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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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Camille O’Sullivan plays Constance in King John, who laments the loss of her son, Arthur, but disputes the suggestion that she has gone mad
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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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David Threlfall speaks Prospero’s speech in which the sorcerer contemplates the end of life – and the playwright, perhaps, considers the end of his career
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Joanna Lumley speaks Viola’s soliloquy from Twelfth Night in which, disguised as a page boy, she wonders whether Olivia has fallen in love with her
stage
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Denise Gough has been scoring rave reviews for her portrayal of an addict in People, Places and Things. The Irish actor talks about being one of 11 siblings, snorting icing sugar – and the day she met Meryl Streep
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Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon on adapting Shakespeare’s problem play as a ballet – and how to interpret theatre’s most famous stage direction
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This sly portrait of a cobbler and his class-conscious daughters is shown to be way ahead of its time in Jonathan Church’s handsome staging
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There are beautifully understated performances in this revival of Robert Holman’s quiet play about life in 70s Teesside
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The Orange Is the New Black actor and star of The Maids answered your questions about racial stereotyping on TV, how she gets into character and which underrated talent she wants everyone to know about
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Watch The Encounter, Complicite and Simon McBurney’s stunning show about a mind-blowing journey into the Amazon
talking points
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Should our theatres do more to challenge audiences?
Matt Trueman and Mark ShentonSarah Kane’s ultra-violent Cleansed left them reeling in the stalls at the National Theatre last week. Was that a rare exception on an otherwise tame British stage? -
What power does theatre have to effect social change? As we witness huge shifts in society, artists and activists are …
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Gypsy, starring Imelda Staunton, leads the contenders for this year’s Olivier awards – here are the nominees in full
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As audience members are escorted from the latest revival of Sarah Kane’s play Cleansed in London this week after fainting in the aisles, is there more at play than just weak stomachs?
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In the show Golden Hours, featuring tracks from Brian Eno’s Another Green World and choreography by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, the playwright’s lines are danced rather than spoken
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Lee’s peevish reaction to being pipped to a Bafta unravels into a rant about James Corden in another set of brilliant routines that force us to puzzle out whether this self-pitying schtick is genuine
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The comedian chucks out the art form’s creepiness for a thrilling interactive set in which her most essential prop barely features
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As his TV series returns to our screens, comedian Stewart Lee talks to Will Self about his embittered stage persona, how social media is changing comedy and why you won’t see him on Mock the Week
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On his third solo tour, the standup retains his cynicism but there’s now light amid the shade and warmth underlying the weariness
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Sarah Brigham talks about her revival of Look Back in Anger and Jane Wainwright’s Jinny, a modern-day companion piece that updates its attitudes to gender and class
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Love is tested to its limits in a series of cruel experiments, in which the cumulative effect is numbing rather than redemptive
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When acting in a female role at an all-boys school, Jo Clifford began to explore her gender identity and theatre became a place of shame. After transitioning, and beginning to perform her own plays, she now feels totally at home on stage
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The Little Voice actor is covering 80s hits in her new show If You Kiss Me Kiss Me, and joined us to answer your questions. Catch up with her answers here
polls & quizzes
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Thirty years ago today, Les Misérables had its official London opening. Test your knowledge of the show
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Shakespeare wrote some of the most beautiful sonnets in history but he was also the prince of putdowns. How well do you know the Bard's barbs?
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Sondheim's lyrics are some of the best we've heard. How well do you know them? Add the missing word …
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Are you a titan of the theatre or have the fates abandoned you? As the Almeida puts on a festival inspired by Dionysus, test your knowledge of Greek drama
pictures & video
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An Australian schoolgirl’s vision to become the world’s first hijab-wearing ballerina receives a boost from the former Swedish tennis player Björn Borg
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Poet and illustrator Laura Dockrill’s contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet is set on a windswept English beach, where ‘two houses, both alike in common crime’ wage an ice-cream war
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Images like the myriad white balloons in Tom Scutt’s design for Constellations have left their mark on audiences. Here, he talks through six shows from his career
you may have missed
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She was a last-minute lead in the three-hour Linda and will play JK Rowling’s grown-up Hermione Granger in the West End. Now Noma Dumezweni is making her directorial debut with the thriller I See You at the Royal Court
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popular
Daniel Mays as Macbeth: 'Is this a dagger which I see before me?'