An author famously protective of his text

Our critic looks back at the best, worst, most underrated and most irritating performances of 2025 and recommends the plays to see this Christmas

THE NEW FILM HAMNET, BASED ON MAGGIE O’FARRELL’S award-winning 2020 novel, imagines how William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in a haze of grief over the death of his son. In a sly bit of casting, director

Playwright of dazzling wit and complex ideas Sir ...

Theatre: All My Sons Wyndham’s Theatre, London WC2 ...

Screwball escapades on the Lower East Side; bittersweet glory on Broadway; trauma in Tehran; and more…