Best 10 Plays of the Decade

I haven't really seen many plays, but I think that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child should definitely be in the top 10. Yes, the story makes absolutely no sense and Harry Potter fans are very divided over it. Yes, it feels more like fan fiction. However, when you see the actual play on stage, it is realised beautifully. Mesmerised from start to finish, this was one of the most extraordinary theatre experiences I've ever had. The play is just really well done: the music, the staging, the acting, the special effects. It's brilliant. I would recommend it to anyone (just take the story with a grain of salt), as it truly is something special.

Having said that, maybe the extraordinary experience was enhanced by the facts that
- I visited relatively early into the London run, so I had no idea what the story was about and everything was a surprise
- I went with my entire book club, which was a special event in itself as we are distributed over multiple countries, so it was quite special we could all meet in London for this show!
- We opted for a full day in the theatre, which is always a nice immersive experience

The Ferryman, Cyprus Avenue, Hangmen.

The Ferryman
The Nether
Admissions
Good People
One Man Two Guvnors
Consent
Yerma
Downstate
Clybourne Park
Fish in the Dark

To Kill a Mockingbird, Beginning and People, Places & Things bubbling under.

Here's my top 10 new plays, and again those that first premiered in the 2010s.

1. The Orphan of Zhao (RSC, 2012)
2. A Christmas Carol (Old Vic, 2017)
3. Pressure (Chichester, 2014)
4. The Flick (NT, 2016)
5. This House (Olivier production, 2013)
6. The Play that Goes Wrong (2014 tour)
7. Downstate (NT, 2019)
8. Wolf Hall/Bring up the Bodies (RSC, 2014)
9. Di, Viv and Rose (Vaudeville, 2015)
10. And then came the nightjars (Theatre 503, 2015)

Runners up
The Nether (Royal Court, 2014)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night (NT, 2012)
Rotterdam (Arts Theatre, 2017)
The Children (Royal Court, 2017)
The House they Grew Up In (Chichester, 2017)
Snow in Midsummer (RSC, 2017)
Land of our Fathers (Trafalgar Studio 2, 2016)
Blink (2014 tour)
Collaborators (NT, 2011)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016)

Oh and because I'm a fan, here's the Shakespeare plays that defined the decade for me.

1. King Lear with Derek Jacobi (Donmar, 2010)
2. Maria Aberg's As You Like It (RSC, 2013)
3. Henry IV with Roger Allam (Globe, 2010)
4. Simon Godwin's Twelfth Night (NT, 2017)
5. Hamlet with Andrew Scott (Almeida, 2017)
6. Rupert Goold's The Merchant of Venice (RSC, 2012)
7. Gregory Doran's Julius Caesar (RSC, 2012)
8. The Tempest with Tim McMullan (Sam Wanamaker, 2016)
9. Richard III with Tom Motherland (Headlong, 2019)
10. Rupert Goold's Romeo and Juliet (RSC, 2010)

Runners up
Simon Godwin's Hamlet (RSC, 2016)
Blanche McIntyre's The Comedy of Errors (Globe, 2014)
King Lear with Frank Langella (Chichester, 2013)
The Tempest (Donmar/Kings Cross, 2016)
Richard III with Greg Hicks (Arcola, 2017)
Antony and Cleopatra with Eve Best (Globe, 2014)
Maria Aberg's King John (RSC, 2012)
David Farr's The Tempest (RSC, 2012)
Roxanna Silbert's Measure for Measure (RSC, 2011)
Dominic Dromgoole's Pericles (Sam Wanamaker, 2015)

No Particular Order

The Ferryman
Clybourne Park
The Inheritance
Sweat
Labour of Love
Admissions
Beginning
Posh
The Audience
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

This is hard, isn't it?!

Chimerica
King Charles III
This House
Labour of Love
People Places and Things
The Children
Gloria
The Encounter
Incognito
Collaborators/Pressure/Circle Mirror Transformation/Good People/Oppenheimer

Oh & a special mention for Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart
See, I said it was hard.

What a good idea. A quick trawl back through the years, and I've come up with these that made the biggest impact on me. It seems, for me, that 2017 was the best year of the decade overall.

Anne Boleyn. Howard Brenton. Shakespeare's Globe , 2010 (Does that count as this decade?  Adding King Charles III if not)
Clybourne Park. Bruce Norris. Royal Court, 2010 & Wyndham's Theatre 2011
Jumpers for Goalposts. Tom Wells. Palace Theatre Watford & Bush Theatre, 2013
King Charles III. Mike Bartlett. Almeida & Wyndham's Theatre, 2014
Rotterdam. Jon Brittain. Theatre503, 2015 & Arts Theatre, 2017
Killology. Gary Owen. Sherman Theatre, Cardiff & Royal Court Upstairs, 2017
Gloria. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Hampstead Theatre, 2017
The Ferryman. Jez Butterworth. Royal Court & Gielgud Theatre, 2017
Girl from the North Country. Conor McPherson & Bob Dylan. Old Vic & Noel Coward Theatre, 2017
The Inheritance. Matthew Lopez. Young Vic & Noel Coward Theatre, 2018
Sweat. Lynn Nottage. Donmar & Gielgud Theatre, 2019

And I'm really excited about kicking off the next decade with Lucy Kirkwood's The Welkin. Will it be on the list in ten years time I wonder?

Can we omit The James plays please. Pretty please....I’m begging ya...

Haha, I was going to say Rules for Living (on the same list) was one of my two worst plays of the decade (the other being Nice Fish)...

Best Revivals of 2010

1. The Homecoming (RSC, 2012)
2. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Bath, 2014)
3. The Rover (RSC, 2016)
4. An Enemy of the People (Chichester, 2016)
5. Pinter at the Pinter - New World Order/Mountain Language/One For the Road/The Collection/Night/Night School
6. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Chichester, 2012)
7. Rutherford and Son (Northern Broadsides, 2013)
8. The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Unicorn, 2015)
9. The Jew of Malta (RSC, 2015)
10. All My Sons (Apollo Theatre, 2010)

Runners Up
A View from the Bridge (Young Vic, 2014)
Peter Pan (Regent's Park, 2015)
Orpheus Descending (Menier Chocolate Factory, 2019)
Rosmersholm (Duke of York, 2019)
Journeys End (Watermill, 2014)
For Services Rendered (Chichester, 2015)
Man + Superman (NT, 2015)
The Goat, or who is Sylvia (Haymarket, 2017)
Fathers and Sons (Donmar, 2014)
Uncle Vanya (Chichester, 2012)

Favourite revivals
The Misanthrope, Shakespeare at Tobacco Factory/BOV - Tony Harrison's updating of his updating
Tis Pity She's a Whore, Cheek by Jowl
Othello, Hytner, NT
A View from the Bridge, Ivo van Hove
Man and Superman, Shaw, NT
Travesties, Menier Choc
Hamlet, Icke
Summer and Smoke, Almeida, Rebecca Frecknall
Julius Caesar, Hytner, Bridge
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hytner, Bridge

Three Hytner Shakespeares, I see.