by one. Alabama Blues for the Sky
Lyttelton, London; October
It’s been an outstanding year for big, important games at the National. Produced by Indhu Rubasingham The Father and the Assassin Dominic Cooke swept the stage with a completely different palette and movement, while reimagining it in a beautifully, resoundingly resounding way. corn green. Yet the fluid staging of Lynette Linton’s Pearl Cleage’s Harlem renaissance drama lingered the longest: gloriously capturing an entire world of melancholy but hopefully gritty and effusively costumed by Frankie Bradshaw.
2. Burnt City
One Cartridge Place, London; April (booked until 16 April 2023)
Returning to London, Punchdrunk used Aeschylus, Fritz Lang and Alexander McQueen to stage the siege of Troy at their new permanent Woolwich home – two old munitions factories. Here is ritual dance, sublime splendor and exquisitely drilled details (in the beer keg marked “Hades”): the company’s unique combination of majestic and grainy.
3. Oklahoma!
Young Vic, London; May
It was a year in which the classics were revisited. Daniel Fish and Jordan Fein’s version of Rodgers and Hammerstein was a triumph: a bunch of sharp wires; the audience is close enough to touch the actors; The action was dark but no less lively. (In comparison, the much-heralded rethinking of Bartlett Sher My Fair Lady and To kill a mockingbird apologetic tampering.)
4. Hamlet
Bristol Former Vic; October
Directed by John Haidar, young actors Billy Howle, Mirren Mack and Isabel Adomakoh Young are filled with urgency; Niamh Cusack and Finbar Lynch were an amazing couple. After a year darkened by massive funding cuts, the replenishment of Bristol Old Vic’s Arts Council was a rare flash of light: they were stripped of grants from the crucial Donmar and Gate, theaters in London famous for creating new talent. Hampstead, directed by artistic director Roxana Silbert, resigned, saying the cuts meant the theater could not continue as a stage for new writing.
5. Orlando
Garrick, London; December (continues until February 25, 2023)
Illuminated by Emma Corrin’s majestic glow; Sharpened by the wit of Deborah Findlay.
6. Not now
Finborough, London; November
David Ireland’s exciting play concludes a year of great new work in small theaters. (Peter Gill’s something in the air He brought a troubled tenderness to Jermyn Street; In Soho, Blanche McIntyre’s production by Nathan Ellis Super High Definition it was hot.)
7. The Mozart Question
Stable, Cirencester; April
Based on Michael Morpurgo’s novel by Vicki Berwick, Jessica Daniels’ sparkling production, talk and live music – klezmer, Vivaldi – intertwine to tell the vital story of Jewish musicians forced to perform in Nazi death camps.
8. me joan
Shakespeare’s Globe, London; September
From St. Joan, who couldn’t think of herself as a girl, to Naomi Kuyck-Cohen’s design, there was “non-binary elegance” in every aspect of Ilinca Radulian’s production: the stage was twisted into a wave.
9. Daddy
Almeida, London; April
Danya Taymor’s trance-like production of Jeremy O Harris’ play had the brilliance and brilliance of a Hockney billiard painting. £100,000 has been deducted from Almeida’s Arts Council grant, which regularly produces outstanding new works.
10. Famous Virgins
theater Clwyd, Pattern; May
The extraordinary history of true 18th century lovers, originally teachers and students, living in a “Valley Fairy Palace” 20 miles from this theater – passionate about snake charmers and Aeolian harps; Visited by the Duke of Wellington and Wordsworth. Eleri B Jones’ production was another feather in the hat of artistic director Tamara Harvey, who left Clwyd the next year to head the Royal Shakespeare Company with Daniel Evans.
