Theatre & Dance

The Diary: James Franco; ICA; Michael Sheen; Steven Berkoff; Miranda Hart

Friday, 18 February 2011

Guy Laliberté: The space cadet with a nose for business

Thursday, 17 February 2011

The Cirque du Soleil founder tells Alice Jones about his new Michael Jackson show – and going into orbit

Snake In The Grass, Print Room, London (Rated 2/ 5 )

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Reviewed by Paul Taylor

A leap into the unknown

Thursday, 17 February 2011

A dancer leaps across the stage at The Place theatre in London, where the Tavaziva Dance Company will perform as part of a new programme announced yesterday.

Carmen, Sadler's Wells, London (Rated 2/ 5 )

Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Aída Gómez's Carmen goes through the motions. Her production, appearing as part of the Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival, is an oddly slack experience. When two quarrelling women spin towards each other, a lack of attack makes their confrontation look sluggish. The whole company run on for a confrontation, but the movement is lightweight: it's never a headlong rush.

Reading Hebron, Orange Tree, Richmond (Rated 3/ 5 )

Wednesday, 16 February 2011

On 25 February 1994, a Jewish settler named Baruch Goldstein from the West Bank city of Hebron shot dead 29 Palestinian worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site sacred to both Jews and Muslims. Reading about this atrocity sends Nathan Abramowitz, the Toronto Jew who is the driven protagonist of Jason Sherman's hard-hitting play, onto an investigative trail that then spirals into an obsessive, savagely zany examination of Israeli politics, American support for Israel, and, last but far from least, his own psychology as a so-called self-hating liberal Jew.

Black Swan not BS

Tuesday, 15 February 2011

Casting an eye over one of the most demanding "doubles" in classical ballet may never be quite the same again.

Sir Henry Irving: The Guv'nor is still taking centre stage

Tuesday, 15 February 2011

Sir Henry Irving's Somerset home has been honoured with a plaque. Charles Nevin joins the theatricals at the ceremony

Plenty, Crucible Studio, Sheffield (Rated 4/ 5 )

Tuesday, 15 February 2011

Britain's post-war years have long been viewed as some kind of austere and pent-up wait for the liberation of the 1960s – all damp bedsits, powdered egg and Bovril. But despite the rationing and the lack of central heating it was surely an exciting time to be alive. As old-school diplomat Sir Leonard Darwin explains early on in Plenty – there are jobs to be done, roads to be built and land to be tilled. There was also Charlie Parker, some great-looking clothes and – assuming you were part of a "loose Pimlico set" – the prospect of bohemian sex, booze aplenty and even the occasional bong.

Ballet Black, Linbury Studio Theatre, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Monday, 14 February 2011

Ballet Black celebrates its 10th anniversary with happy confidence and a noticeable gear change. The company was founded to bring more black dancers into ballet and its aim was to provide role models.