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Arifa Akbar

Arifa Akbar is the Guardian's chief theatre critic

May 2025

  • Dharmesh Patel (Prince), Colm Gormley (Lord Capulet), Marcus Adolphy (Lord Montague) and Calum Callaghan (Tybalt) in Romeo and Juliet.

    Romeo and Juliet review – star-crossed lovers transported to the wild west

  • Robin Khor Yong Kuan in Scenes from a Repatriation.

    Scenes from a Repatriation review – 12 ingenious questions about cultural ownership

April 2025

  • Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare Directed by Max Webster Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Thursday 17 April – Saturday 7 June

    Titus Andronicus review – Simon Russell Beale is sublime amid epic horrors

  • Middle aged male and female actor sat at a kitchen table that is part of on a stage set

    My Master Builder review – Ewan McGregor’s cheating starchitect is torn down

  • ‘I hope it hits that sweet spot’ … artistic director Indhu Rubasingham, left, and co-chief-executive director Kate Varah.

    Paul Mescal, Stormzy and the return of rep – National Theatre boss reveals her risky debut season

  • Susanne Sachsse as Professor, and Hauke Heumann as Rabbit.

    ‘A mix of vaudeville and David Lynch’: the hit play about a giant rabbit on a psychoanalyst’s couch

  • Krapp’s Last Tape review – Gary Oldman’s arresting one-man Beckett is a startling piece of theatre

  • The Brightening Air review – shades of Vanya as a Sligo family squabble, tease and wrestle

  • The Great Gatsby: A New Musical review – what a swell party this ain’t

  • ‘To hell with RP’ … how surprise Olivier nominee Rosie Sheehy is following in Richard Burton’s footsteps

  • Super troupers! How do stars of long-running hits from Mamma Mia! to The Lion King keep the pizzazz pumping?

  • Speed review – comic tale of road rage and race is approachably provocative

  • Shanghai Dolls review – treachery and affinity between the women of Mao’s world

  • Midnight Cowboy: A New Musical review – gigolo and conman bromance builds to a shocking climax

  • Manhunt review – strangely plodding examination of life and death of Raoul Moat

  • ‘The violence is relentless. I don’t understand it’: Simon Russell Beale faces up to Shakespeare’s goriest play

  • Container review – avant-garde experiment evokes the vocalised sound of online scrolling

  • The Play’s the Thing: A One-Person Hamlet review – soliloquies that make the skin tingle

  • Just Between Ourselves review – Ayckbourn’s marital malaise comedy has a proto dark side

  • Rhinoceros review – Ionesco’s absurdist classic is taken around the horn

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