Noises Off, Lyric Hammersmith review - farce doesn't catch fire

★★ NOISES OFF, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH Farce doesn't catch fire

Jeremy Herrin's production of modern classic feels leaden

Michael Frayn's Noises Off is a modern classic, a backstage sex farce that pokes affectionate fun at a profession he loves. And now Jeremy Herrin, one of our most accomplished directors, revives it for Lyric Hammersmith, where the play was premiered in 1982. He also directed a production in 2016 on Broadway, so this is his second bite of the cherry.

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.

Summer Rolls, Park Theatre review - racism laid bare to mixed results

★★★ SUMMER ROLLS, PARK THEATRE First-ever British Vietnamese play seen in the UK

Tuyen Do's playwriting debut marks first-ever British Vietnamese play seen in the UK

There’s a moment in Summer Rolls, at the Nguyen family dinner table, when a veil is briefly pulled back on the ugly racism so many Asian immigrant communities must endure in the UK. The treasured son, Anh, who has been rejected for jobs despite his first class degree in mathematics, defends his mother as someone who uses all her resources to survive.     

Europe, Donmar Warehouse review - timely, tender, brutal and brilliant

★★★★★ EUROPE, DONMAR WAREHOUSE Timely, tender, brutal and brilliant

Magnificent revival of David Greig's 1990s visionary classic is both tough and tender

In the middle of the current decade, there was a mild vogue for reviving a handful of the great plays of the 1990s, such as Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking and Patrick Marber's Closer.

On Your Feet!, London Coliseum review - Gloria Estefan bio-musical hits familiar notes

★★★ ON YOUR FEET!, LONDON COLISEUM Gloria Estefan bio-musical hits familiar notes

The rhythm is gonna get you – even if the drama doesn’t

This well-meaning biographical jukebox musical about icons Gloria and Emilio Estefan, which did two years on Broadway and a US tour, is good summer scheduling, what with its Latin-pop bangers, infectious dance routines and “Dreams come true” messaging.

The Hunt, Almeida Theatre review - tense Scandinoirland drama

★★★★ THE HUNT, ALMEIDA THEATRE Tense Scandinoirland drama

Striking stage version of Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm's 2012 film

For a while, child abuse has been banished from our stages. After all, there is a limit, surely, to how much pain audiences can be put through. Now, however, the subject is back, thanks to the Almeida Theatre's new stage adaptation of the 2012 Danish film thriller Jagten, by Dogme 95's Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm, and which memorably starred Mads Mikkelsen.

Present Laughter, Old Vic review - Andrew Scott continues his rise and rise

★★★★★ PRESENT LAUGHTER, OLD VIC Andrew Scott continues his rise and rise

The Irish star is sublimely funny - and moving, too - in Noël Coward classic

"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" can be heard pulsating through the Old Vic auditorium as the curtain rises on its wondrous revival of Present Laughter: a decisive feather in the cap of artistic director Matthew Warchus's regime. But all Garry Essendine, the vainglorious actor at the whirling centre of Noël Coward's 1942 play, really wants is to make it through the day (and night) intact.

The Damned, Comédie-Française, Barbican review - slow-burn horrors in devastating images

★★★ THE DAMNED, COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE, BARBICAN Slow-burn horrors in devastating images

Ivo van Hove reinvents Visconti's fable about a 1930s German House of Atreus

Is the terrifying past of Germany in 1933 also our future? Having had nightmares about the brilliant dystopian TV soap opera Years and Years, which built like all the best of its kind on present fears, I wasn't expecting to be confronted so soon by another pertinent disaster drama.