Matt Barton

England

Critic and Writer at WhatsOnStage

Critic and Writer at Freelance

Critic and Writer at Financial Times

Grumpy. Heart-throb. Critic @WhatsOnStage / @FT / @ObsNewReview / @MillMediaUK / @theatremagazine

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Articles

Hamlet Hail to the Thief is a discordant union of Shakespeare and Radiohead

1 month ago | ft.com | Matt Barton

The play’s not really the thing in Aviva Studios’ Hamlet Hail to the Thief, which uneasily fuses Shakespeare’s tragedy with Radiohead’s...
Takeaway at Liverpool Everyman Theatre - review

1 month ago | whatsonstage.com | Matt Barton

What would be your first order as the new creative director of a theatre? For the Liverpool Everyman’s Nathan Powell, the first play he’s chosen to program is his own. At first, it looks, promisingly, like the risk will pay off with a zinging, vibrant production. Jalapeño green, turmeric yellow and paprika red run through the Jamaican takeaway restaurant designed by Georgia Wilmot. The play itself, however, lacks a depth of flavour. The premise is almost identical to Tyrell Williams’ Red Pitch.
Manhunt review: Raoul Moat evades Robert Icke

1 month ago | upstagereviews.wordpress.com | Matt Barton

★★★☆☆8th April 2025 • Royal CourtCan Robert Icke catch Raoul Moat? This is, in a way, the real manhunt that unfolds in Icke’s new play — his first original drama after an almost unbroken run of hits adapting or reworking classics. His experience in tracing characters’ tragic downfalls doesn’t, however, seem to have equipped him to lend his usual scalpel-like precision in cutting open the psyche of this real-life murderer. At the beginning, the hunt appears over.
Red or Dead review – Peter Mullan tackles Bill Shankly in uneven adaptation

1 month ago | msn.com | Matt Barton

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Red or Dead review - Peter Mullan tackles Bill Shankly in uneven adaptation

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Matt Barton

Moments before Red or Dead begins, we watch Peter Mullan warming up. At the edge of the stage, arms windmilling, his face set in concentration, he looks like a footballer waiting to take to the pitch. In fact he’s Liverpool manager Bill Shankly. In writer-director Phillip Breen’s new play, adapted from David Peace’s book, we see Shankly take the club into the first division and on to FA and Uefa Cup victories between 1959 and his retirement in 1974.
Of Mice and Men review - a tepid revival of Steinbeck’s dust bowl classic

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Matt Barton

Before it got into the hands of readers, John Steinbeck’s 1937 novella Of Mice and Menfirst got into the jaws of the author’s dog. The dog would find less to get its teeth into with this muted theatre adaptation. A pair of itinerant friends find work at a ranch in the Great Depression-era US south. George is brashly confident and protective over timid Lennie who has a mental disability that’s stigmatised by the workers.
Did we really need a Shirley Valentine revival in 2025?

2 months ago | livpost.co.uk | Matt Barton

Dear members – The Everyman has just announced that due to overwhelming demand, it will be extending its run of Willy Russell'scritically acclaimed Shirley Valentine. Originally scheduled through 29th March, the show is now on until Saturday 5th April, so you still have time to grab tickets if you haven't yet. The one-woman play is now almost as old as its titular character, Shirley, a disillusioned housewife first brought to life in 1986.
At the Crucible, a new take on ‘Streetcar’ gets a flat

Mar 8, 2025 | sheffieldtribune.co.uk | Matt Barton

A Streetcar Named Desire has always depended on the greatness of its three central performances. This sounds like a risky bet for any production, but audiences have rarely been disappointed. Take, for example, Elia Kazan’s 1951 film adaptation, which famously featured Vivien Leigh as Southern belle Blanche DuBois, with Kim Hunter as her sister Stella and Marlon Brando defining an archetype of machismo as Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski.
Glorious! at Hope Mill Theatre - review

Mar 6, 2025 | whatsonstage.com | Matt Barton

It’s a hard pitch. A show about a singer who can’t sing but does so anyway, out of defiance, delusion or both. And then there is the actual hard – or harsh – pitch that comes out of her: glorious, it is not. But Glorious! knows that. Just look at the title with its exclamation mark, mischievously echoing both the conviction of Florence Foster Jenkins, the infamous amateur soprano, and the mocking scoff of her critics. It also knows it too much.
The Engagement Party review - a disappointing love letter to Oldham

Feb 23, 2025 | theguardian.com | Matt Barton

Seven months after the Oldham Coliseum’s miraculous , after a campaign fronted by actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, it has invited audiences to a party. A celebratory atmosphere greets this comeback show at the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Coliseum’s temporary home until it reopens for panto season. Seated at cabaret-style tables, we’re here for an engagement party. But this production flatly fails to engage. It starts as it means to go on.