Listings including text "arcola"

This is a brilliant version of Chekov's rarely performed first play, understandably avoided as it is undeniably a Make or Break script. This is the former: each aspect of it – acting, design, lighting and costume – is a potential award-winner. At the Arcola Theatre.

Simple8's succinct and encapsulating version of Melville's epic transports you through the  oceans of time, as well as from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Featuring a strong all-male ensemble, this production is original and raw. At the Arcola Theatre.

A malevolent yet playful adaptation of one of the most influential horror films of all time. Built around music, a multitalented cast and very little else, an admittedly witty script that has some tonal problems doesn't detract much from this engrossing, darkly comic study of guilt and control.

Laugh Your Farce Off at The Pleasance captured the spirit of new writing, testing the abilties of writers to work in a genre in which it is notoriously tricky to succeed. It would have done well to be better prepared, but overall the evening was enjoyable and warmly received.

Win two tickets to The Turn of the Screw, Henry James' classic gothic novella adapted for the stage by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, directed by Lindsay Posner at the Almeida Theatre!

The latest Miniaturists event brings staged performances of fully-formed short plays to the Arcola Theatre. From absurdist drama to monologues, five writers make the short play format their own, in a celebration of getting new writing onto London stages.

An unsavourily-plotted antidote to Guys and Dolls, the cult Mackendrick 50's movie was re-worked by A Chorus Line's Marvin Hamlisch for a 2002 Broadway opening that never really took off. In a more intimate setting appropriate to the New York night clubs through which the characters trawl, Arcola boss Mehmet Ergen directs a cracking, energetic production with outstanding choreography. 

The Miniaturists have been organising one-act play evenings since 2005, and the show has become an extremely well-oiled machine. This particular collection of plays is less hit than miss, but the high quality of directors, actors and writers involved speaks to the niche this group have carved out for themselves. At the Arcola Theatre.

Grimeborn, the Arcola Theatre's alternative and fringe opera festival, closed with new musical Thirteen Days this year, Alexander S. Bermange's musical rendition of the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the world purportedly came as close as it ever has to nuclear annihilation. There's still some work to be done to make this piece fully come together, but it's got some great moments for now. At the Arcola Theatre.

An awkward combination of sitcom and drama and scattered with Yoruba, Pandora's Box is a daunting piece to review - personally speaking, I felt lost for most of it and dragged back and forth between the different styles, although judging by the standing ovation I may have been the only one. At the Arcola Tent.