Opera is associated with formality and expensive venues. But a new breed of producer wants to change all that

As far as the performing arts are concerned, there’s nothing really controversial about the cuts, or indeed the increases. What remains at issue is the value—in both political and “real”...

Antonioni Project Barbican Theatre, 1st-5th February The films of Michelangelo Antonioni, who died in 2007, are strange, disturbing and emotionally volatile—characters locked in sexual and...

Rebecca Hall stars in her father’s production of Twelfth Night Twelfth Night dir Peter Hall, National Theatre, 11th January-2nd March Sold out: Returns or queue on the day for...

Peter Brook will celebrate his 86th birthday in March with a Barbican production. The most original of theatrical titans tells Michael Coveney why the time for banging the drum is over

  Season’s Greetingsby Alan Ayckbourn, National Theatre, 1st December-4th January Tis the season to be jolly, or perhaps not with Alan Ayckbourn’s 1980 classic comedy of a...

The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen, dir Travis Preston, Almeida, 12th November-8th January 2011 Quietly picking off the big roles at his own pace, Stephen Dillane is the most interesting of the...

  An ear for observation: Nina Raine's Tribes at the Royal Court   Tribes by Nina Raine, Royal Court, London 14th October-13th November With two new plays on the way (the...

Immersive theatre is billed as a thrilling and intimate alternative to traditional drama, but it smacks of triviality and low-level fascism

Summer is here, and with it open-air shows ranging from Peter Pan to The Crucible. These performances draw on theatre’s roots