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Three plays made a special connection with me this year: The Wild Duck at the Almeida, Girls & Boys at the Royal Court, and the Young Vic’s West End production of The Inheritance (I missed the original run).

Robert Icke’s radical adaptation of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck proved once again his alchemic ability to conjure drama out of thin air. What begins as an arm’s-length study of the source text becomes a powerfully engrossing, and significantly unresolved, battle between two opposing philosophies: truth at all costs and the ‘life lie’.

Equally breathtaking was Denis Kelly’s Girls & Boys. Driven by Carey Mulligan’s charmingly brutal, deeply multifaceted performance, this play about the fallout of thwarted masculinity draws you in to rip you apart. You quickly sense the dark place it’s taking you to but you can’t turn away.

From a cast of one to a consummate ensemble, Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance is an expansive, touching study of a generation of gay New Yorkers living in the long shadow of the AIDS crisis. The play glides effortlessly from the personal to the political throughout its two impressively self-contained parts.

Inspired by EM Forster’s Howard’s End, The Inheritance curiously shares with Icke’s The Wild Duck a manner of making up the show from scratch and subjecting it to continued scrutiny, along with a critical attitude towards its originator. Just as Ibsen’s motives in creating The Wild Duck are called into question, so Forster is challenged for suppressing his own sexuality. In both cases the metatextual moves are elegant rather than showy, and deepen our understanding.

I must also mention Arinzé Kene’s Misty and debbie tucker green’s ear for eye, two more plays to round out my top five of the year.

Kene’s lyrical triumph is a provoking exploration of what it means to be ‘a black play’ that never forgets to entertain, as well as enlighten, its audience. Meanwhile the hotly anticipated ear for eye delivered a poetic, scathing account of the many layers of prejudice suffered by black Britons and Americans.

Speaking of which, my final highlight of the year was Fabia Turner’s smart and insightful review of this important play. Read Fabia Turner’s review of ear for eye here.

To start the new year with a look at the old, here are some of my theatre highlights of 2015. 

Robert Icke’s adaptation of the Oresteia at the Almeida was my standout show of a fine year. The archetypal drama of a family at war with itself became a uniquely contemporary piece of theatre, quite unlike anything else I’ve seen.

In particular I was astounded by how Icke presented the sacrifice of Iphigenia as a tangibly motivated event rather than just one of those crazy things the Greeks do in those ancient myths. Thus the outrageous, blood-soaked tragedy was firmly grounded in reality. 

Also dealing with unhappy families, Gary Owen’s Violence and Son at the Royal Court was both funny and genuinely moving, carried along by a captivating central performance from David Moorst.

I scored a ringside seat for Bull at the Young Vic, Mike Bartlett’s brutal, immersive depiction of workplace bullying where every laugh from the audience upholds the tormentor’s power and weakens the human spirit. 

And of course there was Hangmen at the Royal Court, Martin McDonagh pulling out all his best tricks in this grisly but fun account of England’s last and second-best hangman. 

People, Places and Things at the National Theatre won deserved credit for Denise Gough’s shattering performance but it’s also another fantastic piece of writing from Duncan Macmillan.

This play contained my scene of the year, the returning addict’s attempt at family reconciliation, the mother and father never quite offering up the right lines to allow closure. The obligatory scene never quite obliges and becomes all the more powerful thereby. 

And so to 2016. If I see a comparable group of plays this year I’ll count myself lucky indeed.