Actor

Stage/Theatre News: ‘It’s about how you find hope after abuse’: Laura Horton on Alan Partridge’s PA and coercive control: Downtrodden sitcom assistant Lynn Benfield is the inspiration for a play about a woman who escapes a relationship and starts a band.… dlvr.it/T9pPPH

Stage/Theatre News: Close Up review – zoom in on a sporty dance of cool control: Opéra Grand, Avignon Noé Soulier’s new piece has six dancers, five musicians and one fixed camera which picks out details from individual and entwined figures For his new… dlvr.it/T9ng0K

Stage/Theatre News: Hello, Dolly! review – Imelda Staunton plays the matchmaker with stunning results: Palladium, London For all its Broadway dazzle and gags, this musical’s story of midlife bereavement and a second chance at love carries intense… dlvr.it/T9nCTV

Stage/Theatre News: Daniel Kitson detests audience participation but still manipulates us like marionettes | Brian Logan: The comedian’s show Collaborator involves 160 audience members getting speaking parts – and Kitson has anticipated every possible… dlvr.it/T9mkvw

Stage/Theatre News: La Vie Secrète des Vieux review – older people reveal the full glory of their sex lives: Chartreuse de Villeneuve, Avignon There is gallows humour and unzipped ribaldry as a mischievous group share stories that are joyful, tender and… dlvr.it/T9lzBK

Stage/Theatre News: From the archive: The elephant vanishes: how a circus family went on the run – podcast: Dumba has spent her life performing in circuses around Europe, but in recent years animal rights activists have been campaigning to rescue her.… dlvr.it/T9kls7

Stage/Theatre News: Little Women review – where’s the magic in this musical adaptation?: Hayes theatre, Sydney The acting is generous and the tale is timeless – but many production details feel bafflingly bare, at odds with the story’s warmth * Get our… dlvr.it/T9kHD1

Stage/Theatre News: The play that changed my life: ‘Comedians got me the job running the National Theatre’: Our series on theatrical discoveries continues with Trevor Griffiths’ incandescent examination of laughter and prejudice, remembered by the… dlvr.it/T9jWq3

Stage/Theatre News: Gareth Southgate tried to unite rather than divide, says Dear England writer: Manager ‘was everything we didn’t have in our politics’, insists James Graham as he rewrites ending of play The playwright James Graham has paid tribute to… dlvr.it/T9hmMY

Stage/Theatre News: Chariots of Fire review – breathless staging of classic Olympic dash: Crucible, Sheffield The perseverance of runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell is well conveyed with stage and auditorium becoming training ground and racetrack … dlvr.it/T9gpqQ

Stage/Theatre News: The musical that shows the true side of One Direction fans: Fangirls celebrates the obsessive followers of a band closely resembling One Direction. ‘It really does question where the boundaries are,’ says its creator It’s March 2015… dlvr.it/T9g2v6

Stage/Theatre News: Fuerza Bruta: Aven review – big on spectacle, hollow of heart: Roundhouse, London The acrobatic blockbuster is a night out loaded with set pieces and special effects but feels designed for digital bursts on social media Fuerza… dlvr.it/T9fG0Q

Stage/Theatre News: Hope, hopelessness and heroism: why theatre is making a splash with sport: From the Gareth Southgate play Dear England to Red Speedo, about a swimmer caught doping, dramatists are using sport to examine class, race, morality – and… dlvr.it/T9dnGj

Stage/Theatre News: Sisters of Mersey review – bawdy nun farce requires saintly forgiveness: Royal Court, Liverpool Set in a covent and a prison, Jonathan Harvey’s knockabout new play is full of sledgehammer innuendo Jonathan Harvey’s new play could… dlvr.it/T9cb4M

Stage/Theatre News: The Trumpeter review – a vital dispatch from the siege of Mariupol: Finborough theatre, London The last surviving member of a military band shelters from Russian bombardment in Inna Goncharova’s valiant attempt to capture the terrible… dlvr.it/T9bs1y

Stage/Theatre News: The week in theatre: Slave Play; Skeleton Crew; Alma Mater – review: Noël Coward; Donmar Warehouse; Almeida, London Jeremy O Harris’s gloves-off Broadway hit is overladen yet thought-provoking; sound design speaks loudest in a wordy… dlvr.it/T9bPKj

Stage/Theatre News: The School for Scandal review – a triumph of style over substance: Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Sheridan’s comedy of manners is given an all too knowing makeover in Tinuke Craig’s fitfully amusing new production … dlvr.it/T9b2SK

Stage/Theatre News: The Paddington Bear Experience review – the Marmalade Day jamboree must go on!: County Hall, London Visitors get stuck in when they enter the world of 32 Windsor Gardens, thanks to a merry immersive show boasting hands-on games and… dlvr.it/T9ZY2z

Stage/Theatre News: ‘Each time I read one of her books, I wanted to read more’: five actors on bringing Annie Ernaux’s memoir to the stage: As a theatre production of the Nobel prize-winning writer’s acclaimed autobiography The Years opens in the UK, the… dlvr.it/T9Z3nd

Stage/Theatre News: ‘Relentless losses’ leave Edinburgh fringe venues fighting to recover from Covid slump: Ahead of next month’s festival, the city’s performing arts economy faces uncertain future amid funding cuts, wage stagnation and lack of business… dlvr.it/T9Yh74