National Theatre of Scotland
Readers’ favourite stage shows of 2022
This year readers saw some amazing theatre, provoking tears, recognition, anger, inspiration and awe
Guardian readers
19, Dec, 2022 @3:41 PM
The best theatre of 2022
In a superb year for the stage, our chief critic gives 10 shows an extra round of applause. Plus, Guardian theatre reviewers each pick their 2022 standout
Arifa Akbar
15, Dec, 2022 @3:00 PM
The best theatre to stream this month: The Book of Dust, Four Quartets and the start of panto season
Our roundup of drama to watch at home includes Alan Ayckbourn’s 87th play, live performance from Ukraine and a concert of lost showtunes
Chris Wiegand
01, Nov, 2022 @8:00 AM
James IV: Queen of the Fight review – Rona Munro’s knotty latest Stewart dynasty play
A racist verse by the court poet William Dunbar is the problematic inspiration for the fourth of Munro’s James plays exploring Scotland past and present
Clare Brennan
16, Oct, 2022 @10:30 AM
Medea review – Adura Onashile exudes awesome authority in bloody tragedy
Liz Lochhead’s Scots verse spits wit and venom as male power meets female determination with operatic intensity, in this National Theatre of Scotland staging
Mark Fisher
14, Aug, 2022 @12:56 PM
Exodus review – home secretary launches leadership bid in satirical farce
Uma Nada-Rajah’s farce about an MP using intolerance as her ticket to the top job is very timely, but feebly plotted
Mark Fisher
08, Aug, 2022 @9:05 AM
Burn review – Alan Cumming is extraordinary as Scotland’s rockstar poet
Cumming’s daring evocation in movement of the life of Robert Burns goes way beyond the biscuit-tin
Mark Fisher
07, Aug, 2022 @10:26 AM
Orphans review – buoyant musical about death, grief and boozing
Four adult siblings react to their mother’s death in wildly different ways, in this raucous musical adaptation of Peter Mullan’s 1998 film black comedy
Mark Fisher
08, Apr, 2022 @1:00 PM
Diary of a director: ‘I am buzzing off the passion and sweat of this gang’
Cora Bissett is staging a musical adaptation of Peter Mullan’s film Orphans for the National Theatre of Scotland. Here, she shares her notes from rehearsals
Cora Bissett
01, Apr, 2022 @4:03 PM
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde review – theatre-film hybrid is an unwieldy beast
Hope Dickson Leach relocates RL Stevenson’s gothic chiller to its spiritual home in Edinburgh and gives it a modern format, but it’s a verbose, old-fashioned work
Mark Fisher
28, Feb, 2022 @12:01 AM
Alan Cumming to play Robert Burns in solo dance-theatre show
Actor aims to tell the Scottish poet’s story ‘using my whole body’ in a production at the 75th Edinburgh international festival in August
Chris Wiegand
25, Jan, 2022 @3:06 PM
The Enemy review – Ibsen thrust into the social media age
A conscientious citizen stands against the forces of fake news and self-interest in the National Theatre of Scotland’s provocative adaptation
Mark Fisher
14, Oct, 2021 @10:13 AM
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