Michael Billington
Michael Billington has written about theatre for the Guardian since 1971. His books include The 101 Greatest Plays and State of the Nation: British Theatre Since 1945
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Playing in the vast ancient amphitheatre, imaginative new productions of Euripides and Aeschylus find fresh nuance even in this huge space
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4 out of 5 stars.A blend of pageantry, procession, music and mystery, with many private moments to savour
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A new revival of The Circle is a reminder of a dramatist who smuggled vital messages into broad crowdpleasers
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There are invigorating versions of Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma! and Cabaret in London – and some enticing new dramas coming up – yet theatre risks being cut off from its past
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He presented himself as a message-free entertainer but, 50 years after his death, it is time to reconsider the variety of the great playwright’s work
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In a shocking attack, the ballet director Marco Goecke smeared dog excrement in the face of Wiebke Hüster in retaliation for her review. Yet it isn’t the first time an artist has assaulted a critic. Our writers share their worst moments
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Dramatist and screenwriter whose best-known stage play, Alpha Beta, is a scorching study of marriage and morality
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Pitting the capital against the regions is a cynical political ploy and the Arts Council’s cuts are a catastrophe for new writing – as well as the entertainment industry
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3 out of 5 stars.
The Yeomen of the Guard review – tonal uncertainties but G&S update has plenty to enjoy
3 out of 5 stars.Jo Davies’ 1950-set staging of the late G&S opera may not fully cohere but musically we’re in excellent hands and Richard McCabe’s is a moving – and sweatily desperate – Jack Point
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Costumes, props, posters and archive video footage all feature in an expansive exhibition that leaves you itching to see some shows again
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An immense task awaits the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new artistic directors who must attract top talent, prioritise verse-speaking and combine classic repertory and contemporary drama
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The whodunnit starring Saoirse Ronan is a fun spoof but tinkers with history and never captures the unique way Agatha Christie’s play fascinated audiences in the 50s
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Mike Bartlett’s 2014 play anticipated a constitutional crisis, while playwrights including Shakespeare and Chekhov have shown how traumatic a transfer of power can be
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The monarch was sympathetically depicted by dramatists and at a 1999 production of Oklahoma! her eyes lit up when she recalled her own theatrical outings
Rufus Norris has made the National Theatre more diverse – on both sides of the curtain