Billington's best 25 plays since Jerusalem

I'd have included Posh, Constellations, Cock, Tribes, Iphigenia in Splott and The Effect.

Great to see Jerusalem at the Watermill getting raves (no pun intended). 5 * from the two Dominics. Kudos to Jasper Britton for tackling the role in the shadow of Rylance and seemingky pulling it off spectacularly well.

That the Moderate Soprano is on this list...I have no words.

There are some plays that absolutely don't belong on here. Also I'm fed up of these lists revolving so closely around the original productions of plays. Come back when it's been revived, tell me if you *still* think it's a great play when the original West End star has moved on and a fresh-faced graduate of the School of Hollyoaks is touring it round the provinces. *That's* going to be what sets apart a great production for now from a truly great play for all time, whether it has an independent future life.

I wish Billington would stop making lists like this. I can’t see what purpose it serves. Is it a particularly male trait to rank things like this?

Wish List has two this month! It's not on Billington's list, but it was in a studio space and as far as I can tell he didn't see it. I think Gundog (also RC studio) was very good too, another emerging writer who looks interesting.

Well This House is now on its provincial tour, and still seems fine to me.  However, it's so time specific to a typical audience age that I can imagine no one will be interested in revisiting 25 years from now.

Two generations of us went - it's my Mum's era and she thought it was entertaining but nothing amazing, and I'd already forgotten I'd seen it!

I wish Billington would stop this machismoatic delusion that he is the authoratitive word on what constitutes “the best”.

If they had phrased it more as "Michael Billington chooses his favourites of the last few years" and less as "OUR CRITIC announces THE BEST plays since THE LAST DEFINITIVELY GREAT ONE" I'd be far more forgiving. I know I should be reading an implicit "in my opinion" in every single article or post I read ever, but I still wish people would acknowledge the impossibility of a definitive "best" list and instead encourage the legitimisation of "favourite" as a discussion topic.

Still, credit where it's due, we've got thirteen plays by men and twelve by women. I'm genuinely surprised and pleased to see such a decent gender balance (one that's even slightly in favour of the women, if you consider The James Plays as separates rather than a single over-long entity). And who knows, maybe when (say) Bristol Old Vic revives The Ferryman in eight or nine years, Billington's "THE BEST plays since THE LAST DEFINITIVELY GREAT ONE" list will have such a decent showing of non-white playwrights. Fingers crossed!

I fully expected not to have seen - even less recognised - anything on the list, as I don't see many new plays and am rarely in London, but actually I've seen 3 of those and liked them all. (This House, The James Plays and the tv version of King Charles III, if you want to know.)

I need to make more of an effort to see new plays. It's hard though, when a London trip needs planning months ahead.

I've seen 10 of them (counting the James Plays as one of course). Not sure why people get so excited about this - Billington is a critic and he has his opinions, a critic is not just someone who lists what happened and who happened it, he is supposed to have an opinion. I agree with some, wouldn't put some of them on my list. But he's entitled to list whatever he wants and the point (as with all these lists) is that it gets people talking.

"The Moderate Soprano" was a trifle dull and inconsequential and "Oil" was effort over achievement. I thought Charles III was overhyped. "Chimerica" is a good shout, very funny play, agree with "Anne Boleyn" but I would include "Nell Gwyn" and "Boudica" and "The Red Lion". Glad to see James Graham making the cut.