London Theatre 2016 highlights: the best of the best

Potent new writing: Escaped Alone, Royal Court Theatre

The mighty Caryl Churchill did not disappoint with her hotly-anticipated new play at the Royal Court. Escaped Alone was fiendishly smart, but not at all alienating. And luckily for those who missed the story of tea and catastrophe in 2016, it returns for a short run in January 2017 before transferring to New York.

Astonishingly fresh: Yerma, Young Vic Theatre

Yerma was the best thing we've seen at the Young Vic since A Streetcar Named Desire, (maybe ever?). Lorca’s tragedy was dragged into modern day London with an astonishing urgency, Billie Piper was a sensation and a yuppie blogger version of the infertile heroine, and day ticket queue snaked down The Cut.

Mind-boggling: The Encounter, Barbican

Complicite Theatre Company really got inside our minds with this extraordinary immersive soundscape telling the story of an explorer stranded in the Amazon rain forest. The story and methods through which it was told was full of surprises.

Sexy, subversive Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Globe

New Globe artistic director Emma Rice began with a bang: Beyonce, Bowie, Bollywood & cabaret made for a drastically different, delightfully subversive Midsummer Night's Dream. Traditionalists were outraged; everyone else was thrilled.

Predictably magic: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Palace Theatre

The return of The Boy Who Lived is just about the biggest thing to happen to the West End. Cue herds of Harry Potter fans, queuing around the Palace Theatre, eagerly awaiting more J.K. Rowling magic. We (as avid enthusisasts of Theatre and the wizarding world) were not disappointed).

Funny over again over again: Groundhog Day, Old Vic

Back off Broadway, we had the best new musical since Hamilton – right here in London. Thanks to the mighty talents of Tim Minchin, Matthew Warchus and Danny Rubin, hit 1993 film Groundhog Day was transformed into a subversively funny delight of a musical.

A new kind of blues: The Deep Blue Sea, National Theatre

Terence Rattigan's tender tale of depression and failed love affairs in 1950s London was made achingly alive in Carrie Cracknell's atmospheric revival at the National Theatre. And Helen McCrory's as suicidal Hester was one of the most touching, understated performances of the year.

All-star Pinter: No Man's Land, Wyndham's Theatre

When living legends Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart joined forces, it was always going to be a theatrical event. They did not disappoint in Pinter's perplexing, poetic masterpiece.

Who run the world: Donmar's Female Shakespeare Trilogy

Phyllida Lloyd's masterful re-imagining of Shakespeare within a women's prison has already featured in many a 'best theatre' round up when first Julius Caesar then Henry IV premiered at the Donmar. But now with The Tempest completing a trilogy of all-female Shakespeare plays with a remarkably talented cast, the result was one of 2016's most unmissable theatrical experiences.

Millennial malaise: The Flick, National Theatre

Annie Baker's polarising, Pulitzer-winning play The Flick divided opinions. But everyone agreed that it was a long, slow slog. But it was the sheer quotidian and banality that was so striking. Easily the least thrilling play by traditional standard, yet strangely compelling.