Frida: The Making of an Icon is as much about the creation of a legend as it is about the work of one of Mexico's most recognisable artists. Divided into eight thematic sections, the exhibition not only traces Frida Kahlo's artistic evolution but also interrogates the almost cult-like status she has acquired in the decades since her death. The opening galleries, "Construction/Self-Construction," establish the exhibition's central premise: Kahlo was engaged in a lifelong process of self-invention. Best known for her extraordinary self-portraits, she repeatedly recast her own image, blurring the boundaries between autobiography, performance and myth. It is precisely because of this process of self-fashioning that the exhibition's film footage of Kahlo becomes one of its highlights, offering a rare glimpse of the woman behind her carefully constructed personae. Having established Kahlo's lifelong project of self-invention, the exhibition next considers how o...

Created by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jesus Christ Superstar first appeared as a concept album in 1970 before opening on Broadway in 1971. Since then, it has become one of the world's most enduring rock musicals, with countless stage revivals and a celebrated 1973 film adaptation. Telling the story of the final days of Jesus' life, it explores the complex relationships between Jesus, Judas, and Mary Magdalene. In this latest production, Sam Ryder, who represented the United Kingdom at Eurovision in 2022, takes on the title role. His soaring vocals are undeniably impressive and will delight his many fans, but his acting lacks the same confidence. Ryder appears far more at ease when holding a guitar or singing into a hand microphone than when simply inhabiting the character of Jesus. That reliance on hand-held and standing microphones is one of the production's more baffling choices. Although the cast wears headset microphones throughout, the additional ones repeatedl...

Shear Madness is both a play and a theatrical phenomenon. Based on a 1963 German experimental drama, Bruce Jordan and Marilyn Abrams transformed it into a comedy set in a hair salon. Their adaptation premiered in a small village in upstate New York in 1976 before moving to Boston in 1980, where the show enjoyed an extraordinary forty-year run, finally closing in 2023. Since then, it has been translated into numerous languages and produced around the world, confirming its status as a cut above the average whodunit. The action takes place in a bustling hair salon where two stylists and four customers learn that the upstairs neighbour, a former concert pianist, has suffered the unkindest cut of all. When the police arrive, the audience is enlisted to comb through the evidence, cut through the misdirection, and tie up the loose ends. The first act is packed with sharp one-liners and an infectious energy that keeps events clipping along at a brisk pace. The cast is excellent, with standout...

The Mint Theater Company has built its reputation on reviving neglected theatrical works, and Wife to James Whelan seems a worthy candidate for rediscovery. Written by Teresa Deevy, whose six plays were produced at Ireland's Abbey Theatre between 1930 and 1936, this effort marked the end of that fruitful relationship when the Abbey declined to stage it. Deevy's drama follows James Whelan, a good-natured and ambitious young man whose rise in fortune transforms both his social aspirations and his choice of partner. Like Paris weighing the claims of three goddesses, James finds himself choosing between three women who each represent a different future. Nan is his first love and the village beauty. Kate is the loyal confidante, caregiver, and moral compass. Nora arrives later, bringing wealth and social standing that reflect James's newly acquired status. The play's central weakness is that James himself is never compelling enough to sustain the drama. His material ascent ...

Based on the 2018 Danish film Den Skyldige , directed by Gustav Möller, Chloë Moss's The Guilty is a taut, expertly constructed thriller that derives its tension from what cannot be seen. Joe is a police officer confined to a 999 call desk while awaiting a disciplinary hearing. Restless and dismissive of the endless stream of minor emergencies that are reported, he is jolted into action when he receives a desperate appeal from a woman who appears to have been abducted by her estranged husband. This is a one-man show in every sense, and Russell Tovey commands the stage with remarkable assurance. He inhabits Joe so completely that the audience experiences every surge of frustration, every flicker of hope and every crushing setback alongside him. Confined to his desk, Joe can do nothing but listen, question and direct others. The audience shares his predicament, becoming equally powerless observers who, like Joe, can only piece together events through fragments of conversation while ...

Many readers first encountered To Kill a Mockingbird in the classroom, where Harper Lee's novel has long been a staple of English literature courses. Its exploration of racism, morality and the loss of childhood innocence has become familiar territory for generations of students. The story also lives on through Robert Mulligan's celebrated 1962 film adaptation, in which Gregory Peck delivered his Academy Award-winning performance as Atticus Finch. His portrayal of the principled lawyer and widowed father who defends a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman in 1930s Alabama remains one of cinema's defining performances. That legacy presents a formidable challenge for Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation, as well as for Richard Coyle in the iconic role of Atticus. Happily, both rise to the occasion. Sorkin's adaptation remains faithful to the moral force of Lee's novel while giving the drama a powerful sense of urgency and theatrical momentum. Rather than f...

In 1939, the forty-four-year-old King George VI and his consort, Queen Elizabeth, visited the President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and his wife Eleanor at the Roosevelt family estate, Springwood. George had been on the throne for only three years following his brother's abdication, while Roosevelt had already served seven years as President. The visit was an exercise in soft diplomacy, designed to gauge where the President might stand in the event of a second war with Germany. American public opinion remained deeply divided, and it was the King's task to determine whether the United States government, and Roosevelt in particular, could be persuaded to support Britain. The premise of Richard Nelson's play is an intriguing one. The way personal relationships can influence political realities has always been a compelling subject for drama. These two complicated men shared more than first appearances might suggest. The King struggled with a severe stammer,...

In 1897 Edmond Rostand wrote his masterpiece Cyrano de Bergerac in elegant alexandrine verse, creating a work that celebrates language, eloquence and the sheer force of words. It is also a play deeply concerned with appearances, both social and physical, and with the uneasy distance between inner worth and outward perception. At its centre is Cyrano, a brilliant swordsman of extraordinary verbal gifts, who is self-conscious about his large nose. For both Cyrano and Roxane, the woman he loves, language is not merely expression but identity itself. Their tragedy lies in Cyrano’s belief that Roxane will never see past his appearance. When she expresses her love for the handsome but inarticulate Christian, Cyrano becomes the voice of his rival’s courtship, shaping words that allow another man to inhabit the very identity he himself cannot claim. In this production written by Simon Evans and Debris Stevenson, there is a clear attempt to engage with the work's central concerns of langua...

In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated in an act that precipitated the First World War. Playwright Rajiv Joseph reimagines that historical event as a commentary on the manipulation of ordinary people in service of the political ambitions of the wealthy and powerful. The play opens with two consumptive simpletons, Nedeljko and Gavrilo, who have been sent by their doctor to meet a mysterious stranger. Think Samuel Beckett's Vladimir and Estragon, except that when their Godot finally arrives, he proves to be just as much a pawn in a larger game as they are. The exchanges between the three are wonderfully absurd, full of wit and buoyed by the kind of physical comedy that Beckett himself would have appreciated. Jake Berne, Jason Sanchez and Adrien Rolet nicely capture the vulnerability and bewildered charm of the trio, adroitly combining deadpan humour, physical comedy, and genuine pathos. However, the play begins to lose m...

Two defining political crises coincided in Britain during the mid-1980s. Welsh coal miners went on strike in the face of Margaret Thatcher's determination to break the power of the trade unions, while the AIDS epidemic devastated the gay community. This new musical, based on the remarkable true story that inspired the acclaimed 2014 film, recounts the unlikely alliance forged between striking miners and gay and lesbian activists during that turbulent period. The miners' strike may have ended in defeat and AIDS claimed countless lives, but the story affirms the power of ordinary people to overcome prejudice and find common ground despite profound differences. It is ultimately a celebration of human decency, compassion and solidarity. Although Mark Ashton founded Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners , the musical wisely resists making him its sole focus. Instead, it explores how an extraordinary act of collective solidarity transformed the lives of everyone involved, both in the ...

Martin Crimp’s reimagining of The Misanthrope relocates Molière’s classic into a contemporary world of artists and intellectuals, centring on Alice, a feminist novelist who rails against what she sees as the hypocrisy of modern society. From the outset, Crimp signals his ambition to bridge two worlds: the formal, structured society of Molière’s Louis XIV court and the looser, more performative social codes of the present day. Yet this balancing act proves uneasy. The production never fully settles into either register. It is neither convincingly contemporary nor persuasively classical, instead hovering in an uncertain space where stylisation overwhelms dramatic credibility. The play opens with a lengthy exchange between Alice and her playwright friend John, in which her ideas are set out in carefully constructed speeches that feel less like dialogue than set pieces. Even among a cast of writers, actors and musicians, the conversations often do not seem natural, and the interactions ne...

When Michel embarks on an affair with his best friend’s wife, Alice, he sets in motion a tangled web of lies, misunderstandings and deceptions that bears all the hallmarks of a classic bedroom farce. Yet, while maintaining a wonderfully light comic touch throughout, Florian Zeller’s The Truth also raises intriguing questions about the complexity of relationships, the value we place on honesty and even the nature of truth itself. We like to believe that truthfulness is among the highest of virtues, yet how readily we all resort to deception. The line between tact and hypocrisy, honesty and self-interest, proves far more blurred than we might at first care to admit. Beneath the laughter in this cunning comedy lies a cool examination of the stories we tell others, and ourselves, in order to navigate our lives. The plot is packed with clever twists and reversals that are beautifully complemented by Stephen Mangan’s magnificent performance as Michel. Rarely off stage, he carries the produc...

Since 2004, Sadler's Wells has hosted this vibrant celebration of Spanish culture, a festival that tours internationally while showcasing both established masters and emerging talents of flamenco. For this latest iteration, all three Sadler's Wells venues are being utilised for ten productions that celebrate the rich music and dance traditions of Spain. As ever, the Gala Flamenca evenings stand at the heart of this cultural extravaganza. This year's Gala Flamenca brought together four exceptional artists: Eva Yerbabuena, Manuel Liñán, Antonio Fernández Montoya 'El Farru', and Juan Tomás de la Molía. The youngest of the quartet, de la Molía, set the tone for the evening with a dazzling display of traditional flamenco infused with subtle contemporary and hip-hop influences. His performance was a breathtaking exhibition of technical brilliance, charisma, and seemingly inexhaustible energy. The mood then shifted when El Farru opened his piece with the masterful use of...

“It's delightful, it's delicious, it's de-lovely.” High Society is a dazzling, effervescent summer entertainment, brimming with glamour, wit and charm. Buoyed by Cole Porter's sublime score and a frothy romantic comedy plot adapted from The Philadelphia Story , this is a production that asks nothing of its audience except that they surrender to its considerable pleasures. Sit back and enjoy the glorious music, slick choreography and a steady stream of sparkling comic moments. There may be faint echoes of A Midsummer Night's Dream in its tangle of misplaced affections, but analysing this theatrical soufflé would rather miss the point. Its purpose is simple: to delight. We know from the outset that socialite Tracy Lord, played with engaging assurance by understudy Isabel Snaas on this occasion, will ultimately reunite with her reformed ex-husband Dexter Haven, portrayed with effortless sophistication by Julian Ovenden. Nor does the plot leave much doubt that Freddie...

This exhibition is a thoughtful examination of an aspect of Barbara Hepworth's work that has long been under-appreciated. Bringing together twenty of Hepworth's abstract sculptures and thirty drawings, it focuses on her innovative use of colour to transform the internal spaces of her sculptures into expressive elements in their own right. As war broke out, Hepworth moved with her husband, Ben Nicholson, to Cornwall. With her preferred materials in short supply, she increasingly turned to plaster, using paint to animate and define the interior surfaces of her sculptures. Richly coloured interiors are often accentuated by strings of contrasting shades, creating a dynamic interplay between surface, space and line. Thirteen of the sixteen painted sculptures Hepworth created during the 1940s are displayed here, although the exhibition also extends into works produced during the 1950s and 1960s. The two-gallery presentation on Floor 3 is complemented by photographs of Hepworth and Ni...

Writer Itai Erdal takes on the controversial Israeli-Palestinian question from a unique perspective. A secular Jew who grew up in Israel and served in the Israeli army, he brings an insider’s understanding to a subject many people prefer to avoid. His performance, however, feels more like a lecture than a play. Erdal presents a history of the Middle East and, through a series of personal anecdotes and observations, creates an emotional connection to the broader narrative. His accounts of military service carry an authenticity that is deeply moving, and his reflections about his nephew, who may become part of the next generation of soldiers, make the intractability of the situation very real. Because of his Israeli and Jewish credentials, Erdal is able to express perspectives that many would hesitate to voice, and his narrative raises some profound questions about politics, identity, and public discourse. While it seems possible to disagree with President Obama’s policies without being ...

This superb exhibition traces the career of the innovative and irascible James McNeill Whistler, introducing visitors to one of the most original artistic minds of the nineteenth century. His personal history was as distinctive as his art. Born in America, raised partly in Russia, trained in Paris, and settled in Britain, he was a cosmopolitan figure whose experiences informed a career that defied easy categorisation. The presentation succeeds in bringing to life both the man and his work. Visitors encounter the romantic figure of the artist in bohemian Paris, the combative personality who pursued a celebrated libel case against the critic John Ruskin, and the often difficult individual whose relationships with patrons such as Frederick Leyland and contemporaries were frequently marked by conflict. Yet it avoids reducing Whistler to his controversies. Instead, it reveals that beneath the volatile temperament lay a serious, intellectually engaged artist whose commitment to aesthetic inn...

The theme of the 258th Summer Exhibition, “Interconnectedness,” makes tracing links between the works on display both a fascinating and at times overwhelming experience. While this year’s works on view appear to contain less overt political commentary and fewer instances of humour than is often typical of such events, both are still present in striking moments. Tim Shaw’s powerful portrayal of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Pin It On Them (Associated Artwork From the Installation: Shut It Piggy) (555) can be juxtaposed with the playful absurdity of Joey Rutherford’s Pickle With a Pearl Earring (1110) , reminding viewers of the range of tones running through the exhibition. Alongside these, there are the usual charming animal representations, including our favourite, the highly realistic cat in Thus Regard Palmerston (793) , as well as the standard attempts to shock and provoke, such as Tracey Emin’s There Is An End To Everything (674) . The collection continues to move between cur...

Inspired by a real historical incident, the new musical Redcliffe tackles an issue that remains relevant today: the criminalisation of consensual homosexual relationships, which still exists in many countries. Between 1752 and 1753, William Critchard and Richard Arnold were accused of sodomy, an offence punishable by death in Britain at the time. Their story survives through contemporary newspaper accounts and a rare witness statement uncovered in the Bristol archives in 2023. In bringing this material to the stage, Jordan Luke Gage, who wrote the book, music and lyrics, takes considerable liberties with the historical record. Arnold was a publican in his sixties and Critchard a twenty-four-year-old footman when the two men were observed together in a private room at a Bristol alehouse. Dramatic licence is not in itself a problem, but while the details have been reshaped, the characters at the centre of the story never become fully realised individuals. The principal weakness of Redcl...