Hymn, Almeida Theatre online review - highs and lows of a soulful brother bonding

★★★★ HYMN, ALMEIDA THEATRE Highs and lows of a soulful brother bonding

Adrian Lester and Danny Sapani in their skins in Lolita Chakrabarti’s new play

Contact without touch: among the many readjustments that the pandemic has brought to theatre, its demands that restrict direct contact almost to nothing must be among the most testing. We have learnt much about how rigorously any new production – for now, only live-streamed – must be prepared: the regular testing in rehearsals, the two-metre distancing, the repeated cleaning of props.

All On Her Own, Stream.Theatre online review - a vivid monologue on bereavement

★★★ ALL ON HER OWN, STREAM.THEATRE ONLINE A vivid monologue on bereavement

Existential tension between actual and idealised selves

This stunningly delivered online monologue from a bereaved widow to her husband feels simultaneously incredibly timely and very dated. At this time of lockdown it is chilling to wonder how many rooms across the world contain individuals with only ghosts for comfort.

Romeo and Juliet, Palace Theatre, Manchester online review - futuristic and timely

★★★★ ROMEO AND JULIET, PALACE THEATRE, MANCHESTER Futuristic and timely

Innovative technology places actors virtually on the stage

The story of Romeo and Juliet is well known, worth revisiting endlessly and always relevant. But there is another story here: the making of the piece using innovative digital technology including CGI, to keep actors and creative team safe in a pandemic.

Good Grief, Platform Presents online review - a little more, please

★★★ GOOD GRIEF Sian Clifford and Nikesh Patel do their best with a mercurial show

Sian Clifford and Nikesh Patel do their best with a show that's as mercurial as grief

Good Grief, a new show from American screenwriter and playwright Lorien Haynes, can’t work out what it wants to be. It’s billed as an “online filmed production”.

Shook, Papatango online review - strongly acted, but depressingly predictable

★★★ SHOOK, PAPATANGO ONLINE Strongly acted, but depressingly predictable

Film version of award-winning show about young offenders has more power than plot

Film is the new theatre – this we know, but does the distance imposed by the change of medium increase or decrease the impact of the story? The latest example of this problematic switch from stage to screen is the strongly acted Shook, Samuel Bailey’s debut play, which won the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize and had a run at the Southwark Playhouse in November of that year.

Love in a Wood, Jermyn Street Theatre review - stars gather remotely for a lively online presentation

★★★ LOVE IN A WOOD, JERMYN STREET THEATRE Stars gather remotely for a lively online presentation

Free reading for charity of Wycherley's first Restoration comedy

Swaggering rakes, posturing fops, sexual intrigue, illicit encounters, wit, artifice, wigs, fans and beauty spots - these are familiar ingredients of Restoration comedy. It is a louche world where the word "mask" is associated with naughty goings on under cover of darkness rather than health worries, and where social distancing and restraint have no place.

Peter Pan: The Audio Adventure review - the perfect bedtime story

★★★★ PETER PAN: THE AUDIO ADVENTURE The perfect bedtime story

Sharon D Clarke and Olivia Colman sparkle in delightful radio play in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital

The blurb for Peter Pan: The Audio Adventure, Shaun McKenna’s new adaptation of JM Barrie’s classic, tells us, with a hint of firm matronly love, that it is “to be enjoyed with a large cup of cocoa before bed”.

Dick Whittington, National Theatre at Home review - colourful and amiable entertainment

★★★ DICK WHITTINGTON, NATIONAL THEATRE Colourful & amiable entertainment

Free stream of the NT's Covid-affected pantomime

In a much-depleted and truncated pantomime season that withered on the vine, the National Theatre's debut production of Dick Whittington lasted only four performances before the show was cancelled; it has now released this recording, which will be available throughout the current lockdown.

Best of 2020: Theatre

BEST OF 2020: THEATRE Moments of clarity amid the pandemic-driven chaos

Out of pandemic-driven chaos and confusion came moments of clarity - and "Blindness"

"Goodbye": The single word lingered heavily in the air last March 16, as the scripted closing both of the terrific Southwark Playhouse revival of The Last Five Years and as an ancillary farewell to live theatre. Late afternoon on that same day, in response to the gathering spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision had been taken to shut theatres down, but the Jason Robert Brown two-hander (plus band) decided to go ahead anyway for the simple reason that the talent were already assembled in the building.

Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative, Royal Court online review – the news, but better

★★★★ LIVING NEWSPAPER: A COUNTER NARRATIVE, ROYAL COURT The news, but better 

The Royal Court’s experimental piece is political theatre at its finest and fiercest

Edition 2 of Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative, an experimental new piece of online theatre from the Royal Court, doesn’t mess around. Within minutes, a cry of "Tory scum" is echoing around the Jerwood Theatre – the refrain of an anarchic musical number presided over by a mannequin painted blue, wearing a shaggy blond wig.