiculous review – the troubled comedian returns … with a whimper

Jesse Hassenger — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:01:41 GMT

The fallen star, who was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, is back in a Netflix special which has its moments but not enough of them

Louis CK is back, again. It’s been nearly a decade since the comedian, actor and writer-director admitted his guilt in a series of sexual misconduct allegations, resulting in a number of organizations severing ties and sending him into relative exile – for a few months, anyway. Since then, he’s toured extensively (often to a crowd reception implying he was the one wronged) and self-released four comedy specials, among other endeavors, so it’s not as if the existence of a new one is especially surprising. But it is notable that Ridiculous is backed by Netflix – a full-circle moment for a comic whose last pre-scandal hour titled 2017 was a Netflix release as well.

It’s less a triumphant return than a gradual slinking back, an unspoken assumption that no one really cares that much about his behavior; no particular defense or apology, just a shruggy emoticon. When describing a tour of his elderly father’s prospective nursing home in the special, Louis CK says: “The theme of the tour is: ‘This Is What This Is’,” implying a sense of grim acceptance. It feels a bit like that’s the theme of the Ridiculous tour, too – whether we want it to be or not.

Hannah Byczkowski: ‘The Traitors helped me become a better comedian’

Interview by Liam Pape — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 04:00:31 GMT

The Traitors-winning standup talks about quitting palliative care work for the stage and the dangers of mistaking a cockatoo for a cocktail

How did you go from a career in palliative care to standup comedy?
I had a bit of a midlife crisis. I was being with people while they were dying, and I kind of lost all sensitivity for it. That’s when I realised that I’d come to the end of that career. I always wanted to do something creative, but wasn’t really sure how. I tried writing a book, then standup – and realised that’s what I wanted to do.

The show discusses craft projects with loved ones’ ashes …
People are doing some really weird stuff with them. People are getting ashes tattooed into them and people eat them, put them in a chilli.

Hannah Byczkowski: Killer is at Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh, 5-30 August

‘Audiences no longer laugh if you call their town crap’: can Phil Wang heal divided Britain?

Ryan Gilbey — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 04:00:06 GMT

He’s the perfect comedian to cool down these incendiary times. As Philly Philly takes his Uh Oh standup show on tour, he talks about woke traps, lefty blindspots – and gen Z’s lurch to the right

Born in Stoke-on-Trent to a British mother and Chinese-Malaysian father then raised in Borneo and educated in Brunei, Bath and Cambridge, Phil Wang – or “Old Wang”, as he refers to himself mock-imperiously on stage – has certainly been around. Today, the 36-year-old standup with the pleasantly befuddled air is in a cafe near his home in London, wearing high-waisted baggy black trousers, a blue shirt, salmon-coloured New Balances and a baseball cap bearing the word “Chump”. Most significantly, he is sporting a moustache.

Wang went public with his face furniture two years ago but the upcoming tour of his new show, Uh Oh, will mark the first time he has taken it out on the road. Is the tache here for good? “Well, I’ve got five minutes of standup on it now,” he says over coffee. “Until I come up with a better five minutes, it’s staying.”

‘A privilege – and pretty terrifying’: James Norton to play Hamlet in the West End

Chris Wiegand — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 23:01:22 GMT

The Happy Valley actor is lined up as the lead in German director Thomas Ostermeier’s first Shakespearean play in English

James Norton is to take on his first major Shakespearean stage role and play Hamlet in the West End next year.

The King & Conqueror star said it was a “privilege” and “pretty terrifying” to be cast as the tragic prince in the acclaimed German director Thomas Ostermeier’s production next autumn. Norton was last on stage in 2023 in the harrowing A Little Life, based on Hanya Yanagihara’s novel, which the actor described as the hardest thing he has ever done.

I’ve seen Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard 20 times – and it blossoms when tended by the British | Michael Billington

Michael Billington — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 07:17:35 GMT

Helen Hunt and Kristin Scott Thomas are leading revivals of the Russian classic whose blend of comedy and tragedy is baked into our own dramatic heritage

What kind of play is The Cherry Orchard? As a new production starring Helen Hunt and Kenneth Branagh beckons in Stratford, I am reminded that it is a question people have been asking since the play’s inception. Chekhov himself wrote that what had emerged in his play was “not a drama but a comedy, in places almost a farce”. Stanislavski, who directed the Moscow premiere in 1904, violently disagreed. “It is a tragedy,” he told Chekhov, “whatever prospect of a better life you hold out in the last act.”

While the debate continues, I hope we shall not be told by anyone involved in the new RSC production that they are at long last restoring the play’s comedy. It is a critical cliche that the British sentimentalise the play and treat it as a lament for the decline and fall of a pseudo-Edwardian aristocracy. In my experience of the play – and I have seen about 20 productions – this is simply untrue. We generally do The Cherry Orchard very well because its blend of styles and moods is something baked into our own dramatic heritage. Eschewing the academic formality of the French, for whom tragedy and comedy are rigidly defined genres, we are used to a glorious impurity in drama: a culture that can produce Twelfth Night should have no problem in comprehending The Cherry Orchard.

‘I’d pause then carry on’: Peter Marinker, star of Krapp’s Last Tape, on performing with Alzheimer’s

Chris Wiegand — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 13:53:41 GMT

The 84-year-old actor has spent decades bringing Samuel Beckett’s plays to life. Does his recent diagnosis give him new insights into playing ‘sad clown’ Krapp in a drama about age and the battlefield of memory?

What a lot of Krapp. Pardon my French but Samuel Beckett’s haunting 1958 masterpiece about regret and isolation is having a moment. Stephen Rea recently took Krapp’s Last Tape on an international tour, Gary Oldman returned to the stage after decades away to deliver the tragicomic one-man show and this summer Stockard Channing will direct it at the Edinburgh fringe, with David Westhead as Krapp. Beckett’s eponymous loner, who sits in his dark den and ritually listens to tapes he made as a younger man, is riding a new wave of popularity.

Peter Marinker first played Krapp half a lifetime ago and is preparing to star in a new production, reusing the tapes he recorded in 1983. How does he feel listening back now? “I thought of redoing them – it could have been better,” he says when we meet at the tiny Cockpit theatre in London. That assessment matches the spirit of the self-lacerating Krapp who looks back not just in anger but anguish. Marinker quotes Dennis Potter, who said we should consider our past with “tender contempt��. He adds wryly: “That rang a bell.”

Warriors come out to Broadway with Lin-Manuel Miranda musical

Chris Wiegand — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:01:43 GMT

Miranda and Eisa Davis’s concept album based on the 1979 film is to be realised for the stage, co-directed by Jenny Koons and Hamilton’s Andy Blankenbuehler

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis’s concept album based on The Warriors, the cult novel and film about warring New York gangs, is to become a Broadway musical next year.

The album, Warriors, was released to critical acclaim in 2024 and followed the eponymous Coney Island clan’s odyssey back to the Bronx after being falsely accused of killing the leader of the city’s biggest gang. The original story was written by Sol Yurick, whose 1965 book was inspired by Xenophon’s ancient epic Anabasis, and it became a Walter Hill action film in 1979.

O Romeow … cat steals the show during final scene at Romeo and Juliet ballet - video

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:00:51 GMT

A cat decided it was the main character during the final scene of a Romeo and Juliet performance by the Imperial Russian Ballet Company in Izmir, Turkey. The cat had a lie down, licked itself and played with Romeo's hair as the performers kept going with their performance undeterred while onlookers chuckled in the background.

That’s life! Musical about Frank Sinatra’s explosive rise opens in London – in pictures

Guardian Staff — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:00:33 GMT

A new West End blockbuster puts Ol’ Blue Eyes in the spotlight and features the superstar’s hits including One for My Baby and Come Fly With Me. Take a first look

Photographs by Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Dynamic duo: dance legends León and Lightfoot at the Royal Ballet – in pictures

Guardian Staff — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:21:24 GMT

The programme So Are We marks the first time a British company has performed the work of choreographers Sol León and Paul Lightfoot. Tristram Kenton took a first look at Covent Garden

So Are We: León and Lightfoot review – mesmerising moments

‘It’s showtime!’ Beetlejuice musical is a rave from the grave – in pictures

Guardian Staff — Mon, 25 May 2026 10:00:22 GMT

Tim Burton’s hit 1988 comedy horror is enjoying an all-singing, all-dancing afterlife on stage. After recent productions in the US and Australia, the musical opens in London this month. We braved rehearsals for a first look.

All photographs by Tristram Kenton

Tony awards 2026: red carpet looks and the best of the show – in pictures

Guardian Staff — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:38:31 GMT

Rose Byrne, Sarah Paulson, Daniel Radcliffe, Adrien Brody and others gather to celebrate Broadway’s biggest awards night. The 79th annual Tony awards are hosted by Pink at Radio City Music Hall in New York