Critic’s pick – Sarah Crompton selects her favourite stage shows of 2023

Best of the year lists are impossible but fun. I’ve listed my 14 favourites on the grounds that people might enjoy arguing with them, but I am very conscious how partial they are. Here are two provisos: if the National Theatre dominates that is partly because it is having an exceptional run, and partly because I very rarely miss a show there.  Secondly, the contenders jostling just outside this chart included She Stoops to Conquer at the Orange Tree, Noises Off in the West End and touring, The Effect, Dancing at Lughnasa and The Confessions at the National, and Jamie Lloyd’s magnificent Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy. Two late Macbeths – one touring with Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma and one at the Donmar Warehouse with David Tennant and Cush Jumbo also nearly made the cut. But these are the shows I chose.

We’ve also selected a variety of top shows from critics across the UK.

1. The Second Woman, Young Vic

It’s sort of cheating to chose this as my show of the year – but it was an event of a lifetime so it would be perverse not to. Over 24 hours, the actress Ruth Wilson reenacted the same short scene over and over again with 100 different men, most of whom she hadn’t met before, most of them not professional actors. What might have seemed like a gimmick became something else: a theatrical masterclass and a therapy session, an insight into human nature and a staggering piece of artificial storytelling. The audience stayed in their seats so long that the queue outside became a story in itself. It’s been filmed. Don’t miss it.

2. Infinite Life, National Theatre

I have long thought that Annie Baker is a genius. Infinite Life, a play which spun an entire world from the fragmented conversations of five woman and one – occasional – man lying on sun loungers while fasting at a Californian health retreat did nothing to convince me otherwise. Both sharply funny and deeply profound, this study of pain and desire is subtle, complex and incredibly moving. It is also, like all her work, driven by Baker’s even, compassionate gaze. Everyone seems to be saying nothing and then, at the end of the evening, you realise how much of significance has been discussed.

3. Vanya, Duke of York’s Theatre

Another gimmick that became revelatory, Andrew Scott’s solo take on Vanya was a tour de force not of showmanship but of subtlety. With the help of Simon Stephens’ refined and understated adaptation, he brought every character in Chekhov’s great play to vivid life, from the overlooked servant to the indolent beauty Yelena (Helena here). The smallest of gestures was infinitely telling. Beautifully directed by Sam Yates and designed by Rosanna Vize (who were credited as co-creators), the experiment seemed full of love for the play and its humanity.

4. Dear England, National Theatre

Rupert Goold’s dazzling direction took this new play by James Graham about Gareth Southgate and the England football team to a new level. Like Southgate himself, his influence was transformative. The whole thing just sparkled, covering a lot of ground as it took Southgate and his players from a rocky start to near triumph, and taking in politics, women’s football and the importance of self-belief en route. Led by an impeccable performance from Joseph Fiennes, the entire cast played a blinder. The transfer continues until January 13.

5. The Motive and the Cue, National Theatre

Inspired by director Sam Mendes, writer Jack Thorne took the behind the scenes battles between John Gielgud and Richard Burton when the older actor directed the younger’s Hamlet on Broadway in 1964 and turned them into an engrossing and moving study of surrogate fathers and sons, the changing nature of fame and the relationship between life and art. Johnny Flynn as Burton and Tuppence Middleton as Elizabeth Taylor were both excellent; but Mark Gatiss stole the show as a deeply moving and very funny Gielgud. In the West End until 23 March.

6. Medea, @sohoplace

Dominic Cooke’s searing ability to locate truth in every play he directs made Robinson Jeffers’s formal adaptation of Greek tragedy seem like something that could happen in your living room. Sophie Okonedo was sensational as Medea; vengeful and cornered, she began on a note of high emotion, but as her desperation and determination increased her sorrow became quieter. Playing all the male characters with subtle distinction, Ben Daniels was equally remarkable. I saw this overwhelmingly powerful production at a matinee and have rarely heard an audience so quiet or so involved. The close was utterly devastating.

7. Clyde’s, Donmar Warehouse

After the triumph of Sweat, at this venue in 2018, the next collaboration between playwright Lynn Nottage and director Lynette Linton had the same glorious quality of turning a theatrical eye on lives that are too often ignored. In the case of Clyde’s those lives belong to ex-prisoners, trying to get a start in a Pennsylvania sandwich shop under the vicious eye of Clyde and the encouraging, inspirational one of her kitchen magician Montrellous.  Beautifully staged to give a full sense of his transformative magic, it featured outstanding performances from all its cast, Giles Terera and Ronke Adékoluẹjó chief among them, and sent you out into the night with a side order of hope.

8. No ID, Royal Court

The Royal Court has had a lousy year, with production after production proving messy disappointments. But writer and performer Tatenda Shamiso shone. Amidst all the sound and fury of so many debates about trans identity, he crafted a revealing, angry and funny hour-long monologue that described what it felt like to transition from a girl to a man. He was quite clear about the bureaucratic and societal injustices he has faced, but his great gift was to manage to explain how he felt and offer insight, with honesty and grace.

9. Guys and Dolls, Bridge Theatre

For an evening of pure unadulterated joy, it has proved impossible to beat Nicholas Hytner’s triumphant production of Frank Loesser’s 1950 masterpiece about gamblers, chancers and the women who try to save them. Set on Bunny Christie’s series of raised and lowered platforms which allow half the audience to mill around an imagined New York with the cast, it is fluent, witty and smart. Amidst the fun, it also managed to rethink the relationships at its heart with performances of remarkable intimacy and truth from Celinde Schoenmaker, Marisha Wallace, Daniel Mays – and newcomer Andrew Richardson, making a charismatic professional debut. The production is still running.

10. A Streetcar Named Desire, Almeida Theatre

The Almeida is probably my theatre of the year after the National, staging a remarkable run of work, and director Rebecca Frecknall has had quite a 12 months herself with Romeo and Juliet (at the Almeida) and The House of Bernarda Alba (at the National) following this January triumph with Tennessee Williams (which later transferred to the West End). The advance excitement was all about Paul Mescal’s Stanley Kowalski, but it was Patsy Ferran, stepping in at short notice to play Blanche DuBois who made the night so memorable.  Her relationship with Anjana Vasan’s Stella turned the piece into a play about sisters struggling in their different ways with a past full of sorrow and an uncertain future. Wonderful.

11. Death of England: Closing Time, National Theatre

Roy Williams and Clint Dyer continued the state of the nation odyssey they began in 2020, by letting the women in the lives of their protagonists Michael (white son of a racist flower seller) and Delroy (his Black best friend) tell their side of an ongoing family saga about what it is like to live in Britian today. This fourth instalment had as much energy and insight as its predecessors; its impact was slightly muffled when Jo Martin, one half of a duologue with Hayley Squires, fell ill and had to be replaced by Sharon Duncan-Brewster but she rose magnificently to the challenge. Seeing it at a matinee I was struck by how closely the audience responded to the women’s words and what an impact it made.

12. Sleepova, Bush Theatre

If you want to see new writing, the Bush under Lynette Linton, is the place to go. What I loved about Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini’s play about four Black teenage girls who meet to gossip, joke and discuss their lives and their worries, was that like last year’s terrific Red Pitch, it gave an insight into young lives full of goodness and hope.  The problems the quartet faced were real, but these individually-drawn characters, struggling with different anxieties, were a million miles from the lazy image of troubled youth. It made for an inspiring and encouraging night out.

13. A Mirror, Almeida Theatre

Sam Holcroft’s bold new play turned the Almeida into the venue to celebrate a wedding – and then turned everything on its head as she swept her audience into a totalitarian state where unlicensed drama is forbidden. The hall of mirrors she went on to create made for one of the most original and thought provoking evenings of the year with Jeremy Herrin’s clear and clever direction holding its giddying twists and turns in a firm grip. Its cast, led by Johnny Lee Miller with Tanya Reynolds, Micheal Ward and Geoffrey Streatfeild in strong support, were exceptional. Hurrah for its West End transfer in 2024 – there’s nothing quite like it.

14. Next to Normal, Donmar Warehouse

Michael Longhurst’s production of the Tony-award winning musical which deals seriously and sensitively with the effects of bi-polar disorder on an ordinary family was pitch perfect in delivery. There was a fine emotional balance to the cast, led by Caissie Levy and Jamie Parker, with Jack Wolfe and Eleanor Worthington-Cox as their children, and their doctors all played by Trevor Dion Nicholas, so that everyone on stage engaged your sympathy with their conflicting points of view. Another welcome West End transfer in 2024.