Midnight Movie, Royal Court review - sleepless and digital

★★★ MIDNIGHT MOVIE, ROYAL COURT Sleepless and digital

New autobiographical play about night thoughts on bodies real and digital

Eve Leigh is an experimental playwright who has tackled difficult issues for more than a decade. Yet most members of the public will know her, and her actor husband Tom Penn, as the neighbours who recorded an altercation between Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds in June this year. At least, that's what it says on the internet. But don't let this distract you.

Edinburgh International Festival 2019 review: Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation

★★★★ EDINBURGH FESTIVAL: TOTAL IMMEDIATE COLLECTIVE IMMINENT TERRESTRIAL SALVATION Messianic devotion and audience complicity in a slippery new work from Tim Crouch

Messianic devotion and audience complicity in a slippery new work from Tim Crouch

It’s the end of the world as we know it. At least according to Miles, scientist turned messiah, who lost his son in an accident at a frozen lake, and who experienced visions of an impending apocalypse in his subsequent coma.

He’s established a colony of believers (let’s not call it a cult) in South America, and we’re here to bear witness to the arrival of his estranged wife, intent on reclaiming their daughter back to civilisation.

First Person: Damian Cruden on reinvigorating the Bard away from London with Shakespeare's Rose

The onetime director of 'The Railway Children' sets out his vision for bringing Shakespeare afresh to the country's 'cultural pageant'

How we deliver culture in the modern day is complex. There are many misconceptions about where and who is capable of leading the nation’s cultural charge. The accepted conceit is that if culture doesn’t emanate from certain places, like London or Stratford, then it couldn’t possibly be of value. By way of response, Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre brings affordable, high-quality culture to audiences outside the M25. It promises an immersive experience, accessible to all and undeniably great fun.

Franco Zeffirelli: 'I had this feeling that I was special'

FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI 1923-2019 Recalling a two-day audience at the home of the great maestro

Recalling a two-day audience at the home of the great maestro, who has died aged 96

"I am amazed to be still alive. Two hours of medieval torment.” Franco Zeffirelli - who has died at the age of 96 - had spent the day having a lumbar injection to treat a sciatic nerve. You could hear the bafflement in his heavily accented English.

The Lehman Trilogy, Piccadilly Theatre review - stunning chronicle of determination and dollars

★★★★★ THE LEHMAN TRILOGY, PICCADILLY THEATRE Stunning chronicle of determination & dollars

A simultaneously sweeping and intimately human production

Mammon and Yahweh are the presiding deities over an epic enterprise that tells the story not just of three brothers who founded a bank but of modern America. Virgil asked his Muse to sing of ‘arms and the man’, yet here the theme becomes that of ‘markets and the man’: a tale of daring, determination and dollars that chronicles capitalist endeavour from the cottonfields of Alabama to the crash of 2008.

Fiddler on the Roof, Playhouse Theatre, review – energetic production whips up an emotional storm

★★★★★ FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, PLAYHOUSE Energetic production whips up emotional storm

A spikily poignant reminder of humanity in politically dark times

In an age where political, social, and gender norms seem to be in perpetual meltdown, it should be pretty much impossible for a musical that begins with a song celebrating ‘Tradition’ to strike a chord. Yet from the moment that the cast of Trevor Nunn’s foot-stompingly fist-wavingly triumphant Fiddler on the Roof launches into the opening number, it’s clear that they have the energy and chutzpah to whip up an emotional storm.

Fiddler on the Roof, Menier Chocolate Factory review - family matters in this sensitive musical revival

★★★★ FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, MENIER CHOCOLATE FACTORY A soulful seasonal outing

Trevor Nunn's intimate staging provides a soulful seasonal outing

There’s a welcome alternative to panto hijinks in this gem of a Trevor Nunn musical revival – more attuned to the biting hardships of winter, and to the elegiac aspect of change, than to festive jollies. Which is not to say that there isn’t rousing fun to be had in many a slick set-piece, but this intimate, sensitive staging brings out the work’s soul, particularly its timeless call for empathy and compassion.

Kidding, Sky Atlantic review - tears of a clown

★★★★ KIDDING, SKY ATLANTIC A surprisingly deep lesson in loss

Jim Carrey-led series provides a surprisingly deep lesson in loss

There’s no one right way to grieve. It cuts through everyone differently, whether reverting to childhood traits or out-of-character impulses. The person you lose might mean one thing to you, and something completely different to someone else; it can hit you both differently, and equally hard.

Macbeth, Shakespeare's Globe review - sexually-charged production draws power from the shadows

★★★★ MACBETH, SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE Daring counterintuitive reading is richly rewarding

A daring counterintuitive reading proves richly rewarding

Macbeth has rarely seemed quite as metrosexual as in this gorgeous shadow-painted production that marks Globe artistic director Michelle Terry’s first production in the Sam Wanamaker theatre.