Infamous, Jermyn Street Theatre review - Lady Hamilton challenges the patriarchy and loses

★★★ INFAMOUS, JERMYN STREET THEATRE Caroline and Rose Quentin perfectly cast in mother and daughter play

A clever, sexy, confident woman woos the aristocracy but is disowned when she needs help

Towards the end of the 18th century, Lady Emma Hamilton (like so much in this woman's life, hers was a title achieved as much as bestowed) was the “It Girl” of European society.

Private Lives, Ambassador's Theatre review - classy revival lacking physical excess

★★★ PRIVATE LIVES, AMBASSADOR'S THEATRE Classy revival lacking physical excess

Mature actors bring style and poignancy to Coward's brittle comedy

There is a grainy piece of black and white film on YouTube featuring Noel Coward as the celebrity guest on a 1964 edition of the popular television panel show, What's My Line. He signs in with panache, paying careful attention to the diaeresis over the e in Noel and enveloping his first name with a stylish C from the second. Artifice, self-invention, elegance – these are qualities inseparable from the Coward reputation.

God of Carnage, Lyric Hammersmith review - a dark piece is lightened with slapstick

★★★ GOD OF CARNAGE, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH A dark piece is lightened with slapstick

Yasmin Reza's savage study of the middle-classes becomes a farce lacking in danger

Yasmin Reza’s God of Carnage (2008), like her British megahit, 1994’s Art, is not strictly a comedy. The French dramatist likes to create gladiatorial spaces disguised as chic living-rooms, where the professional classes slug it out, chewing their way through all manner of pieties and prejudices to reach some kind of climactic end point.

As You Like It, Shakespeare's Globe review - vibrant, ebullient fun in a forest where anything goes

A production that feels as if it could erupt into cabaret at any moment

To proclaim that you’re playing gender games with Shakespeare’s As You Like It seems a little like announcing that you have a bicycle with two wheels, or indeed that you’re doing something interesting with rhythms in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Next to Normal, Donmar Warehouse review - terrific cast in a punchy musical

★★★★ NEXT TO NORMAL, DONMAR WAREHOUSE Twin miseries of bipolar disorder and grief are given an unusual treatment

Twin miseries of bipolar disorder and grief are given an unusual treatment

The journey from off-Broadway to central London has taken 15 years, but the multi-award-winning musical Next to Normal has finally made it. That time lag may lead to suspicions that its subject matter has become a tad outmoded, but this staging, directed by outgoing Donmar director Michael Longhurst, is fresh and affecting.

The Odyssey: The Underworld, National Theatre review - community effort with real heart and a great staging

★★★★ THE ODYSSEY: THE UNDERWORLD, NATIONAL THEATRE The Public Acts project creates a model mix of high and low for a modern ensemble

The Public Acts project creates a model mix of high and low for a modern ensemble

One of the great wonders of Western literary history is one of the earliest, Homer’s The Odyssey, an epic poem with all the thrills and spills of an Indiana Jones outing, with added Olympians. The National’s version turned out not to be The Odyssey as we know it, though.  

A Mirror, Almeida Theatre review - unconvincing and contrived

★★ A MIRROR, ALMEIDA THEATRE Unconvincing and contrived

Jonny Lee Miller stars in a problematically dystopian story of creativity and censorship

This is a play about censorship in a totalitarian state – but, no, I’m not reviewing The Pillowman again. Instead, I’m watching A Mirror by Sam Holcroft, a playwright who – as her 2015 play Rules for Living amply illustrated – is interested in playful games with the idea of theatricality.

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