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Lyn Gardner's Weekly Picks

Published on 23 March 2026

In the Print (King’s Head) is written by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky, who had a snowball hit with Gang of Three, which genuinely makes 1970s Labour Party machinations around the party leadership very entertaining. Here they focus on the 1980s battle between media magnate Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Sunday Times, and the print unions led by Brenda Dean, the formidable leader of the union representing the print unions, who opposed Murdoch’s vision to revolutionise newspaper production. Even better, it’s directed by Josh Roche, whose production of The Forsyte Saga was recently seen both in London and at the RSC in Stratford.

If you reckon that ballet is mostly pretty but not very galvanising, think again and head to the Royal Opera House for Mayerling. Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet may hail from 1978, but it is a brutal examination of power, sex and suicide inspired by the deaths of Crown Prince Rudolf of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his mistress, Mary Vetsera. A massive scandal at the time and one whose dark eroticism is explored, most notably in one of ballet’s most famed pas de deux. 

Artwork for the Royal Ballet & Opera's Mayerling. Two ballet dancers intertwine, one lifted into the others arms.
Production shot from Alice in Wonderland at Riverside Studios. Alice is surrounded by the characters of Wonderland, including an owl and a Dodo bird.
Production shot from The Comedy About Spies. One man in a suit looks nervous, looking over his shoulder on the phone, while two others listen in from behind their newspapers.
Artwork for the Royal Ballet & Opera's Mayerling. Two ballet dancers intertwine, one lifted into the others arms.
Production shot from Alice in Wonderland at Riverside Studios. Alice is surrounded by the characters of Wonderland, including an owl and a Dodo bird.
Production shot from The Comedy About Spies. One man in a suit looks nervous, looking over his shoulder on the phone, while two others listen in from behind their newspapers.

With the Easter holidays looming, there's another chance to catch this Australian version of Alice in Wonderland (Riverside Studios), originally seen at Marylebone Theatre. Taking its inspiration from Tenniel's original drawings for Lewis Carroll’s classic, it’s visually delightful and, although much condensed, captures the absurdity of the original. 

1960s London is the setting for The Comedy About Spies, which returns for an eight-week summer season at the Adelphi from early August. It is mission impossible for competing CIA and KGB spies who run riot in a London hotel, looking for a secret weapon stolen by a British agent. It’s more hijinks from the team behind The Play That Goes Wrong in a comedy of epically preposterous portions where everything that can go wrong will go wrong. It’s a tried and tested formula, but one which delivers the laughs.

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Lyn Gardner

By Lyn Gardner

Lyn Gardner is an acclaimed theatre journalist and former critic with decades of experience covering British theatre, from off-West End and fringe theatre to major West End productions.