The Son, Kiln Theatre review - darkly tragic

★★★★ THE SON, KILN THEATRE  Powerfully melodramatic

The final part of Florian Zeller's domestic trilogy is powerfully melodramatic

Well, you have to give it to French playwright Florian Zeller — he's certainly cracked the problem of coming up with a name for each of his plays. Basically, choose a common noun and put the definite article in front of it. His latest, The Son, is the last in a trilogy which includes The Father and The Mother.

Eden, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs review - thoughtful commentary on people and principles

★★★★ EDEN, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE Thoughtful commentary on people and principles

Hannah Patterson's new play is based on a true story, but stands firmly on its own two feet

"It's gonna be the best golf course in the world," a man in an Aertex shirt and a bright red baseball cap is assuring us. "The best. I guarantee it." You can tell he's the kind of person who thinks talking quickly and loudly is the same thing as being right.

Equus, Theatre Royal Stratford East review - thrilling physicality

★★★★ EQUUS, THEATRE ROYAL STRATFORD EAST Thrilling physicality

Brilliant revival of the 1970s classic about pagan worship and repressed sexuality

There is no doubt that Peter Shaffer's Equus is a modern classic. But does that justify reviving this 1973 hit play in our current social circumstances? And what can it say to us today? The good news is that up-and-coming director Ned Bennett is at the helm of this version, and that he brings not only his individual vision to the piece, but also plenty of guts and balls and feeling: this is much more than a simple retread of John Dexter's legendary original, with its platform-hooved man-horses and starry casts here and in New York (Alec McCowen, Anthony Hopkins and Tom Hulce).

Keith? A Comedy, Arcola Theatre review - Molière mined for Brexit-era laughs

Canny update of a 17th-century classic locates real laughs in today's censorious landscape

Breathe in the love and breathe out the bullshit. After the Arcola Theatre's founder and artistic director Mehmet Ergen read Keith? A Comedy, a wild spin on the quasi-ubiquitous (these days, anyway) Tartuffe by the critic and writer Patrick Marmion, the theatre moved to cast and stage the play in a matter of weeks.

Blue, Chapter Arts Centre review - heartbreak in the family home

★★★★ BLUE, CHAPTER ARTS CENTRE Heartbreak in the family home

Farce and tragedy are evenly balanced in new play from Wales

What's worse than grieving? That all-consuming loss. For those that have experienced it, nothing really comes close. It starts to bug Thomas (Jordan Bernarde, main picture second right) during his visit to the Williams household. Recently bereaved himself, he senses the fragility in the air but no-one seems to give a straight answer. Everyone would rather focus on him, talking at speed but never really engaging beyond the surface.

Pinter Seven, Harold Pinter Theatre review - elaborations of anxiety

The season's closing pairing presents Danny Dyer and a radio revelation

It was back to the very beginning for this final instalment of “Pinter at the Pinter”, with its pairing of A Slight Ache and The Dumb Waiter. Both were written at the end of the 1950s, which explained a certain rock’n’roll vibe in the auditorium, but brought home how much Pinter’s work stretches beyond period, resounding with new intonations to match new times.

Superhoe, Royal Court review - smart, sassy, and full of feeling

Bright new monologue about coming of age in the Instagram era really rocks

Titles matter: they send out messages. So, in the current #MeToo climate, isn't it a bit provocative that there's a rash of plays with titles which might be seen to offend: The Hoes, Superhoe and, coming soon, Inside Bitch? Not to mention the suggestive Hole. All strong titles, tough and spiky. But maybe not offensive at all. These plays are, after all, all written by women, and nowadays it's not what you say, but who says it that really matters.

Cost of Living, Hampstead Theatre review - tough but tender

★★★ COST OF LIVING, HAMPSTEAD Adrian Lester compels in new American drama

Adrian Lester compels in new American drama about care and connection

The Off Broadway production of Cost of Living two years ago brought Martyna Majok the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the height of acclaim of which most new writers – Majok, with four plays behind her, has yet to turn 35 – can only dream.

When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other, Dorfman Theatre review - Cate Blanchett's underwhelming debut at the National

★★ WHEN WE HAVE SUFFICIENTLY TORTURED EACH OTHER, NATIONAL THEATRE Cate Blanchett's underwhelming South Bank debut

Martin Crimp's latest about a sex game is all talk and no action

When it was announced that Cate Blanchett was making her National Theatre debut with Martin's Crimp's new play, When We have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other, its website exploded with people wishing to buy tickets. To those many thousands disappointed, I say: “Well done, you!”