Theatre

Working class theatre: Save Our Steel takes the stage
A new play inspired by Port Talbot’s ‘Save Our Steel’ campaign asks questions about the working class leaders of today. Adam Johannes talks to co-director Rhiannon White about the project, the people and the politics behind it

A musical fightback against school arts cuts
Elliot Clay on why his new musical turns the spotlight on the damage austerity has done to arts education, through the story of one school band's battle

A Dionysus for all seasons
Greek tragedy is enjoying something of a revival with some imaginative stagings of the ancient plays, writes Steve Platt

Shelagh Delaney and the drama of everyday life
Michael Calderbank reconsiders the context of Salford playwright Shelagh Delaney’s breakthrough as the National Theatre stages a revival of her debut A Taste of Honey

The Shed is proving that theatre can tackle the issues of the day
A temporary space at the National Theatre has been tackling a host of contemporary issues. Edd Mustill has been enjoying the show

Theatre review: The World of Extreme Happiness
Edd Mustill reviews The World of Extreme Happiness at London's National Theatre Shed.

Revolutionary rehearsals
Lorna Stephenson looks at theatre groups giving a voice to the voiceless – and making social change happen in the process

Giving homeless young people a voice through theatre
Edd Mustill reviews Home, a play at the National Theatre Shed

Fighting and winning: the struggle for the Hackney Empire
Taking on the Empire: How We Saved the Hackney Empire for Popular Theatre by Roland Muldoon, reviewed by Jane Shallice

Uhuru Lumumba! A Season in the Congo review
Catherine Hoskyns reviews A Season in the Congo at London's Young Vic

Oil City: campaigning theatre
Siobhan McGuirk experiences Oil City, an immersive, site-specific play produced by campaign group Platform

Theatre Uncut: Art attack
Red Pepper investigates a theatre project dramatising the cuts

Epic drama
With a new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children at the National Theatre, Steve Platt assesses the legacy of one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists

Playing the Great Game
The Tricycle Theatre's production of The Great Game - 12 plays on the history and contemporary realities of the struggle for control over Afghanistan - brings to the fore what will be one of the central political issues in the coming years. Co-director Indhu Rubasingham reflects on the project

Pitmen painters
Six days a week they toiled down the mine, making art in their spare time after attending a Workers Education Association art appreciation class. The Ashington Group of miner-artists is the subject of a witty and wise play by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall, currently showing at the National Theatre, that has much to tell us about art, culture and the working class, writes Steve Platt

Keep throwing stones
From the CAST theatre company to New Variety and the Hackney Empire, Roland and Claire Muldoon have been at the heart of cultural dissent for the past four decades. By Jane Shallice