London theatre reviews

Putting a film western on stage is an odd idea that doesn’t seem any less odd having seen High Noon, an adaptation of the classic allegorical 1952 movie starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. 

In An Interrogation, his debut as a writer-director, Jamie Armitage tackled the police procedural, which is not something you see in the theatre very often. Now he’s back with an even more ambitious oddity in the form of A Ghost in Your Ear, an MR James-ish horror story with a mischievous metatheatrical gleam in its eye.

Let’s start with the positives. The performances in Al Miller’s revival of Lyle Kessler’s 1983 play Orphans are absolutely tremendous.

Alan Ayckbourn is frequently referred to as ‘the English Chekhov’, a reflection of the melancholy that lies at the heart of his plays and their characters. But that’s not the whole story…

The Orange Tree’s artistic director Tom Littler brings the same assured touch to Richard Sheridan’s eighteenth-century comedy of identity confusion as he did to Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer this time two years ago. He’s aided by a top-drawer cast who know how to tap into the play’s brand of jubilant absurdity.

Luxurient as a three-bird roast and just as overstuffed, the RSC’s transferring production of Twelfth Night is Shakespeare so rich it could give you indigestion.

It would be a mistake to say the humour in Cole Escola’s massive hit Broadway comedy has been lost in translation to the West End: there was a lot of laughter when I caught Oh, Mary! on a Wednesday matinee. However, I’m afraid it was lost in translation to me. 

Away from the burningly intense social interrogation of Inspector Goole, JB Priestly has plenty to offer, including When We are Married, a somewhat dated but thoroughly delightful social comedy that stands out from the period pack by sheer weight of northernness. 

For the last three years Hampstead Theatre has been staging lesser-revived Stoppards over Christmas, and for Stoppard fans it’s been fun to see them come to life. But Indian Ink is a deep cut…

The parameters for judging a stage adaption of the horror film franchise Paranormal Activity are clearly quite different to, say, a production of King Lear. It’s not the only consideration, but judgement does essentially boil down to one main question: is it scary? To which the answer here is a frazzled ‘oh my, yes’.