A Streetcar Named Desire, National Theatre at Home review - world on fire

★★★★★ A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, NT AT HOME World on fire

NT Live recording of this classic Young Vic production is genuinely unmissable

The National Theatre’s triumphant march through its archive of NT Live recordings continues this week with a glorious blaze of a show. Starring Gillian Anderson, Ben Foster and Vanessa Kirby, this 2014 revival of Tennessee Williams’s 1947 modern classic A Streetcar Named Desire was a Young Vic production, and its film version is presented by National Theatre at Home.

Theatre Lockdown Special 6: A prolific playwright, a timeless play, and speeches galore

THEATRE LOCKDOWN SPECIAL 6 A prolific playwright, a timeless play, and speeches galore

A popular American star vehicle and 'Alice in Wonderland' minute-by-minute figure among the cultural bounty during the week ahead

Can we really be entering a third month in lockdown? Indeed we can, and culture, thank heavens, shows no signs whatsoever of leaving us in the lurch. This week's lineup of highlights offers a typically electic bunch, ranging from two sizable American talents streaming a two-hander for one night only to the arrival online of the latest work from an octogenarian playwriting treasure, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, who ought to be more celebrated of late than he is.

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).