stage
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The Great Gatsby – get immersed in jazz-age hedonismF Scott Fitzgerald’s novel comes to life in the Guild of Misrule’s fancy-dress interpretation, though you may be too busy playing spin the bottle to hear the whole story
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Tilda Swinton releases Margaret Cho emails about film role diversityWhite actor, cast as character in Doctor Strange originally written as Tibetan man, criticised by Asian-American comedian -
Annie Get Your Gun – dynamite lead blows holes in original's sexismPowered by Anna-Jane Casey’s explosive central turn, this version of Irving Berlin’s musical wisely tones down the misogyny and racism -
Saint Joan – Gemma Arterton's feminist icon puts modern man in his placeDonmar Warehouse, London
Josie Rourke’s update of the Shaw classic sets Arterton’s determined spiritual warrior against a boardroom full of male bankers, warmongers and Daily Mail-reading nationalists -
The Maids – Katie Mitchell puts Genet's wealth-gap murder story in dragJean Genet’s symbolist crime drama seems all too tense and real in this contemporary setting, with a trans victim who forgot to check her privilege
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Love review – engrossing homelessness drama leaves us enragedAlexander Zeldin’s devised piece depicts the endurance and needless suffering of two families living in temporary accommodation
talking points
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Kate Tempest webchat – your questions answeredThe poet and rapper talked about connecting with audiences, sexuality and the search for inspiration
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'The fear of stereotyping is crippling'Recent graduate Leah Harvey shares her experiences of being the only black female student in her year at drama school
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Judith Mackrell's top 10 dance shows of 2016Jane Eyre duetted with Rochester, Akram Khan imagined a refugee Giselle and Jonathon Young battled his demons in a nightmare cabaret. Our critic picks this year’s best dance
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Brian Logan's top 10 comedy of 2016Mr Swallow camped it up as Houdini, Isy Suttie looked for Mr Right, while Brexit brought out the angry best in Bridget Christie and Stewart Lee. Our critic picks the year’s best comedy
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Jewish humour ain't what it used to beThe UK Jewish Comedy festival’s salute to the Borscht Belt comedy of Woody Allen and Joan Rivers is poised awkwardly between tribute and parody
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Jamali Maddix: ‘I saw Bill Hicks and thought, there’s someone like me’Now fronting a new documentary series on racial hatred, the Essex-born standup tells how comedy has been his salvation
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What comedy brings to the experience of griefIn her podcast, Cariad Lloyd talks to other comics about death, a subject that standups rarely deal with directly on stage
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Othello review – Daniel Craig and David Oyelowo lock horns in New YorkAn army barracks provides a striking setting for Sam Gold’s take on Shakespeare’s classic that minimizes questions of race and amps up toxic masculinity
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Michael Billington's top 10 theatre of 2016Glenda Jackson ruled as Lear and Harry Potter left the West End spellbound but a three-hour drama set in an empty cinema tops our critic’s pick of the year’s best theatre
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Lyn Gardner's top 10 theatre of 2016Phyllida Lloyd’s storming all-female Shakespeare trilogy is saluted by Lyn Gardner who, in no set order, chooses other essential productions of the year
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Fleabag five-star review – filthily funny show's shattering return to stagePhoebe Waller-Bridge expertly controls the audience as she performs the original monologue that led to her TV smash
from the archive
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West Side Story hits London13 December 1958: High expectations fulfilled as the hit Broadway musical opens in the capital’s West End
series
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Play timePlay timeSnowflakes review – CBeebies' Cerrie Burnell delivers a festive treatBurnell has adapted her own book for a show for under-sevens featuring songs, audience participation and some charming puppets
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The Funny SideThe Funny SideBeth Vyse: A breast cancer appointment is like Deal or No Deal – videoWhat happens when you’re faced with a breast cancer diagnosis at 28? Beth Vyse was whisked off to Alicante and offered a chocolate box full of fake nipples
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How we staged ShakespeareHow we staged ShakespearePatrick Stewart on Shylock: 'I should have been arrested for overacting'Our How We Staged Shakespeare series ends with the celebrated actor explaining why he keeps coming back to the much-misunderstood role of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice
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The funniest thingThe funniest thingAndy Zaltzman: ‘Snooker is the greatest use of a table humanity has devised’From newsagent sandwiches to the Day Today, the standup and John Oliver collaborator reveals the things that make him laugh the most
pictures & video
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The art of movementIn the book The Art of Movement, Ken Browar and Deborah Ory of NYC Dance Project capture some of the most accomplished dancers in the world in a series of striking poses
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Macbeth retold by schoolchildren from around the worldThe witches are Colombian, Banquo’s Ghost appears in Mexico and Macbeth’s castle is Croatian in this crowd-sourced version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, performed by schoolchildren from around the world
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Antony Gormley's iron men come alive for A Winter's TaleWriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce and director Carl Hunter reimagine Shakespeare’s late tragedy in an otherwordly film set amongst the statues of Antony Gormley’s installation Another Place on Crosby beach in Liverpool
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Trevor Noah: What if I’m the Piers Morgan of The Daily Show?The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah discusses his new book, Born a Crime, with an audience of Guardian Members
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My love-hate relationship with OthelloPhoebe Boswell riffs on her conflicted attitudes towards Othello in Dear Mr Shakespeare, which co-stars Ashley Thomas aka Bashy
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Phil Davis as the storming monarchCursing and raging, Lear is admitted into care while he plots revenge on his daughters in a modern take on Act II, Scene 4 from Shakespeare’s tragedy
you may have missed
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Scottee's cabaret about queer lives in Brexit BritainFor his new Roundhouse show, Putting Words in Your Mouth, the artist interviewed 400 LGBT people around the UK. Their views are staged in a ‘lip-sync marathon’ designed to catch audiences off guard
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‘We never visit? You saw us three days ago!’ Romesh Ranganathan and his mumThe comedian’s mother stole every scene in the first series of Asian Provocateur. Now the pair are back and squabbling about Sri Lankan family politics – and who is most eager to be recognised in the sandwich shop
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How Hetain Patel shape-shifted from Spider-Man to 'bad Obama'He has aped superheroes, written over himself in henna and based a performance around his moustache. Now, accidental dancer Hetain Patel has imagined a post-presidential rampage
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'I love winding people up'The firebrand writer is a vociferous critic of the establishment but his new work is an RSC commission about Caravaggio. He talks about challenging audiences’ prejudices – and his own
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Will Tuckett on why his Nutcracker was a leap too farIt was one of this winter’s hottest tickets but has been cancelled after one performance. The choreographer describes the heartbreak behind the scenes of his ballet
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The whole of democracy looks fragile and farcicalHow do you top a hit play about global politics? By tackling the end of the world – from nuclear meltdown to Brexit and Trump. The writer talks eavesdropping and honesty
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Riz Ahmed as Edmund: 'Now, gods, stand up for bastards'Riz Ahmed speaks Edmund’s soliloquy from King Lear, in which Edmund reflects upon being an illegitimate son and plots against his half-brother, Edgar
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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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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
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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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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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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
Review Art – Rufus Sewell shines in finely shaded character study