REVIEW - HOXTON STREET - HOXTON HALL -

“Welcome to Hoxton Street – where old London rubs shoulders with new and where money, either earned or stolen, can make for a new life.”

Hoxton Street is inspired by the local communities of Hoxton and their stories. It aims to portray the area of Hoxton, a vibrant and friendly, up and coming area of London.

The show is played out as a live soap opera it’s presented in 4 episodes, which run weekly. You can get package deals so you can watch all 4, and you can attend the omnibus and binge them all at once! Each episode is half an hour long and ends with two cliffhangers. The audience then vote to decide what happens in the next episode.

Starring an ensemble of actors from stage and screen, some having starred in tv soaps themselves. Including Helen Pearson, she plays Josie a mother of two grown up children, and bringing up her grandchildren whilst suffering with some health issues. Pearson is great in this role bringing drama and humour to the character in equal measure. The other standout performance for me was from Hannah Traylen, who plays Ellie. Traylen played this role effortlessly well. She was very funny and you could tell she was having a great time up on the stage.

I watched Episodes 1 and 2. I felt that episode 2 was better, it was faster paced and flowed well, plus it was funnier.

The staging is simple, they have a set piece which flips over and creates a new background, so they can flit between settings of a doctors surgery and a falafel van plus others. This is genius as it helps to set the scene, and despite the simplistic design, it works very well. This show is simple yet effective, it doesn’t have the budget of other London shows but it still delivers from a incredibly solid cast.

This show is fun, it’s different, it’s clearly a hit with the audience and everyone seemed to enjoy getting involved and deciding what happens next. It’s lighthearted, feel good and makes for a good night out.

Splitting the play into episodes is genius as it leaves you wanting more, and I certainly did after my visit to Hoxton Street!

🎟 pr invite

Cast includes; Helen Pearson (EastEnders, BBC; Emmerdale, ITV; Hollyoaks, Channel 4) as Josie Maynard, Hannah Traylen (Boiling Point, Ascendant Films; Ridley Road, BBC; Call the Midwife, BBC) as Ella Maynard, Nathan Welsh (Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre; Macbeth, Chichester Festival Theatre; Trust Me, BBC) as Tony Maynard and from EastEnders, Linda Marlowe (Casualty, BBC; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, StudioCanal) takes on the role of Linda Maynard.