Following James Graham’s Punch, this precision staging of Fran Kranz’s school-shooter drama captures the pain and power of restorative justice

In my 29 years as a theatre critic, I have never known a time when making and critiquing art have been so under assault. Which is why awards like the Observer/Anthony Burgess prize are indispensable

At the theatre named after her, the late comic’s songs are the inspiration for a bittersweet musical

Despite a radical recasting of the 1962 novel about patients at a psychiatric hospital, the production hovers rather than lands

Anya Reiss relocates Romola Garai’s Nora to a modern London, where her controlling husband grapples with drug addiction

A superbly nasty Lesley Manville and sultry Aidan Turner star in a dynamic staging of Laclos’ 18th-century tale of courtesans behaving badly

From a love of performance, our critic ‘slipped sideways’ into a natural calling to examine the world on stage

The director brings a fresh sense of urgency and instability to this production starring a palpably neurotic Sadie Sink

Gorky’s strange drama about unhappy Russians at a seasonal retreat is given fizzing new energy by writers Nina and Moses Raine

The dramatist’s late play about persecution only fully comes into focus at the end

Carrie Cracknell brings clarity to this complex drama, but it remains earthbound

Rupert Goold’s restaging of his musical version of the Bret Easton Ellis novel is skinny, glossy and gore-free

The Swansea hero brings a touch of magic to the first production by his new stage venture

Thea Sharrock’s tame staging lacks the suspense and urgency of the movie

The stage next year has a distinctly feminist feel, from a Victoria Wood musical to Tilda Swinton wearing the trousers

Susannah Clapp on the year’s most vital productions and most promising stars

It’s hard to imagine a more exciting rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s musical than this

Rajiv Joseph’s war drama, told from the perspective of a dead tiger, gathers momentum and ends in revelation

The director shines new light on the Arthur Miller play, starring Bryan Cranston