Live! Alive! Alive! Semi-autobiographical coming of age story raps and jumps to the sounds of grime

More overviews of British new writing from the In-Yer-Face Theatre archive.

The Critic releases a howl of anguish as he goes against the will of the people

The poet laureate’s verbatim play about Brexit sinks into journalistic and untheatrical banality

Simon Stephens’s new one about loss offers an unusually experimental and immersive experience

New docu-drama about the Chinese blood-contamination scandal of 1990s is about corruption and cover-up

This time, I have taken a critical look at about 75 years of British theatre history.

Text of the day: “Think of it all.”

Mike Bartlett explores Englishness with enormous metaphoric zeal — and only a touch of preposterousness

New second world war teen love story is adventurous and touching and simply magical

Thrillingly epic account of a defining American institution delights in three superb performances

Magnificent futuristic fantasy is a political fable that examines both the monarchy and the media

Magnificent revival of David Greig’s 1990s visionary classic is timely, tough and tender, brutal and brilliant

Quote of the day: “‘If only you will look on high,’ the old statesman tells Scipio, ‘and contemplate this eternal home and resting place, you will no longer bother with the...

Revival of Caryl Churchill’s dystopian classic is not quite as imaginative as it really could be

The death of David Bowie provokes the Critic to take a trip down the motorways and side alleys of memory

Explore the work of a handful of British theatre’s brightest and most exciting writing talents

Frank, funny and occasionally ferocious revival of the late Kevin Elyot’s 1982 Bush Theatre debut

Censorship appears to be simple, but is actually quite complicated.

Touring production of verbatim theatre piece about the Birmingham schools scandal is absorbingly polemical and moving

New play about a lost teenage youth has an impressive production, but is thin on plot and character

On the 50th anniversary of 1968 David Edgar looks back at his younger self and explores the results of radical politics

A short evening of satirical swipes at politicians, plotters and prophets is only fitfully funny and occasionally sharp

The longest-running play in world history is in good shape, despite the lackluster and mechanical cast

Timely fringe revival of Sarah Daniels’s most well-known play is welcome, if still imperfect

Maxine Peake struggles to make the voice of reason heard in a rather reactionary feminist history play

New play about gender, regional and professional identity rides the crest of the feelgood factor

New blood courses through the veins of the West End’s longest-running musical

New play about female friendship is refreshingly original, dazzlingly written and theatrically exciting

New play about optimism is compassionate in conception, but repetitive and frustrating in performance

New staging of Shelagh Delaney’s 1958 play is more of a vivid cartoon than a reimagined classic

Welcome new play about China is fascinating, but also a bit too complicated and too dense

Excellent revival of Lucy Prebble’s disturbing debut play about loneliness, the internet and illegal desire

Pix of the week: sneak preview of The Time Traveler’s Guide to British Theatre.

David Hare’s latest is set in an alternative reality that is more 2008 than 2018

In the Brexit era, this site-specific revival of Agatha Christie’s 1953 courtroom drama works like a treat

Adaptation of Patrick Ness’s bestseller is coolly efficient, but rather unexciting and unimaginative

Toff antics, nostalgic politics and troubled masculinity in Laura Wade’s exceptionally pertinent new play

Comedy about Labour Party history is starry, but politically reactionary and tediously overblown

David Greig’s much-lauded mountaineering survival story fails to reach the dizzy heights

James Graham does it again: his account of the “coughing major” scandal is great entertainment

This time, I have time travelled with my companion Lia Ghilardi, crossing four hundred years of British theatre history.

Text of the day: “Cor, what a miserable rainy day!”

Star cast led by Daniel Radcliffe, Alan Cumming and Jane Horrocks make light work of the Beckett classic

Super-star James McAvoy triumphs in Martin Crimp’s magnificent makeover of the French classic: a jaw-dropping success!