John Nathan

Latest from John Nathan

Theatre

This revival of Othello should be called Iago ★★★★

David Harewood is in the title role, but it is Toby Jones who steals the show

1 min read

Towering performance: Toby Jones as Iago and (right) David Harewood as Othello

Eminently watchable: Ralph Fiennes in The Choral

Turn up the volume on this wartime yarn of death and Elgar ★★★

1 min read

Fantasy Life review: ‘I think I suffer from internalised antisemitism’ ★★★

1 min read

Don't say grace: the two families at the dinner table in Bad Shabbos

How bad can a Friday night dinner get? How long you got?

5 min read

The Assembled Parties: ‘Oberman is in the form of her life’ ★★★★

The Jewish actor stands out in this beautifully performed play about Jews at Christmas

2 min read

October 29, 2025 16:19

Tracy-Ann Oberman as Faye (Photo: Helen Murray)

Unbelievers review: A mother in the grip of her worst nightmare ★★★

Nicola Walker conveys with fevered obsession how a mother’s mind implodes when her teenage son disappears

1 min read

October 22, 2025 15:18

Tortured: Nicola Walker as Miriam, whose teenage son disappears (Photo: Brinkhoff Moegenburg)

After The Hunt review: Julia Roberts at her superb best in campus thriller ★★★★

The actor shines as a lecturer caught in the crossfire of a culture war showdown

2 min read

October 22, 2025 15:05

Commanding performance: Julia Roberts as brittle, high-flying Yale professor Alma

Mary Page Marlowe review: ‘no life is uninteresting’ ★★★★

Susan Sarandon brings steel to Tracy Letts’s play about the unremarkable life of one American woman, but it is Andrea Riseborough who delivers an outstanding performance

1 min read

October 13, 2025 16:35

The drama of life: Andrea Riseborough in Mary Page Marlowe

Good Boy review: Woof! Woof! A four-legged star is born ★★★★

The director and his producer wife’s dog is the star of this supernatural horror film

1 min read

October 13, 2025 16:16

Pooch perfect: Indy the dog and his on-screen owner Todd, played by Shane Jensen

The Land of the Living review: ‘Fatally wears its messaging on its sleeve’ ★★★

Based on interviews with journalist Gitta Sereny, this new play about child victims of war spans 45 years – but still takes too long to answer its main mystery

1 min read

October 9, 2025 15:13

Juliet Stevenson, Cosima Shaw and Caroline Loncq star in the National Theatre's 'The Land of the Living.' (Photo: National Theatre)

Amy Rosenthal on what drove the Mitford Sisters to extremes

The playwright believes her new play answers this long-standing question

4 min read

September 25, 2025 15:31

Flora Spencer-Longhurst as Debo in The Party Girls

Patrick Marber: I’m seen as the ‘Jew director’ of our times

The director on why he saturated The Producers with a Jewish sensibility, about his late-onset Jewishness and why he thinks hatred from strangers is not the worst thing

5 min read

September 22, 2025 12:04

Patrick Marber in rehearsal for The Producers

The Producers review: ‘deserves to end up on Broadway’ ★★★★

Patrick Marber’s inventive new production, which transferred to the West End this week, avoids the big-Broadway-show thing but The Great White Way is surely where it’s headed

2 min read

September 17, 2025 11:18

Partners in crime: Andy Nyman as Max Bialystock and (right) Marc Antolin as Leo Bloom (Photo: Manuel Harlan)

The Long Walk: ‘call it the Dystopian State Teen Killing genre’★★★★

One hundred young men compete in an endurance event until there is only one is left. Those who are moving too slowly are shot in the head in this tough-to-watch movie adapted from Stephen King’s first novel

2 min read

September 16, 2025 15:00

Death march: Cooper Hoffman (centre, in hat) and David Jonsson (third from left) in Frances Lawrence's The Long Walk

Born With Teeth review: ‘hollow as a crown’ ★★

It is odd that director Daniel Evans has chosen this work, which isn’t really a history play at all, for his inaugural production as co-artistic director of the RSC

1 min read

September 12, 2025 13:27

Edward Bluemel (left) and Ncuti Gatwa in Born With Teeth (Photo: Johan Persson)

Holding Liat review: ‘A loving family rent apart by October 7’ ★★★★

This documentary reveals the anguish and shock of a family torn asunder by the massacre, and its attempt to reconcile the horror with their politics of peaceful coexistence

2 min read

September 9, 2025 16:10

Helplessness: the Beinin family embraces

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John Nathan

Latest from John Nathan

This revival of Othello should be called Iago ★★★★

Turn up the volume on this wartime yarn of death and Elgar ★★★

Fantasy Life review: ‘I think I suffer from internalised antisemitism’ ★★★

How bad can a Friday night dinner get? How long you got?

More from John Nathan

The Assembled Parties: ‘Oberman is in the form of her life’ ★★★★

Unbelievers review: A mother in the grip of her worst nightmare ★★★

After The Hunt review: Julia Roberts at her superb best in campus thriller ★★★★

Mary Page Marlowe review: ‘no life is uninteresting’ ★★★★

Good Boy review: Woof! Woof! A four-legged star is born ★★★★

The Land of the Living review: ‘Fatally wears its messaging on its sleeve’ ★★★

Amy Rosenthal on what drove the Mitford Sisters to extremes

Patrick Marber: I’m seen as the ‘Jew director’ of our times

The Producers review: ‘deserves to end up on Broadway’ ★★★★

The Long Walk: ‘call it the Dystopian State Teen Killing genre’★★★★

Born With Teeth review: ‘hollow as a crown’ ★★

Holding Liat review: ‘A loving family rent apart by October 7’ ★★★★