Nora: A Doll's House, Young Vic review - Ibsen diced, sliced and reinvented with poetic precision

★★★★ NORA: A DOLL'S HOUSE, YOUNG VIC Ibsen diced, sliced and reinvented

Stef Smith brings exhilarating spirit to a familiar classic

Ibsen's Nora slammed the door on her infantilising marriage in 1879 but the sound of it has continued to reverberate down the years.

Fairview, Young Vic review - questioning the assumptions of race

New American drama directs a rapier wit at black stereotypes

Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview comes to the Young Vic with the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama under its belt, and a reputation for putting audiences on their mettle through a build-up of theatrical surprises that culminate in a denouement about which the playwright has urged all who have seen the pla

Death of a Salesman, Piccadilly Theatre review - galvanising reinvention of Arthur Miller's classic

★★★★★ DEATH OF A SALESMAN, PICCADILLY THEATRE Galvanising reinvention of Arthur Miller's classic

Wendell Pierce confirms a performance as exciting as any this theatrical year

It is 70 years since Willy Loman first paced a Broadway stage; 70 years since audiences were sucked into the vortex of a man trying to live America’s capitalist dream only to see his life crash and burn around him.

Blood Wedding, Young Vic review - inventive, poetic if over-stretched revival of Lorca's rural tragedy

★★★★ BLOOD WEDDING, YOUNG VIC Inventive, poetic revival of Lorca's rural tragedy

The Spanish classic with an Irish accent

Earthiness, lyricism, fatalism, the undeniable force of passion, of ecstatic attraction, known as "duende": these are the familiar ingredients of Lorca's plays set in rural Spain. Blood Wedding, written in 1932, was the first, followed by Yerma two years later and The House of Bernarda Alba in 1936, the year of Lorca's murder by Nationalists. As a gay, left-wing artist - he was a poet and musician as well as a playwright - he was an obvious target.

Bronx Gothic, Young Vic review - fervid intensity

★★★★ BRONX GOTHIC, YOUNG VIC Okwui Okpokwasili’s solo is an astounding piece of theatre

Okwui Okpokwasili’s solo performance piece is an astounding piece of theatre

It’s hard, and finally fruitless to attempt to describe Okwui Okpokwasili’s Bronx Gothic in conventional terms of genre: combining elements of dance and theatre, this visceral solo performance transcends both.

Death of a Salesman, Young Vic review - new-minted revival of a masterpiece

★★★★ DEATH OF A SALESMAN, YOUNG VIC New-minted revival of a masterpiece

Arthur Miller's tragedy from an African-American viewpoint

The Young Vic, a welcoming theatre with a culturally diverse audience, has been home to memorable Miller revivals before, notably Ivo van Hove's emotionally shattering, stripped-back A View From the Bridge in 2014. But before that, in the 1980s and Nineties, the then artistic director David Thacker was an important champion of Miller's work at a time when he was less well regarded at home.

Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, Young Vic review - shards of power amidst much that is overwrought

★★★ JESUS HOPPED THE 'A' TRAIN, YOUNG VIC Shards of power amidst much that is overwrought

Stephen Adly Guirgis play is best when most reflective

An entirely electric leading performance from the fast-rising Ukweli Roach is the reason for being for revisiting Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, back in London for the first major production since the late Philip Seymour Hoffman brought his acclaimed Off Broadway premiere of it to the Donmar in 2002. Since then, author Stephen Adly Guirgis has to be honest written better plays, not least the thrilling The Motherf**er with the Hat which doesn't try so hard to flag its bravura at every turn.

The Convert, Young Vic review - Africa's electric cry for justice

★★★★ THE CONVERT, YOUNG VIC Africa's electric cry for justice

Thrilling revival of Danai Gurira's 2012 play about Christianity and imperialism

Wow! First, the Black Panther team took cinema by storm; now, they have conquered theatre as well. Or, at least, two of them have. The Convert has been written by actor and playwright Danai Gurira (Okoye), and stars Letitia Wright (Shuri).

Twelfth Night, Young Vic review - Kwame Kwei-Armah makes a big-hearted return home

★★★ TWELFTH NIGHT, YOUNG VIC Kwame Kwei-Armah makes a big-hearted return home

Shakespeare sings in buoyant if sometimes strenuous UK premiere

What better way to celebrate a homecoming than with a party? That is the capacious-hearted thinking behind this new musical version of Twelfth Night, which additionally marks Kwame Kwei-Armah's debut production at the helm of that undeniable dynamo otherwise known as the Young Vic.