The best theatre of the 21st century

Not looking great, is it? Until we all get jabbed, theatres may have to stay closed. And even the optimists say a reliable vaccine is unlikely to arrive before Christmas. As the darkness persists, here’s a round-up of my leading experiences over nearly two decades as a reviewer. There’s been a surge of output. More theatres have opened, especially on the London fringe, and several have created annexes for experimental work. Musicals have proliferated. The rise of the box-set has been excellent for the West End. Global hits such as Game of Thrones have created a host of British stars with enough clout to sell out a three-month run in London.

Shakespeare hasn’t fared so well. Increasingly the Bard has become a platform for directors to deliver fashionable pronouncements about racial and sexual equality. It’s rare nowadays to see a white English male playing a Shakespearean lead. Experimentalism, ethnic dogmatism and gender-blind casting have created chaotic, confusing productions loaded with conceptual abstractions: Elsinore transposed to a mental asylum or a police state; all-female versions of the Henrys set in a women’s prison; Richard II in a padded cell; the Dane dressed as Andy Pandy. Too many theatre-makers assume that Shakespeare is a promising bungler whose inadequate first drafts need to be rescued and clarified by directors who understand him better than anyone, even himself. The best Shakespearean performances I can recall were Jacobi’s delicate, poetic Lear and Jude Law’s angry but captivating Hamlet. Both were directed at the Donmar by Michael Grandage who asks us to listen to what Shakespeare is saying and never tells us what he thinks Shakespeare ought to have said.