We have a pretty special guest interview this week: somehow we got Willem Dafoe on the phone from Venice, where he's now in his second year as artistic director of the Biennale Theatre Festival. Long before Spider-Man villains and Wes Anderson ensembles, Dafoe was a downtown New York theatre kid, spending four decades with the experimental Wooster Group, and he is as brilliant on the subject of live performance as you'd hope. He also tells Nick Curtis why he's 'very turned on right now'...

In reviews, the Old Vic's all-female Glengarry Glen Ross gives us plenty to chew over — is gender-swapping David Mamet's toxic-masculinity classic illuminating or just a clever exercise? — while A Fine Idea at the Arcola tackles the murky world of international aid with righteous research.

The delightful and ridiculously versatile Paul Chahidi talks about playing opposite Sandra Oh in Martin Crimp's reimagined The Misanthrope at the National.

And we dig into a stacked week of theatre news: a new James Graham play about Keynes (John Maynard, not Milton), the Shaftesbury Theatre's renaming in honour of Judi Dench, and Ian McKellen's much-anticipated return to the stage at The Yard.

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A mixed bag of horror, comedy and drama this week...First up, Martina Laird's debut play Driftwood arrives at the Kiln: set in a Port of Spain gentleman's club on the eve of Trinidad's independence, it's bursting with ideas, a stellar cast, and a second act that gets quite mad. Then the gang reviews Under the Shadow at the Almeida. Leila Farzad is magnetic as a woman trapped in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq War, stalked by something that may or may not be a jinn (and may or may not have rubber fingers).

Producer Tim Bano sits down with Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris to discuss how War Horse, one of the most successful pieces of theatre ever made, came into being almost 20 years ago. It went very wrong before it went very right...

And Patricia Allison, Sex Education's Maeve, is at the Orange Tree in Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy. She answers our Five Questions.

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War Horse is back...After nearly two decades, the show that transformed theatre has returned to the National Theatre. Nick, Nick and Nancy discuss whether it still hits, and why it might matter even more right now. Plus young critic Dash returns to the pod to give his verdict from the stalls of the Olivier.

We also review Cole Porter musical High Society at the Barbican, starring Helen George as Tracy Lord, a role made famous by both Grace Kelly and Katharine Hepburn, alongside Felicity Kendal, Freddie Fox and Nigel Lindsay.

Isis Hainsworth — who lit up the Old Vic's Arcadia and just won the Ian Charleson Award — joins Nancy for a conversation about imposter syndrome and Tom Stoppard's terrifying cleverness. And Martina Laird answers our five questions ahead of her play Driftwood at the Kiln.

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After becoming one of Broadway's biggest sleeper hits and an absolute social media phenomenon, Beetlejuice the Musical has landed at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End. Nancy, Nick and producer Tim ventured to the Netherworld to see what all the fuss is about. The gang also headed Stratford East for The Harder They Come, the reggae-soaked, infectious, bass-rattlingly loud stage version of the 1972 Jamaican film classic. Spoiler: one of them didn't quite make it to the end, for reasons entirely beyond their control...

Nick Curtis interviews the wonderful Susannah Fielding — you'll know her from This Time with Alan Partridge, from stealing every scene she's in on Tom Jones, or from making Daddy Issues compulsively watchable — and she's about to open opposite Adrian Lester in the RSC's Cyrano de Bergerac at the Noël Coward. And comedian and playwright Rosie Holt answers our Five Questions ahead of Churchill's Urinal, her new play about a sentient toilet possessed by the spirit of Winston Churchill. As you do.

Plus, the gang get obsessed with Sting, Shaggy and the real Cyrano de Bergerac...

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This week Nick, Nick and Nancy review Alexander Zeldin's Care at the Young Vic - a compassionate, unflinching look at life in an elderly care facility, starring the magnificent Linda Bassett - and the RSC's new musical The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind @sohoplace, the extraordinary true story of a 13-year-old who built a windmill to save his Malawian village from famine. Plus Nancy talks to the brilliant Leila Farzad about her role in Under the Shadow at the Almeida, a supernatural thriller set during the Iran-Iraq War. And Liv Hill, one of the lead trio in 1536, answers our Five Questions.

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It's only been a few weeks since we went away, but so much theatre has happened in the meantime...Nick Curtis, Nick Clark and Nancy Durrant are back to fill you in on all the goings on in London. And we kick off the season with a stellar episode: we review Gary Oldman's return to the stage for the first time in 40-odd years as he takes on Samuel Beckett's play Krapp's Last Tape at the Royal Court.

The play we couldn't stop talking about all last year has transferred to the West End - Ava Pickett's blistering, hilarious Tudor drama 1536 - but does it live up to our memories of it first time round?

And the star of Top Gun Maverick and A Complete Unknown, the fabulous Monica Barbaro, talks to Nick Curtis about her stage debut in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National Theatre alongside Aidan Turner and Lesley Manville. She talks about turning to the stage, how it feels to play difficult material eight times a week, and how you sprint in a lavishly designed ball gown.

Plus artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe Michelle Terry answers five questions.

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Even though we are officially on a break, we couldn't resist gathering together some of our favourite people for a bonus episode to tide you over until the new season begins.

The incredible Giles Terera, who has starred in the UK premieres of Hamilton and Avenue Q among many other musicals, but is just as well known for his Shakespearean performances, talks about Clint Dyer's production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which has just opened at the Old Vic.

Gwyneth Keyworth was one of our favourite guests from the last season, so we asked her back to answer our five questions as she continues to perform in the National Theatre production of Maxim Gorky's Summerfolk.

And Ryan Calais Cameron, the brilliant writer of For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy and Retrograde, tells us what it means to him to be appointed the first patron of Camden People's Theatre.

We will be back soon, but in the meantime you can keep up with our theatregoing thoughts on Instagram or watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

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It's a big week. The fifth season comes to an end with no Nick Clark - he's on holiday - but instead a Nick, a Nancy, a producer Tim AND two big starry shows to round things off: two of the most exciting young actors around, Noah Jupe and Sadie Sink, play Shakespeare's star crossed lovers in Robert Icke's take on Romeo and Juliet at the Harold Pinter theatre, and Aidan Turner and the peerless Lesley Manville revive Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National Theatre under director Marianne Elliott.

Plus Nick Curtis talks to veteran stage and screen actor Henry Goodman about his return to Arthur Miller for a revival of The Price - as well as what it was like to actually work with Miller. And Eleanor Worthington-Cox answers five questions including one of the best (or maybe worst) onstage mishaps we've heard so far.

We'll be back soon for another season...in the meantime there may be some bonus content dropping into your feeds. And keep an eye on all the latest updates on Instagram and see what we look like on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

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Self Esteem aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor returns to the stage for the second time: after playing a singer on the verge of a breakdown when she took on the role of Sally Bowles in Cabaret in 2023, now she plays an alcoholic singer on the verge of a breakdown in David Hare's 1975 play Teeth 'n' Smiles - the gang give their verdict. They also review Kimberly Belflower's Tony-nominated hit US play John Proctor is the Villain currently at the Royal Court. Plus the delightful Gwyneth Keyworth chats to Nancy about starring in the National Theatre production of Summerfolk, which we all loved last week, and how when she grew up she originally wanted to be...a vampire. And stage legend Clive Rowe answers our five questions.

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