Three Sisters, Almeida Theatre review - middle of the road with flashes of magic

★★★ THREE SISTERS, ALMEIDA THEATRE Middle of the road with flashes of magic

Chekhov classic from the team behind the West End hit Summer and Smoke

About a year ago, director Rebecca Frecknall electrified this venue with an award-winning revival of Tennessee Williams's Summer and Smoke, rescuing the play from obscurity and showcasing the star qualities of actor Patsy Ferran.

A German Life, Bridge Theatre review - Maggie Smith triumphs again

★★★★★ A GERMAN LIFE, BRIDGE THEATRE Maggie Smith in the theatre event of the year

This memoir of a Berlin secretary in the Nazi era is the theatre event of the year

Maggie Smith is not only a national treasure, but every casting director's go-to old bat. Now 84 years young, she is our favourite grande dame, or fantasy grandma.

Pet Sematary review - spine-jolting shocks, but a disappointing ending

★★★ PET SEMATARY Spine-jolting shocks, but a disappointing ending

Stephen King adaptation leaves you pondering what might have been

The wilds of Maine have been favourite country for novelist Stephen King, and they form the setting for this new version of his 1983 supernatural thriller (previously filmed in 1989). Dr Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) moves his wife and two kids from big-city Boston and his stressful job as an ER medic to a rambling house in Ludlow, looking for more family time and a better quality of life. Dream on, doc.

Out of Blue review - noir and cosmology collide

Carol Morley adapts Martin Amis' detective novel into a moody, overblown enigma

At the start of Carol Morley’s noir mystery Out of Blue, detective Mike Hoolihan, bleary-eyed and slow, is carrying some burdensome weight. “This burger from last night is not sitting right,” comes the weary female investigator’s first line.

Dumbo review - does Tim Burton’s new adaption take flight?

★★★ DUMBO Does Tim Burton’s new adaption take flight?

There’s a great deal to love, but it's over-packed with unnecessary try-hard plot details

At its heart, Disney’s fourth-feature, Dumbo, was about the love between mother and child, and defying expectations. The 1941 animation was based on Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl’s short story and told the tale of a baby circus elephant with oversized ears and big blue eyes, who is given the cruel nickname of ‘Dumbo’, until those that tormented him realise his ears are magical and enable him to fly.

The Twilight Zone, Ambassadors Theatre review – retro wit for our new space age

★★★★ THE TWILIGHT ZONE, AMBASSADORS THEATRE Retro wit for our new space age

Anne Washburn's play for the Almeida achieves lift-off in the West End

As China and the US arm-wrestle for world domination in everything from trade to military power, we find ourselves in the throes of a space race again. After China became the first nation to land on the dark side of the moon this January, it seems particularly apt to revisit The Twilight Zone in all its retro glory to examine what aliens can – among other things – reveal to us about our humanity.

Alys, Always, Bridge Theatre review - mildly perverse but rather dispiriting

Adaptation of Harriet Lane's psychological and satirical bestseller never quite takes off

Okay, so this is the play that will be remembered for the character names that have unusual spellings. As in Alys not Alice, Kyte not Kite, etc. Anyway, Lucinda Coxon's adaptation of journalist Harriet Lane's 2012 bestseller for the Bridge Theatre starts off with Frances (Downton Abbey's Joanne Froggatt) coming across a fatal car crash in which Alys, a woman she doesn't know, is killed.

Old Boys review - short but not especially sweet

Cyrano de Bergerac is only faintly detectable in this protracted and tiresome comic adaptation

How does the ever cherub-cheeked Alex Lawther keep getting served in pubs? That question crossed my mind during the more leisurely portions of Old Boys, an overextended English schoolboy revamp of Cyrano de Bergerac that flags just when it most needs narrative adrenaline.