Category: National Theatre

Terence Rattigan’s Man and Boy is rarely performed – it wasn’t popular when it debuted back in 1963, receiving a muted response on both the West End and Broadway. It should be noted that this was due to the playwright’s declining popularity at the time; while his earlier plays were successful, by the 1960s the new wave of Angry Young Men had arrived, and in comparison Rattigan’s writing was deemed old-fashioned. We’re glad director Anthony Lau has revived this play for 2026, as it feels incredibly timely and relevant for…

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It’s taken us about eight years, but we have now finally completed David Eldridge’s trilogy of plays exploring love and relationships. Like its predecessors Beginning and Middle, End is a two-hander which plays out as a real-time conversation. The focus of Beginning was on two young lovers on the night they met at a house party, while in Middle we met two people in an established relationship which had begun to go south. The narrative of End – as you may already have guessed – looks at two people who…

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We were really rather taken with Ballet Shoes when we caught it at the National Theatre last Christmas – so much so that when we were offered an opportunity to review it again this year, we leapt at the chance. Kendall Feaver has adapted Noel Streatfeild’s beloved children’s novel for the stage, and it is playing once again at the Olivier Theatre – the largest of the three spaces within the National Theatre. So how does this year’s production fare? Unsurprisingly it’s very similar – some of the cast has…

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