Matt Barton

Anyway, this “spoilt and entitled horrible little ignoramus” just saw End at the National and loved it! Such rich but understated performances. Not seen anyone crumple their face like Clive Owen. The hour and a half flew by; I almost didn’t want it to end

For the avoidance of doubt, he definitely does not have a quarrel with me not liking the work. “Could not give a shiny shite about that”, in fact.

My weekend began with a 1,353-word email from the director of the show I reviewed in the FT this week, which began like this (below), went on to say I’m not fit to clean the boots of the production team, and concluded by saying “Yours is a remarkably ugly contribution to the world.” Happy Saturday

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber reunite for dire Sherlock Holmes and the 12 Days of Christmas [FREE TO READ] The duo’s songs are elementary and the rest of the Birmingham Rep’s show is equally basic

I thought this was a bit of a turkey. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice muster up all of seven forgettable songs that make you wonder why they bothered. But nothing else in the messy show seems to have a clearer idea of what is going on or why

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For a limited time only, you can get 20% off an Exeunt subscription, granting you 100% access to some of the best voices in theatre criticism. Which I would surely take up myself were I not one of said best voices in theatre criticism.

The Line of Beauty review: A production that’s seduced by its own story 29th October 2025 • Almeida ★★★☆☆ Jasper Talbot (Nick). Photo: Johan Persson There is a fine line between a production that captures a specific period and an old-fashioned period piece. It is …

Very late to writing up my Line of Beauty thoughts, but I thought it had great performances in a pretty uninspired, trad production that made you feel Grandage's reverence for the novel above much else

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Ft. me on Oli Hurst’s revival of Dennis Kelly’s Orphans, which has another fantastically full-on performance from John O’Neill, but not a whole lot else

I felt I had more to say after writing my Marina Abramovic review the other week, and thankfully so did some of the other critics. Cue an Exeunt discussion about endurance, bodily diversity and whether the thing really needed to be four hours at all

The Unbelievers review: Nicola Walker is a grieving mother who won’t let go of her belief ★★★☆☆ 23rd October 2025 • Royal Court Nicola Walker (Miriam). Photo: Brinkhoff Moegenburg There is a split in this new play starring Nicola Walker. Not between husband and wife, as in her BBC drama…

Nick Payne's new play is full of the frenzied agitation and dislocation of being left without answers in the wake of a family catastrophe, but I felt it lacked the quiet devastation that must surely accompany it

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Despite an incredibly forceful performance from David Shields, I thought Punch was far too bombastic. It felt as crass and sensationalistic as a tabloid headline. And moratorium on adults playing teenagers, especially teenage roadmen 🥴

This felt like a great idea that lacks the parts it needs to fulfil the director’s ambitions of it having a big further life. Those parts being great songs and/or a great book

Joe Penhall has written some great plays, but hasn’t written a great book here. Don’t think the solution to the story’s simplicity (The Kinks became big then fell out) is to saddle it with a load of cliches and make Ray Davies the most irritatingly earnest character imaginable

Marina Abramović is still making remarkable large-scale work at 78 – even if she is also still resorting to some glib imagery here and there. But I otherwise loved this often hypnotic four-hour odyssey through her surreal rituals about sex, life and death

This has moments of wonder, largely thanks to Scott Brooks’s Ariel, which it almost ruins with its lack of discipline. Not least throwing in a 10-minute naff magic show, complete with audience participation, near the end when the play already struggles to wrap itself up swiftly

Worth catching when it heads to Soho Theatre in November

Cracking new (albeit Mamet-indebted) comedy with fangs where Alastair Michael’s professor and Matt Holt’s Dean, who moves twitchily like a velociraptor, play an absurd game of brinksmanship that spirals as they devolve into beasts, finishing with one of Foley’s characteristically brilliant endings

Breaking the Code fails to crack the character of Alan Turing — review The mathematician’s dazzling life is flattened in Royal & Derngate, Northampton’s revival of Hugh Whitemore’s play

A man with the imagination of Alan Turing is given a production with little theatrical imagination. A potentially riveting drama becomes a patience-tester about the code-breaker

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Wasn’t sure what to expect with this, but it was great - so much thought and effort clearly gone into the clever production design and vivid detail of the performances. Michael Hugo a particular hoot

Tribune readers once again by and large absolutely outraged that I’ve dared to find imperfections in a production at their local theatre. This time inexplicably referring to me as “Barton” like a boarding school headmaster

The Crucible's next chapter opens 'Yes, big things happen because of the big capital P[olitics], but really your life changes in a room with your family.'

Back in the Sheffy T reviewing Elizabeth Newman’s first show as AD: a production whose main problem is that it’s a production of Dancing at Lughnasa, a play that makes you think it must’ve been a fallow year when it won its Olivier

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Reviewed Manchester’s Darkfield triple bill; I’m yet to see the light with their shows

A certain irony sat in the NT waiting to see a show about how the manosphere and toxic masculinity take root in young men while flag-bearing rally-goers flood in to use the loos. (“What’s this place then, a casino?” one asks)

A nice touch: Peake has a necklace of pearls to clutch.
A very odd touch: bringing out “gay Jesus” for one of the most awkwardly miscalculated endings I’ve seen in a while.

The Last Stand of Mrs Mary Whitehouse theatre review — Maxine Peake is all steel as the conservative crusader Caroline Bird’s drama reflects the human impact of Whitehouse’s campaigns on the gay community but lacks opposing voices

Felt this treated the damage Whitehouse caused a little too lightly, and found its efforts to take equal sides a bit exhausting and messy. But Samuel Barnett’s performance(s) were powerful, tender and upstaged Peake’s pretty one-note turn

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Just out of Giant - a towering piece of theatre and performance from Lithgow. The way he pouts - somewhere between a sneer and a sickly-sweet pucker. Dragon-like, then retreating into feeble wincing with his ailing back, both sly and pathetic. And equally crafty, needling writing

A Moon for the Misbegotten review: Doesn’t quite shine brightly enough ★★★☆☆ 19th July 2025 • Almeida Michael Shannon (Jim) and Ruth Wilson (Josie). Photo: Marc Brenner The first sign of how it’s all going to end for Jim and Josie – the pair who, like opposing magnets…

Caught up with the Almeida’s Moon for the Misbegotten last weekend, which, despite a nice performance from Ruth Wilson, on the whole for me felt destined to be forgotten

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Glad to have caught the penultimate perf of this (well, the last one before they perform it at actual 4:48am). It managed to make a long, oblique howl feel naturally conversational and direct. Contemplative but studded with dark bite. “Remember the light and believe the light”

A talky play and a shouty production that thankfully eventually relents to allow for a neat conclusion. Set on a stage where, cleverly, shapes interlock to form a growing island

Catching up on Liberation (or, as it’s otherwise known, Manchester International Festival’s entire theatre programme for 2025)

Caught up with Till The Stars Come Down after missing its NT run. A stunningly good play, especially its faultless first half. The kind of show that would work brilliantly in the round at the Royal Exchange, if only it consistently programmed more new writing