Usually, naturalistic stagings are seen as low risk.

Jack Thorne’s account of local austerity politics is at its best when it pulls down its pants to expose excruciating emotions

New drama about two North Korean sisters is vividly staged, but lacks deep emotion and real bite

DOA: Timely revival of Christopher Hampton’s satire on university intellectuals fails to come alive

Text of the day: “But I do not think you understand the terrible beauty of devotion, this infatuation with God.”

Text of the day: “Oh, give us a break!”

New captive drama is well-written in a symbolic vein that helps to humanise the story behind the headlines

Text of the day: “After all, we’re both adults.”

The latest from Britain’s best playwright is a fast-moving but rather chilly panorama of life today

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

Disturbing news has reached us from Istanbul, where it appears that our more passionate Muslim brothers have tried to censor a new play.

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

Text of the day: “Just.”

David Tennant charms and excites in Patrick Marber’s energetically contemporary rewrite of Molière

New play by Barney Norris is a 70-minute two-hander which is both extremely subtle and emotionally bleak

New comedy about race and housing is brilliantly written and its humour is a subversive joy

New epic from Jerusalem playwright Jez Butterworth is a breathtaking, if heartless experience

New drama about a transgender lesbian is not only hugely enjoyable, but also thought-provoking

Pic of the day: Amy looks after a pensioner — and discovers radical politics.

Quote of the day: “Yes, it’s possibly a weakness in me.”

Colourful, vivid and relevant revival of Martin Crimp’s 1993 epic tale of New York media

Thought of the day: “The Court is a slightly crazy place.”

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

Text of the day: “Let me tell you something.”

Tom Hollander stars in fiendishly clever Stoppard classic which argues for the immortality of genius

Screaming Lord Sutch biog-play is raucously entertaining, but rather superficial and thin on content

New devised piece about poverty and temporary accommodation is extremely powerful, but also deeply flawed

Verbatim drama based on a good idea goes fruitlessly in search of a compelling story

New play about three characters who have experienced loss is a moving elegy for both people and place

Within a week of the new government ambling into place, there are some cultural warning signs.

Text of the day: “All that shallow, superficial left-wing politics.”

Perfectly pitched adaptation by Simon Stephens of Mark Haddon’s classic tale is brilliantly staged

Television tie-in features live real-time voting: it’s timely but, hey, isn’t it more of a silly stunt than a satisfying drama?

The fraught relationship between Thatcher and the Queen creates hilarious theatrical sparks

Quote of the day: “Scrooge doesn’t change because he’s frightened — he changes because he’s haunted.”

New French play about globalisation and exploitation is powerful, but lacks full dramatic force

Text of the day: “Woke with a start with this thought: what if there’s a design fault in the Labour Party?”

Text of the day: “I think everybody gets fed up with the way the country’s run if I can be quite honest.”

Promenade performance of a timely but unexciting new verbatim play about the NHS fails to thrive

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

New family drama from Nina Raine is a rich, if sometimes fragmentary, account of community

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

Quote of the day: “I don’t want to hear somebody’s arguments about politics, thank you.”

Sheer joy and excitement as Lee (‘Billy Elliot’) Hall adapts book about six convent girls, with miraculous results

Alecky Blythe's verbatim play about the summer riots of 2011 is much more tedious than revealing

One from the archives: the turbulent life and times of a Critic adrift on the choppy waters of British New Writing

Is the New Labour era ripe for nostalgia?

New immersive experience tells its story of people trafficking with considerable power and imagination

New drama about addiction and acting is highly subjective, but also very powerful, informative and moving

A night in bed with Tony Blair takes the form of three stories about sex and love in Jack Thorne’s new 90-minute play

Text of the day: “I’d go into the tea tent and I’d sit with a paranoid schizophrenic, a banker, a runaway, a professor and a tranny, and we’d all have something in common.�...

Amsterdam’s Toneelgroep’s tedious staging of three stories from the Italian modernist film-maker

Uninspired by London theatre at the moment, I’ve turned my attention to the best spectator sport in the world: British politics.

American play about the use of virtual reality for pain relief has neat visuals, but is a bit thin

New drama about two North Korean youngsters has some nice touches, but its message of hope is too overtly idealistic

New comedy about England’s failed bid to host the World Cup is enjoyably satirical, but not very funny

Text of the day: “And in days to come, people will say it is the best thing in the world to be a citizen of England, because of England’s Parliament.”