Following on from a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, this boy band Christmas music has made its way to the Seven Dials Playhouse. With an obvious influence from Dickens’ classic Christmas story, Chris Kirkpatrick is visited by an Angel – Marky Mark and is allowed to make a wish. What follows is an hour … More CHRISKIRKPATRICKMAS – REVIEW – SEVEN DIALS PLAYHOUSE
The infamous Sh!t Faced Showtime are back in London with a festive edition, they have taken Dickens’ classic and put a drunken spin on it. The formula is the same as other iterations of the Shi!t Faced shows, one member of the cast has been boozing, and this time it is John Milton who plays … More A PISSEDMAS CAROL – REVIEW – LEICESTER SQUARE
The title of this winner of Theatre 503’s 2023 International Playwriting Award by Roxy Cook may seem like the set-up to a joke, but the narrative that unspools is instead an affectionate, gently barbed and at base quite sobering portrait of three ordinary souls (and one restless feline) adrift in modern Moscow. There is much … More A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK – REVIEW – THEATRE503
What appears at first as two latecomers arriving, taking seats at the front row as the house lights dim is the first of many sly twists in this gently metaphysical comedy from writer/director Maggie Marie Casto. Oddly, the young couple (Bailey & Clay) appear from the side of the stage not accessible by the public, … More WEIRD PLACE – REVIEW – UNION THEATRE
Cheese seizing is a beloved tradition held on the spring bank holiday, when a 7 to 9-pound Double Gloucester is rolled down Cooper’s Hill for participants to follow. Good fun! When I saw Seize the Cheese! being presented at a Wine and Cheese tasting event earlier this year, I got excited, but unfortunately, this cheese was not … More SEIZE THE CHEESE! – REVIEW – NEW WIMBLEDON THEATRE
Amy catches up with Aoife Kennan, who wrote and stars in Scratches. How are you feeling ahead of your opening at the Arcola after a fantastic run at Vaults? I’m a big bundle of nerves at the moment, but there’s a lot of excitement mixed in there. We had such a great response from VAULT … More INTERVIEW – AOIFE KENNAN – SCRATCHES
Although familiar with Haruki Murakami, I have not read his 1999 novel of identity, Sputnik Sweetheart. Bryony Lavery’s adaptation, premiering at the Arcola Theatre, certainly made me want to. The story of best friends Sumire and K, the latter of whom is hopelessly in love with the former, navigating the new world of adulthood; as … More SPUTNIK SWEETHEART – REVIEW – ARCOLA THEATRE
More than one critically acclaimed book has recently been brought to the stage, some with great success, others with lesser success. So it is safe to say that the stage adaptation of Eliza Clark’s debut novel Boy Parts was eagerly awaited, and it does not disappoint. The production at the Soho Theatre shows not only a fascinatingly … More BOY PARTS – REVIEW -SOHO THEATRE
My first confession is that I do very much heart Michael Ball. In this show, which begins as a semi-immersive meeting of the Michael Ball fan club, I was grateful not to be picked on as writer/performer Alex Millington turned to audience members in the intimate space of the Old Red Lion Theatre, asking them … More I HEART MICHAEL BALL – REVIEW – OLD RED LION THEATRE
The stage is suitably spooky with the heavy haze of dry ice and rumbling soundtrack, swallowed up into the shadowy rafters of the erstwhile St Mary’s Church space, now the Colchester Arts Centre, the host venue of writer/director Noah Alfred Pantano’s 2023 Fringe entry. The air is thick with disquiet and threat of menace even … More STANDING ON A NAIL: A QUEER HORROR STORY – REVIEW – COLCHESTER FRINGE
Eloina’s High Steaks is a raw and honest show about the shame some feel about their labia. With the majority of labiaplasties being performed for purely cosmetic reasons in the present day, our schools failing to teach us about the uniqueness of everyone’s vagina, and the media only showing edited or surgically altered versions of … More HIGH STEAKS – REVIEW – JACKSON’S LANE ARTS CENTRE
Gandhari: The Mother Who Chose Not To See is presented by MythologyWorkshop at The Etcetera Theatre in Camden. Written and performed by Vaishali Chakraavarty, with additional writing by Tom Kane and direction by Katie Georgiou, Gandhari tells the legendary myth of the powerful matriarch of the Mahabharata. Chakraavarty brings a strong start to the show … More GANDHARI – REVIEW – ETCETERA THEATRE
Happy to coast along on its plentiful surface charms, Seb Kainth’s sparkling script for Freaky Geese Productions provides its cast with endless verbal and situational opportunity, a farcical spirit coiling underneath an oh-so-fraught comedy of barely-managed civility. It quickly assumes the dimensions of an expert comic grotesque. Couple Kevin and Lisa, whose marriage has devolved … More TABLE MANNERS – REVIEW – DRAYTON ARMS THEATRE
Proforca Theatre Company’s The Shatter Box, which runs until the 16 September at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, is a mixed offering. Its tale of senseless violence in a prison where a prisoner must confess, under torture, to a truth that only a computer knows, is one of striking visuals and intense dialogue. Yet, at … More THE SHATTER BOX – REVIEW – LION AND UNICORN THEATRE
Box House Theatre Company’s Twisted Tales is a fascinating and funny physical theatre piece about six thespians who come across the twisted tales book, When they step onto the book they are restricted to performing the tales. We see them tell the tales of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland, and … More TWISTED TALES – REVIEW – CAMDEN FRINGE
All starts well in this Camden Fringe entry from writer Eamonn Dolan. With macabre irreverence, a young man (Alec Taylor’s Finn) climbs atop a table and inserts his neck into a noose. There’s a dark comic punch as he is continually distracted from stepping off the edge by the sound of an ice cream truck … More SIREN SONG – REVIEW – CAMDEN FRINGE
I came to see this show at last year’s Fringe and fell in love with it. I was keen to see if my memory of the play was accurate or if those rose-tinted glasses had set in… I’m pleased to say it was just as funny as I remember! The Defectors were formed in 2022 … More DEFECTIVE INSPECTOR & DEFECTIVE INSPECTOR: A STITCH IN TIME – REVIEW – CAMDEN FRINGE
Two actors and a stage manager try to break out of their own play in [INSERT PLAY], a not-quite-successful experiment in clowning and meta-theatre by Onsen Presents, Sam Toocaram, and Joe Sear-Myles. Dressed in blacks and ready to tackle their hopeless, sprawling, repeatedly rewritten script, confusion and banter reign supreme in this physical, jokes-heavy hour … More [INSERT PLAY] – REVIEW – CAMDEN FRINGE
Written, directed, produced, and performed by Danielle Scott, Sex, Drugs and Hairy Bum Holes is a one-woman dark comedy. Candy works hard but she plays harder. She’s starting to get fed up with going out every night, meeting sleazy men online and being perpetually hungover at work. She meets this new man who seems to … More SEX, DRUGS AND HAIRY BUM HOLES – REVIEW – CAMDEN FRINGE
This one-hour memory piece by writer/performer Jed McLoughlin doesn’t give up its mysteries easily. Recounting the love affair between characters named One and Two, the action centres around a would-be romantic weekend in Paris that signalled the dissolution of the relationship. One struggles with Two, to great and increasing consternation, whose memory of their time … More REMEMBER THE BEFORE – REVIEW – CAMDEN FRINGE
