The Play Review

Jodi and I review The Hills of California by Jez Butterworth, currently playing at the Harold Pinter theatre in London’s West End, directed by Sam Mendes. Do not be misled by the title; we are not in sunny California, but in the back streets of Blackpool, where four daughters come together to say goodbye to their dying mother. The play is a portrait of lost dreams, of deeply ingr

Jodi and I review An Enemy of the People, which is currently playing at the Duke of York’s theatre in London's West End. Matt Smith, who of course many will know from Dr Who, stars in Ibsen's fable of truth and lies, political compromise and the environmental costs of capitalism. This production is very much a contemporary adaptation of Ibsen's original play. It was conceived by

Jodi and I review Lynn Nottage’s play Clyde’s which is currently on stage at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London. The show is directed by Lynette Linton, who directed Nottage’s last play at the Donmar, Sweat back in 2018, which I thought was a fabulous show. Clyde’s premiered on Broadway in November 2021, and was nominated for four Tony awards in 2022. According to Ameri

Jodi and I were lucky enough to be invited to see Elephant at the Bush Theatre last week. Elephant is a one-woman show, written and performed by Anoushka Lucas. Anoushka is a very talented singer, songwriter, actor and writer. As an actor she has appeared in Oklahoma! at the Young Vic, Henry V at the Donmar, After Life at the National, and Jesus Christ Superstar at the Open Air th

Jodi and I review the new production of Pygmalion at the Old Vic in London. Pygmalion is arguably George Bernard Shaw’s most famous play, partly of course because it spawned the even-more famous musical and film My Fair Lady. The play offers two iconic parts in Eliza and Higgins, played famously in the film by Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. The Old Vic production boasts two of

The show that we are reviewing today is God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, which is currently playing at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith in West London. The play, written in French and translated by Christopher Hampton, had its English language debut in the West End back in 2008. The play followed Reza’s earlier play Art, which was a worldwide hit in the 1990s, being translated int

Lucy Prebble's 2012 play The Effect is revived in an updated version at the National Theatre, directed by Jamie Lloyd, and starring Paapa Essiedu and Taylor Russell. The play charts the effects on two young people who participate in a residential drug trial, during the course of which they fall in love; but can they trust that their feelings are real? Jamie Lloyd’s work as a dire

Jodi and I review two shows in this episode. First up is Dario Fo's classic farce Accidental Death of an Anarchist which has been updated to modern-day Britain by Tom Basden. This hilarious new adaptation is directed by Dan Raggett, and is running at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until 9th September. Our second review is of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman at the Duke of York's Theatr

Jodi and I review James Graham's latest play Dear England, which is running on the Olivier stage at the National Theatre in London until 11th August 2023, but you will have another chance to cheer when it transfers to the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End from the 9th of October. Graham has earned acclaim for masterfully turning contemporary British history into accessible and

Jodi Rilot joins me for the first time to review two shows: The Circle by Somerset Maugham at the Orange Tree theatre in Richmond-upon-Thames, and Private Lives by Noël Coward at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Tom Littler. who directed The Circle, draws a line connecting Somerset Maugham to Noël Coward in the history of English drama, so it is appropriate that we cover these two