Derek Jacobi gives a masterful performance as the tormented monarch For someone whose day job, like mine, is to comment on the cynicism and incompetence of current affairs, it is hard to express enthusiasm without embarrassment. It feels awkward to…

Men Should Weep is not worthy of the talents of the National. The Rivals, however, is blessed relief Men Should Weep at the Lyttelton is a harrowing play about the misery of life in a 1930s Glasgow slum tenement. Scene after scene portrays the…

It should be self-evident that there are some people who should not have children, at least not at certain stages of their lives. Anyone seriously addicted to disastrous drugs such as heroin, crack or crystal meth cannot be fit to be a parent and…

A new National Theatre play avoids cliché to portray US involvement in Afghanistan Confrontation: Pashtun warriors meet the CIA's Jim Warnock (Lloyd Owen) in "Blood and Gifts" It is rare for a play to be an elaborate history lesson, factually…

A 19th-century play about an 18th-century revolution may be baffling. But it’s worth it Georg Büchner’s great and unconventional play, Danton’s Death (1835), suffers from contemporary ignorance. Few people today can be expected to know much about the…

Vince Cable, the skills secretary, made a pre-emptive headline-grabbing speech last week to a collection of vice-chancellors. He suggested, among some other controversial proposals for universities, a new graduate tax . But for those who value…

Arthur Miller’s All My Sons has renewed resonance. The Apollo’s production is unrivalled A talent for ignoring things: Zoë Wanamaker in "All My Sons" The set of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre is so impressive that on the night I…

There is no such thing as a just price. That is what my O-level history teacher said years ago, shocking me out of my schoolgirl boredom with this startling idea: I had, without thinking, assumed prices were fair, like sixpence for every Mars bar. At…

It’s funny how you miss them when they’re gone. I am beginning to feel the lack of John Prescott and the Dickensian quirkiness with which he expressed the true spirit of Labour. Remember “We created the green belt and we mean to build on it”? Last…

A false allegation of rape can ruin a man’s life. Even if he is tried and found not guilty, he will still remain suspect in many people’s eyes and perhaps at home, too. Rape is notoriously difficult to prove, even when the defendant is clearly…

Sexual and political intrigue have always been part and parcel of the ruling elite’s life Although written nearly 400 years apart, Women Beware Women (1621) and Posh (2010) are both about sexual and political intrigue in high society. While Thomas…

Waste not, want not. Make do and mend. A stitch in time saves nine. One slice with marge and one without. There’s plenty of children would be grateful for that bit of gristle. Those were the phrases I heard constantly in my childhood, on the lips of…

A wave of sympathy broke over the media sisterhood last week when the writer Allison Pearson confessed in her Daily Mail column that she was suffering from depression and was therefore no longer able to carry on; she said goodbye to her readers. The…

Five plays that have stood the test of time get a new airing on the London stage Felicity Kendal: Convincing as a rich madame in Shaw's "Mrs Warren's Profession" New productions are often interesting, but it is sometimes tempting to go instead to old…

Change. That seems to be the holy grail of this election and of the television debates. David Cameron has been confidently promising it for some time, but suddenly Nick Clegg is trying to grab it from his hands and offer it to us himself. A nasty…

The story of former Lance-Corporal Tilern DeBique, MySpace glamour puss and soldier single mum, is a cautionary tale that almost defies belief. It would be impossible to dream up a better parody of the idiocy of today’s rights and compensation…

Religious freedom has turned out to be a mixed blessing. The idea was once an article of faith with me, irreligious though I am. But my faith is beginning to weaken. Religion has turned out to be different from what tolerant people of my monocultural…

Jerusalem, a play rich in historical resonance, is dominated by an extraordinary individual performance Jez Butterworth’s new play Jerusalem aroused my deepest prejudices when I first heard about it. A state-of-the-nation play set around a mobile…

It was reassuring to hear from the prime minister last week that he has never hit anyone. No one had openly accused him of it, so it was perhaps a little odd that he felt obliged to volunteer this information. But in a week of avid speculation about…

Once in a while, you see something on stage that takes your breath away Family tangle: James Earl Jones and Adrian Lester in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" Truly great moments of theatre are rare. Even in the best of productions, there are very few of those…