stage
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From Bob Newhart to Chris Rock: 10 standup comedy milestonesAs Netflix invests in Amy Schumer, Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld, what have been the most important comedy specials on stage?
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Othello review – brutal, candlelit tragedy in a man's worldEllen McDougall’s claustrophobic staging of Shakespeare’s tragedy has moments that make you see the play afresh -
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the Old VicDaniel Radcliffe is back on stage in London in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard’s sideways look at Hamlet, which returns to the Old Vic 50 years after it was first staged there -
Plan your week’s theatreDavid Greig’s astounding Aeschylus rewrite reaches Manchester, while An American in Paris comes to the West End and the Menier Chocolate Factory revives Rattigan
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Ruth Wilson webchat – your questions answered on The Affair, Idris Elba and MarmiteThe Olivier-nominated actor joined us live from the National Theatre to talk about crying on cue, why American TV takes so many risks and what she has in common with Hedda Gabler
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Chimerica review – electrifying thriller traverses Tiananmen Square and modern New YorkRoslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company
People power drives new energy into Australian premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s drama exploring US-China relations and the famous ‘Tank Man’ photograph
talking points
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Lyric Hammersmith's courtroom drama Terror will let audience be juryLondon theatregoers will decide the guilt or innocence of air force pilot who shoots down passenger jet hijacked by terrorists
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child breaks Olivier nominations recordShow’s 11 nominations including best actor are most for a new play, while Groundhog Day dominates musical categories
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Dancing into historyShe was caught between her impoverished mother and the ballet mistress who offered her a way out. Aaron Hicklin meets Misty Copeland, the first black principal at the American Ballet Theatre
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Crude, cartoonish, straight-up standupThe comic who presented a TV series on the rise of the far right is back with a show that combines goofballery with cultural commentary
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Ricky Gervais review – ruthless, self-revealing show is his best yetGervais’s new set, Humanity, is pumped with scorn and provocation but the inclusion of more personal material gives a rare glimpse of a gentler man
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How Bridget Christie found the funny side of BrexitAfter the EU referendum result, Bridget Christie ripped up her Edinburgh show and created a new one in just a few weeks. This is an anatomy of a standup set that has changed with the headlines
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Sue Perkins Live: Spectacles – comic comfort food from a good eggThe ex-Bake Off presenter’s show is a droll self-portrait full of nostalgia and juicy tidbits about Paul and Mary. But it’s less standup than love-in with fans
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Hamlet review – Andrew Scott charms in chic yet dotty showRobert Icke’s staging has fine performances and intelligent touches but some of its ideas are eccentrically wrong-headed
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Ralf Little webchat – your questions answered on football, The Royle Family and Caroline AherneThe actor and producer joined us live from the National Theatre to weigh in everything from his most-coveted role to which packet of crisps goes best with two pints of lager
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A play for our post-truth timesIn the 50s, Arthur Miller used 17th-century Salem to comment on the ‘red scare’. His drama is chillingly pertinent in the first weeks of Trump’s presidency
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Brexit is too big for the stageAs Rosencrantz and Guildenstern returns, Tom Stoppard remembers the dandy who wrote it 50 years ago, picks his favourite play – and says he wants to make audiences cry
from the archive
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'In ballet, girls are less likely to be prized for being mavericks'Ahead of her new work, which is based on a profound real-life tragedy, the sought-after choreographer discusses dancing with William Forysthe, motherhood and why there are so few women at the top of her profession
series
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Play timePlay timeEric Idle's The Owl and the Pussycat review – Python primer for kids is a hootThis musical adaptation of Idle’s take on Edward Lear’s much-loved poem is a hummable defence of the spirit nonsense
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Laurence Olivier in The EntertainerIn our new series, Michael Billington picks 10 theatrical performances that have etched themselves on his memory. The list begins with Olivier as John Osborne’s Archie Rice
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The funniest thingThe funniest thingRussell Kane: ‘The funniest heckle I've ever had? Nick Grimshaw!'The flamboyant standup on the things that make him laugh the most, from cult books and Tim Vine to reindeer’s blood pancakes
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Shakespeare's plays – as you like themShakespeare's plays – as you like themBest Shakespeare productions: what's your favourite Henry VIII?The play that burned down the Globe theatre in 1613, after a stage cannon ignited the thatch, is a potent farewell to this series, writes Michael Billington
pictures & video
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How a German prison is using theatre to de-radicalise young Isis volunteersA pilot project by the German government seeks to reintegrate young Islamist fighters through the study of the Qur’an and through theatre
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Andrew Scott as Hamlet at the AlmeidaScott, best known as Sherlock’s Moriarty, is playing the highest-profile Hamlet since Benedict Cumberbatch took on the role in 2015. Here is a first look at the production
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Les Enfants Terribles by the Royal BalletThe Barbican in London is staging a new production of Philip Glass’s dance-opera based on Jean Cocteau’s sensational novel Les Enfants Terribles. Step inside the surreal world of two siblings’ deadly games
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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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A career on stageVanessa Redgrave has captivated audiences since her early days at the RSC. She has starred alongside her father, siblings and children, enthralled Broadway and is still commanding the stage today
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Inside Kenya's slum ballet schoolThe Kibera ballet school is part of Anno’s Africa project, working in slum areas in Kenya. Weekly ballet classes are held in the Spurgeons academy school, with teacher and former dancer Mike Wamaya
you may have missed
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Matthew Bourne's protege James CousinsHis debut show featured a duet in which a dancer never touched the ground. Now, James Cousins is staging his most ambitious piece yet, a modern take on As You Like It set in Seoul
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Breakout star Tamara Lawrance on exploding ShakespeareBarely out of Rada, Tamara Lawrance cruised into TV and stage roles. Now she’s taking on Twelfth Night at the National. Can it beat her weird student version?
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Why isn't the talent show interested in acting?The contestants can belt out a tune but can they cut it in musical theatre? The stage show cast from the BBC1 series will fall flat if it doesn’t find acting talent
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Dance powerhouse wanted by everyone from Daft Punk to BeyoncéShe has blazed a trail from Granada to New York to Paris, rapping, partying and dancing in a latex flamenco dress. Is Britain ready for Blanca Li and her ramshackle dancing robots?
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The National's new season is a staggering dereliction of dutyThe NT usually manages a balance between revivals and new work. Now, classic plays are disappearing from its stages – and from regional reps too
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Arinzé Kene on tackling the UK riotsHe’s played Sam Cooke, an EastEnders bad boy and a closeted footballer in The Pass. Now, Arinzé Kene has returned to writing plays – and to the violent summer of 2011 – with a searing account of escalating tension in London
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Joanna Vanderham as Juliet: ‘The mask of night is on my face’Joanna Vanderham performs Juliet’s speech from the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet
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David Morrissey as Richard III: ‘Now is the winter of our discontent’David Morrissey speaks the opening lines from Richard III in which the scheming Richard lays out his plan to turn his brothers, Clarence and the newly enthroned King Edward IV, against each other
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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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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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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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Zawe Ashton as Jaques in As You Like It: ‘All the world’s a stage’ – videoJaques’s speech about the seven ages of man from As You Like It is performed by Zawe Ashton
a profoundly affectionate ... review – couples' rows are painful to watch