Early Pinter, The Hothouse , which takes place in a government mental institution, is probably his funniest and most accessible play.

Eagerly awaited, In Celebration is rather flat like warm beer. And as for Orlando Bloom, silence is not golden

Can there be a better place to do The Merchant of Venice, than Shakespeare's Globe? Up close and personal to all the players, the play's dynamics are on full view

Elling sets out to convince us of the cuddily inate genius of the mad. No chance, but there is a certain sweetness to its pitch

Betrayal could be the feeling when audiences know how a show ends when it starts. But, it's merely a revival of Harold Pinter's wonderful backwards play

A murder mystery involving papal succession and Vatican finances? Unlikely. But, The Last Confession really works. Amen to David Suchet

Somerset Maugham's 80-year old play The Letter has been meticulously revived; and so has the career of Brideshead Revisited stalwart, Anthony Andrews

Costing around 25 million bucks , The Lord of the Rings is a take-your-breath away visual experience. Too bad, all that money couldn't buy a better score or an audience-involving libretto

Kismet, back in revival and done by the ENO-who could ask for anything more? Well, not quite. The score still wows and the cast is top-shelf, but the production is a soggy mess

Patrick Hamilton's a popular bloke. His play Gaslight has now been revived on both sides of the Atlantic. This production has the right atmosphere, but lacks the nail-biting excesses of true melodrama