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Susannah Clapp

Susannah Clapp is the theatre critic of the Observer. She is the author of With Chatwin and A Card from Angela Carter and a regular broadcaster. Twitter
@susannahclapp

February 2025

  • Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton performing a sketch on stage

    The week in theatre: Inside No 9: Stage/Fright; Cymbeline – review

  • L-r: David Byrne, Indhu Rubasingham, Amit Sharma, Nadia Fall, Nathan Powell, Kate Wasserberg and Elizabeth Newman. All photographed by Suki Dhanda except Elizabeth Newman by Gary Calton

    Curtain up! Meet the new artistic directors with great plans for British theatre

January 2025

  • The cast of Play On! in a row on stage.

    The week in theatre: Play On!; A Good House; Moby Dick – review

    The spirit of Duke Ellington pulses through a glorious musical spin on Twelfth Night; neighbourliness has its limits in Amy Jephta’s South African satire; and puppets have a whale of a time with Herman Melville
  • CIAN EAGLE-SERVICE (OLIVER TWIST) and JAMIE BIRKETT (MRS SOWERBERRY) in Oliver!

    The week in theatre: Oliver!; The Devil May Care review – consider yourself entertained

    Lionel Bart’s great musical is a gift for Matthew Bourne; a nifty reworking of Shaw’s comedy would surely have pleased him; and a fresh start for Welsh theatre
  • From left, Brie Larson in Elektra, Harriet Walter in Brian and Maggie, Malachi Kirby in A Thousand Blows, Louise Bourgeois’s spider, and one of Leigh Bowery’s costumes.

    2025 culture preview
    From Edvard Munch to Central Cee: Observer critics choose their cultural highlights for 2025

    From Thom Yorke’s Shakespearean score to 25 years of Tate Modern, Bridget Jones to Leigh Bowery, our writers anticipate the most exciting shows, releases and events of the year

December 2024

  • Daisy Edgar-Jones and Kingsley Ben-Adir in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

    The week in theatre: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; The Little Foxes; The Invention of Love – review

    Daisy Edgar-Jones is on the prowl; Anne-Marie Duff channels Bette Davis; and Simon Russell Beale gleams in the literary afterlife
  • Phia Saban (Antigone), Mark Strong (Oedipus), Lesley Manville (Jocasta), James Wilbraham (Polyneices) and Jordan Scowen (Eteocles) in Oedipus.

    Theatre: Susannah Clapp’s 10 best shows of 2024

    Kudos to five Annie Ernauxs, a memorably storm-lashed Lear and that Gwyneth Paltrow ski trial musical, while Oedipus reigns supreme

    • The week in theatre: The Tempest; Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812; You Me Bum Bum Train – review

    • The week in theatre: Ballet Shoes; The Importance of Being Earnest; The Devil Wears Prada; The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary – review

    • The week in theatre: Tender; Expendable review – small provocations

November 2024

  • A woman in red shoes dances on a table, surrounded by other cast members

    The week in theatre: The Red Shoes; Wolves on Road – review

    The shoes do the talking, eventually, in the RSC’s handsome yet overpolite take on Andersen’s grisly fairytale
  • musicians dancing on stage in THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

    The week in theatre: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Burnt-Up Love; More… Ghost Stories – review

    Jethro Compton’s folky Cornish musical sweeps into the West End with fiddles and fudge; writer Ché Walker plays a fiery ex-con on a mission; and new ghost stories offer more charm than alarm
  • Giles Terera (Turgidson), Steve Coogan (President Muffley), Tony Jayawardena (Bakov), Mark Hadfield (Faceman) and Oliver Alvin-Wilson (Jefferson) in Dr Strangelove.

    The week in theatre: Dr Strangelove; Barcelona; Quiet Songs – review

    In a week of underused talent, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley merely recreate Kubrick’s satire; Lily Collins totters through a bland night in Spain; and Ruth Negga graces a trance-like hour

October 2024

  • Harriet Walter photographed in London by Phil Fisk for the Observer New Review, October 2024. Hair by Narad Kutowaroo @ Carol Hayes and makeup by Lucy Wearing @ Forward Artists

    ‘You get more confident as the parts run out’: Harriet Walter on her stage career, Succession and Shakespeare’s women

  • in period dress on stage, with only a red curtain behind them, Joseph Millson as Soames, Flora Spencer-Longhurst as Fleur and Fiona Hampton as Irene in The Forsyte Saga.

    The week in theatre: The Forsyte Saga, Parts 1 and 2; Othello – review

  • Mark Strong and Lesley Manville as Oedipus and Jocasta, with Jordan Scowen (Eteocles) and James Wilbraham (Polyneices).

    The week in theatre: Oedipus; The Fear of 13; The Duchess (of Malfi) – review

  • John Lithgow sitting at a table reading a copy of the Literary Review.

    The week in theatre: Giant; Roots; Look Back in Anger – review

September 2024

  • Lucian Msamati and and Ben Whishaw as Estragon and Vladimir in Waiting for Godot at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London

    The week in theatre: Waiting for Godot; Coriolanus; A Face in the Crowd – review

    Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati add star power to James Macdonald’s thoughtful Beckett; David Oyelowo’s Coriolanus is dwarfed by epic staging; and an Elvis Costello-scored musical has too few high notes
  • Selorm Adonu in G,

    The week in theatre: G; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; The Real Thing – review

    Reality is up for debate in Tife Kusoro’s rapid-fire new drama, David Eldridge’s nuanced take on John le Carré, and Tom Stoppard’s most loving play
  • Archie Christoph-Allen and Curtis Kemlo laughing in the history boys

    The week in theatre: The History Boys; A Chorus Line – review

    Fresh talent shines, though nuance could try harder, in a 20th anniversary revival of Alan Bennett’s glinting schoolroom comedy
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