From Brexit to Trump and Putin to populism, the best productions can give audiences a prism through which to view a disturbing world.

Shakespeare's tradie-thespians and rubber chickens shine in this imperishable backstage comedy.

• Theatre review

Kate Mulvany's powerfully dark, dangerous villain is the most memorable element of this production and makes it well worth seeing.

Jonathan Biggins finds blending serious issues with witty lines a tricky balancing act

Is this West End hit tapping the Zeitgeist or just tickling us with images of cruelty to actors?

Ruth Wilson gives a performance of riveting authority: jagged, rich and fiercely magnificent, this will stand comparison with the greatest Hedda Gablers.

This clan of five performers with is a travelling circus.

Only occasionally does this Sydney premiere of Terry Johnson's West End hit spark into life.

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Artisan Fabian Scaunich says the once broken and dirty floor of 200,000 pieces will be ready for the Comedy Festival launch on March 28.

Tony Turner has wanted to direct this Victorian comedy – by the leading playwright of his day – for nearly 40 years because of his interest in the rise of realism in theatre.

This new production of the Shakespearean tragedy was inspired by Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel and Truman Capote's Black and White Ball, among other sources.

In Passenger, the audience is carried along with two actors on the bus as witnesses to a conversation that starts out in a very quotidian manner, and gradually evolves into something far more meaningful.

Declan Greene delights in stoning the glass palaces of gay privilege in a breathless, flat-out farce.

Luke Joslin and Brooke Satchwell star as hapless thespians attempting to stage a murder mystery.

Declan Greene hopes his new play will make "the beating heart of Sydney's gay male privilege" pause for thought

An all-in, turkey-flinging brawl punctuates a familiar set-up that's carried off impeccably.

A blackboard jungle drama tackles issues of sexual consent, ethics and power in unapologetic, in-your-face style.

American writer Beth Henley's play is the story of three small-town sisters reuniting in unhappy circumstances

She's Mary Poppins, she's Maria von Trapp, but Julie Andrews answers to a more familial pet name while in Brisbane.

A Muslim Romeo meets a Jewish Juliet in a conflict zone. But what of their families back home in Sydney?

I'm tired of being asked. In airports, on the street, the question is always the same says Silvia Calderoni.

Beth Henley's play Crimes of the Heart, made into a movie in 1986, zooms in on a Mississippi kitchen and three sisters with issues.

A new production of the stage musical spun from the Doris Day movie strikes a perfect balance between irreverence and respect.