stage
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My Kid Creole musical was a hard nut to crackThree decades after I met Kid Creole and the Coconuts while profiling them for NME, their musical Cherchez la Femme has finally reached the New York stage
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The Bard goes bare: The Tempest performed naked in New YorkTo celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday and to promote normalisation of nudity, an all-women group are performing his final play naked in Central Park -
Blue/Orange review – Joe Penhall peels tricky issues of mental heath and raceWith tremendous performances from Daniel Kaluuya, David Haig and Luke Norris, Penhall’s drama packs even more of a punch 16 years after its debut -
How to help rising directors put down roots in regional theatreThe Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme has played a role in growing the careers of many established artistic directors. Now, the scheme is focusing on how its participants can stay embedded in the areas where they learn their craft
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The Machine Stops review – EM Forster predicts Facebook in eerie sci-fi dramaHumans are reliant on a vast video-conferencing network in an uncanny tale featuring aerial contortions and a score by Ultravox founder John Foxx
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Samuel West as Henry V: 'Upon the king'Samuel West speaks Henry V’s soliloquy on the night before battle, in which he reflects upon the public’s expectations of the king
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Sacha Dhawan as Parolles: 'Are you meditating on virginity?'In a speech taken from the first scene of All’s Well That Ends Well, Sacha Dhawan’s Parolles stresses the importance of losing one’s virginity
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Adrian Lester as Hamlet: ‘To be or not to be’Adrian Lester performs Hamlet’s soliloquy in which the prince considers taking his own life
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Ayesha Dharker as Titania: ‘The forgeries of jealousy’Ayesha Dharker plays Titania, the queen of the fairies, in a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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Paterson Joseph as Shylock: 'You call me misbeliever'Paterson Joseph speaks Shylock’s lines from The Merchant of Venice, in which the moneylender reminds Antonio of the times he has insulted him
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Damian Lewis as Antony: 'Friends, Romans, countrymen'Damian Lewis performs Antony’s funeral oration for Julius Caesar from act III, scene 2 of Shakespeare’s tragedy
talking points
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We see gender as a destination, not as a journeyThirty years ago, I put on a frock, crossed Leicester Square and received a death threat. That night led me to create Stella, my show about an extraordinary Victorian gender experimenter
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Hollow Crown soaks up Shakespeare's swordplay but loses some of his punchPart two of the BBC’s Wars of the Roses series was a visual treat led by a brooding Benedict Cumberbatch, but poignancy was among the script’s many casualties
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Football unites cities: can theatre ever do the same?Leicester’s victorious tour bus will be greeted by jubilant football fans as it passes the Curve theatre, which has also earned the pride and passion of locals
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We need shock theatre ... in small dosesIn Cyprus Avenue, I watched aghast as a Protestant attacked his own baby. But I left with a new understanding of sectarianism. So why did the litany of horrors in Sarah Kane’s Cleansed just leave me numb?
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Nederlands Dans Theater 2 review – wistful beauty and split-second witThe junior wing of Nederlands Dans Theater have poise, speed and accuracy: if only the programme stretched them as much as they stretch themselves
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I cut all my hair off the same year I got bracesFrom Garbage to Funny Girls, the comedian reveals the things she finds the funniest
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My Family: Not the Sitcom review – David Baddiel is breathtakingly honestNothing is out of bounds in David Baddiel’s new standup, which exposes his father’s dementia and his mother’s hyperactive sex life to the same affectionate scrutiny
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Sara Pascoe: ‘My mum has heckled me’From Would I Lie To You? to the Kappa symbol, the comedian reveals the things she finds funniest
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Fun factory: the finest comedy of summer 2016David Baddiel airs his own family’s failings, Bridget Christie grapples with a Motörhead vibrator, there’s a raft of improv – and Mr Swallow recreates Houdini’s finest escape
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Play about dementia choirs features music by the ManicsPatrick Jones’s latest play, Before I Leave, examines how choral singing can transform the lives of people with dementia. He recalls the communities who inspired him
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Five of the best… plays this weekWrecking Ball | Tonight I’m Gonna Be The New Me | Boy | People, Places And Things | Matilda The Musical
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How we turned Tory speeches into theatreTired of their meaningless slogans and soundbites, we decided to use politicians’ own words against them in a show that feels like an exorcism
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'We were in debt. I was depressed. It was awful'Alan Partridge, Closer, an Oscar nomination … then nothing. As his Strindberg update goes on tour, the writer talks about Coogan, creativity and his days as a posh standup
polls & quizzes
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Playwrights describe their characters: can you identify them?
Sometimes the description of a character in the stage directions says as much as lines of dialogue. Do you recognise these eight figures as described by the playwrights who created them?
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Everyday Shakespeare
Many of Shakespeare's lines are used in daily life – but do you know which plays feature these popular expressions?
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Trivia, she wrote: how well do you know Angela Lansbury?Broadway sensation, TV detective and three-time Oscar nominee Angela Lansbury turns 90 in October. See if you can detect the correct answers in our quiz
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How well do you know Hamlet?As Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet gets an NT Live broadcast, test your knowledge of Shakespeare’s princely tragedy
from the archive
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The Departure: a short film starring Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson resumes her role as Blanche DuBois in a prequel to the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire
pictures & video
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Vicky McClure unleashes hell as Lady MacbethThis is England star Vicky McClure is possessed by evil in this nightmarish manga take on Macbeth, the fourth of the British Council’s films for Shakespeare Lives 2016, a global programme celebrating William Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of his death
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Designing Harry Potter and the Cursed ChildFrom Hogwarts robes to Hermione’s wand: take a look at some of the designs for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which begins previews at the Palace theatre, London, in June
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Sleep furiously: step inside artist Tom de Freston's nightmarish bedroomBattersea Arts Centre commissioned Tom de Freston to create a bedroom for its resident artists – he responded by covering himself in paint to evoke a blend of King Lear and wild storms
you may have missed
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Timon of Athens really did bring down the houseWhen Peter Brook opened the Bouffes du Nord theatre with an international Shakespeare production, the applause shook the building
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Jane Eyre review – bold Brontë ballet is anything but plain