2023 was the year in which theatre did its utmost to shake off the long shadow of Covid. The cost-of-living crisis, as well as some over-ambitious ticket prices, were two of the factors that meant audience numbers were not quite back to pre-pandemic levels, but a raft of hit shows and star names – James Norton, Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott and Ruth Wilson among them – bucked this trend.
This is an unprecedented time of leadership change at many of the country’s preeminent venues (the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Royal Exchange Manchester, Chichester, the Royal Court and the Donmar Warehouse, to name six) and expectations are high as to the potential of these new eras. The struggle to make the case for the importance of government subsidy (both national and local) for the arts remains as vital as ever, against what too often appears to be a bewildering backdrop of indifference towards one of the few industries in which this country can still claim to be world-leading.
It is established regimes that fare best in my top 10, with Rupert Goold’s always-dazzling Almeida securing an astonishing three spots within the top five. Two of these are for a pair of shows helmed by Rebecca Frecknall, who is one of the most astute directors working today, and one for Goold himself, who also secures another top five berth for his winning work on loan over at the National. Here he masterminded James Graham’s witty and perceptive look at the England men’s football team, Dear England. Graham’s classy adaptation of Alan Bleasdale’s Boys from the Black Stuff meant that he joins Frecknall and Goold with a pair of individual nominations apiece.
There is a strong showing from Liverpool on the list, as well as witty new work in Chichester. Four of the shows – Ghosts, Macbeth, Cold War and Dear England – are still playing if you missed them.
Quality new British musicals are always events to savour and two came to delightful full fruition this year that narrowly missed out on being in my top 10. Standing at the Sky’s Edge, with music from Richard Hawley, transferred from its native Sheffield to a rich new iteration at the National. And Operation Mincemeat, a by turns silly and serious look at a secret service mission in WW2, enjoyed a richly deserved transfer to the West End, a prime example of the little show that could – and did.
10. Boys from the Black Stuff – Royal Court, Liverpool
Alan Bleasdale’s television drama about a group of Liverpool tarmac layers is, rightly, considered a modern classic. Powerhouse political playwright James Graham offered a stylish stage transition, interweaving subtle hints of today’s cost-of-living crisis as well. The great achievement of Graham and director Kate Wasserberg was to walk, with confidence, the tightrope between presenting a “greatest hits” montage of the much-loved series and creating something new and fresh. “Gizza job” is something that the in-demand Graham is unlikely to need to say any time soon.
9. Ghosts – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
It was a revelation to see the Globe’s intimate indoor candlelit playing space given over to a playwright other than Shakespeare or one of his contemporaries. It proved the ideal location for Ibsen’s Ghosts, a seething drama of long-buried family secrets that came tumbling forth in a 100-minute onslaught of truth-telling. Director Joe Hill-Gibbins offered his own adaptation of the text, which underlined the strength and punch of Ibsen’s “scandalous” – for his time – themes. Hattie Morahan blazed as Mrs Alving, a widow who can bear no more pretence in the name of preserving family honour.
8. The Second Woman – Young Vic
The most spectacular theatrical endurance feat in recent memory saw the mesmeric Ruth Wilson perform for 24 hours non-stop, replaying the same scene 100 times over, opposite 100 different men, most of them non-professional actors. The beguilingly slow-creep power revealed a single scene depicting the end of a relationship to contain multitudes, nothing less than the entire spectrum of power dynamics. Even as the piece played out, punters queued for hours outside the Young Vic to get a glimpse of a nascent cultural phenomenon. Unique and unforgettable.
7. Never Have I Ever – Chichester
What a delight it was to see a rollicking new comedy as sharp and biting, as well as genuinely funny, as this. Podcaster and comedian Deborah Francis-White made a notable debut as a playwright with a four-hander about two couples that turned into a blistering examination of friendships, relationships, wealth and identity politics. Greg Wise was in tremendous form playing a man of seemingly impeccable liberal credentials, the type of bore who enjoys talking at length about how important it is to stop talking and listen.
6. Macbeth – The Depot, Liverpool
Simon Godwin chose a cavernous Liverpool warehouse for his modern updating of Shakespeare’s taut dissection of a relentless political power grab; his production required audience members to cross a scorched battlefield to reach their seats. Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma, the former in combat gear and the latter all Succession-style tailoring, blazed as the golden couple turned guilty, making this 400-year-old play feel like a thrilling commentary on contemporary world events, including the human cost of political violence.
5. Romeo and Juliet – Almeida
Many theatre lovers might feel that they never need see Romeo and Juliet again – but such weariness was dismissed in an instant by the pulsating brilliance and searing emotional veracity of director Rebecca Frecknall’s take. A luminous performance from Isis Hainsworth made Juliet a beguiling combination of awkward teenager and preternaturally wise soul, and Paul Higgins turned that bore Friar Lawrence into an exasperated but kindly youth worker. “Five stars simply isn’t enough for the urgent, vibrant glory of this,” was the conclusion to my review.
4. Cold War – Almeida
Magic-maker director Rupert Goold and writer Conor McPherson collaborate on an exquisite stage rendering of Pawel Pawlikowski’s atmospheric black and white film about an abrasive love story in Communist-era Poland. This is a small but mighty piece, with plangent songs by Elvis Costello, and it is packed with towering existential questions: what – or where – is freedom?
3. Vanya – Duke of York’s
Who would have believed that a one-man retelling of the Chekhov classic Uncle Vanya could be so utterly compelling? Man of the moment Andrew Scott was, sinuously and credibly, all the characters in this story of unrequited love, thwarted ambition and fraying family dynamics. One Irish actor playing eight parts in an English-language version of a Russian drama that is 125 years old magically managed to offer as bleak and incisive an exposé of the human condition as it was possible to wish for.
2. Dear England – National Theatre/ Prince Edward Theatre
Playwright James Graham and director Rupert Goold are ever-classy populists and proved to be the dream team for this study of Gareth Southgate’s careful nurturing of both the on-field prowess and off-pitch emotional literacy of the England men’s football team. Like all the best dramas with sport as their subject, Dear England both was and wasn’t about football, managing also to morph into an insightful analysis of English manhood. Joseph Fiennes captured the voice and mannerisms of all-round decent bloke Southgate with uncanny accuracy.
1. A Streetcar Named Desire – Almeida
It opened in early January and instantly announced itself as the show of 2023. Hotshot Rebecca Frecknall directed an almighty cast – Paul Mescal, Patsy Ferran, Anjana Vasan – in Tennessee Williams’s sultry and seedy exploration of passion and deceit in a sweltering New Orleans. On an empty square of stage, the actors faced up to each other like bare knuckle boxers in an emotional fight to the death, with Ferran, undoubtedly the finest actress of her generation, taking on the raw animal power of the magnetic Mescal.