Theatre of 2024 - 10 Favourite Productions

 

Till the Stars Come Down, NT
(Photo: Manuel Harlan)

The National Theatre started the year with one of its strongest shows: Bijan Sheibani's glorious production of Beth Steel's Till the Stars Come Down, set during an East Midlands Anglo-Polish wedding. Steel's play is another three sisters' story in essence, but a fresh and rich one, as the disappointments, hopes and fears of Sinéad Matthews' bride, and Lisa McGrillis and Lucy Black as her siblings, gradually come into focus. Firmly rooted in community and time but with a touch of cosmic magic besides, and playing out on a mirrorballed set by Samal Black that made the audience the wedding reception guests, Steel's play was laugh-out-loud funny (take a bow, Lorraine Ashbourne's peerless Auntie Carol), huge-hearted, sharply perceptive and, in its final stretch, unafraid of big emotions. Review here. 

Dear Octopus, NT
(Photo: Marc Brenner)

Another NT highlight was another ensemble family play, Dodie Smith's 1938 Dear Octopus - one of a more sedate vintage but rendered equally vivid and involving in Emily Burns' beautiful staging. The production worked by playing the text, with its old-fashioned surface but ever-relevant ambivalence about family, absolutely straight and without gimmicks, allowing the cast plenty of space; a performance of rare and magical translucence from Lindsay Duncan as the fussy but insightful and, it turns out, adaptable matriarch, was one standout of many. 

Roots, Almeida 
(Photo: Marc Brenner)

Adorable as the son in Dear Octopus, Billy Howle had a great year on stage (not that anyone except Lloyd Evans seemed to notice), delivering a compelling Jimmy Porter in  Look Back in Anger at the Almeida and adding a hilarious supporting performance to the theatre's cross-cast Roots - in which  Morfydd Clark shone as Beatie. An hour shorter than the leisurely Donmar production of 2013, director Diyan Zora took the action of Arnold Wesker's play at a clip but didn't stint on nuance or emotion. 

Nye, NT
(Photo: Johan Persson)

The founding of the NHS was  dramatised in two memorable shows this year. Nye, in Rufus Norris' production, had some of the forced larkiness characteristic of the director and didn't always do Tim Price's writing justice. (For Salt Root and Roe alone, I'll be Price's fan forever.) But there were potent moments throughout, and, back on the Olivier after his great turn in Lindsey Turner's pandemic-period Under Milk Wood, Michael Sheen gave another performance as robust as it was detailed.

The Human Body, Donmar
(Photo: Marc Brenner)

Concerned, among many other things, with the impact of the NHS on 'ordinary' lives rather than just those of policymakers, Lucy Kirkwood's  excellent The Human Body premiered at the Donmar with Keeley Hawes as the GP and budding MP reckoning with difficult personal and professional choices, as she gets sidetracked by an affair with Jack Davenport's returned-from-Hollywood actor. Paying tribute to 1940s British cinema (especially Brief Encounter), the intricate production, with its brilliantly multi-rolling cast and live filming, offered a rich portrait of post-WWII Britain, as well as an elegant farewell to the Donmar from Artistic Director Michael Longhurst (here co-directing with Ann Yee). 

Bluets, Royal Court
(Photo: Camilla Greenwood) 

Expressive live filming was also a key component of Bluets, in which Katie Mitchell made Maggie Nelson's highly interior, by turns perceptive and pretentious, text into a meditation on grief and loss for three performers, delivered to perfection here by Ben Whishaw, Kayla Meikle, and Emma Corrin. 

Twelfth Night, Orange Tree
(Photo: Ellie Kurttz)

Of what I saw at the Orange Tree this year, Trevor Nunn's widely praised Uncle Vanya - poorly designed, miscast and generally overacted - seemed much too generously received, but Tom Littler closed the year on a high note with a fantastic chamber Twelfth Night - a jewel of a production, with glittering performances from a cast including Jane Asher, Patricia Allison and Oliver Ford Davies, plus Stefan Bednarczyk's piano-playing master-of-revels Feste and Clive Francis again revealing himself as something of a comedy genius.  

Long Day's Journey into Night, Wyndham's
(Photo: Johan Persson)

Underwhelming reviews greeted several starry West End revivals this year - probably deservedly in most cases, but not when it came to Jeremy Herrin's loving and beautifully pitched production of Eugene O'Neill's great family play. I saw it twice, and the performances of Brian Cox, Patricia Clarkson, Daryl McCormack and Laurie Kyanston deepened to find fresh textures in the relationships each time. The traditional approach of Herrin's production was even more appreciated after witnessing the utter travesty that Luk Perceval's staging, from Kraków's Helena Modrzejewska National Old Theatre, made of the play, which it didn't seem to understand at even the most basic level. 

Beze mine jesteś nikim, Teatr Nowy
(Photo: HaWa)

Along with a misbegotten musicalised version of The Secret Garden at Teatr Nowy, Perceval's production was by far the worst thing I saw on a stage in 2025. But, these disappointments aside, there was of course some fine work on Polish stages too. Nowy redeemed itself thoroughly with Agata Biziuk's production Beze mnie jesteś nikim  (Without Me You're Nothing), a penetrating exploration of domestic violence based on Jacek Holub's reporting, accomplished with cast of four and a haunting theatrical vision. 

What's Demeter?, Teatr CHOREA 
(Photo: Agnieszka Cytacka)

And, under the Festival theme of "Awakenings," Teatr CHOREA celebrated its 20th anniversary in inimitable style at Retroperspektywy with What's Demeter? - an exhilarating rollercoaster ride through two decades of risk-taking performances that also worked as a cohesive experience in its own right. An evening of multiple awakenings, indeed. (Report on the Festival here.) 

Also: Burza (The Tempest) (Teatr Jaracza) The Ballad of Hattie and James (Kiln), Hotel ZNP (Nowy), Hic Sunt Dracones (Retroperspektywy Festival)

Hic Sunt Dracones
(Photo: Agnieszka Cytacka)