Articles by Bennett Bonci

So You Think You're Funny? Grand Final

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Gilded Balloon’s annual comedy competition, So You Think You’re Funny.

The Divide - Part 2

In The Divide Pt 2, Alan Ayckbourn answers my primary issues with Pt 1: the lack of a driving narrative force, and an associated lack of meaningful emotional resonance.

Church Blitz

There are lights in the sky.

The Divide - Part 1

Man, I love theatres.

Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus is a new musical based on the Christopher Marlowe play/ancient story archetype.

Fox and Hound Presents 1 in 2 Chance

As her lead character, Helen Fox explains that one out of every two people in the UK born after 1960 will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.

War of the Sperms

For a play about personified jizz, War of the Sperms is surprisingly unsexy.

Shit I'm in Love With You Again

In Shit, I’m in Love with you Again, Canadian comic Rachelle Elie relates her life story through the mediums of story, stand-up and song.

To Hell in a Handbag

To Hell in a Handbag shares a most important quality with its inspiration: the infectious nature of the prose.

Tiff Stevenson: Bombshell

Tiff Stevenson starts out with the ‘menstrual stuff’, and immediately challenges a male punter’s appreciation thereof.

Nuclear War

Nuclear War is Simon Stephens’ experimental foray into contemporary movement and dance.

Shit-faced Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing

Shit-faced Shakespeare is the Fringe favourite combination of high theatre and falling-down drunkenness.

Sea Fret

The division in our post-Brexit, post-truth Britain stems from the difference between people who can accept dramatic change, and those who cannot.

Orbits

Review
★★
Bennett Bonci
London Fringe
Drayton Arms
27th Feb, 2017

90 minutes later, I had to question what Orbits, playing at the Drayton Arms until 11 March, was and what it ought to be.

The Shoreditch Improv Festival Saturday Afternoon Giggles

The Water Poet was easy to spot on Saturday afternoon.

Sorrows of Satan

The Sorrows of Satan is like an Oscar Wilde Doctor Faustus by way of meta-theatrical musical [Title of Show].

Necessity

To damn with future praise: Necessity, written and directed by Paul Macauley, has a great deal of potential.

Gazing At A Distant Star

Gazing at a Distant Star is a melancholy reminiscence on missing people, told by those left behind.

Genesis

Review
★★
Bennett Bonci
UK Regional & Tours
Multiple Venues
19th Nov, 2016

Genesis is a play about the issue of breast cancer – an issue play.

Birth of a Nation

Review
★★
Bennett Bonci
London Fringe
SLAM KingsX
30th Oct, 2016

This is not the Birth of a Nation that revolutionised filmmaking by mythologising the Ku Klux Klan over the most gruelling three hours every film student will …

Handbagged

Handbagged has more in common with the work of Bertolt Brecht than it does The Audience.

My Dog's Got No Nose

Stand-up comedy can be a very demanding form of performance.

Collateral Damage

The programme for Collateral Damage states that, while the play was written in 1999 in response to contemporary issues, it “has many resonances for us today”.

Keep it Real

Ah, the classic buddy comedy: overdone by definition and yet extremely resilient.

Hunchback

Hunchback is an English language adaptation of the French novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with a stark contrast between strong and weak elements.

The Handmaidens of Death – WWI Theatre of Its Time

Even plays were buried by the bombs of World War I.

Nancy's Philosopher

“Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions.

Casting Call Woe

Next on the list of unusual inspirations: Casting Call Woe is a Fringe show based on a blog.

Spoonface Steinberg

Spoonface Steinberg, written by Lee Hall, premiered as a radio play which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1997.

The Fox and the Hound

A long time ago, I learned that cute animals are a direct conduit to a human heart.

John Knox

If you want to see a show that constructs John Knox as a talking point for oversimplified political views, may I suggest Mary Queen of Scots got her Head Chopped Off? It’s not on…

The Invisible Man

It’s always disappointing to see an interesting concept marred by poor execution.

Missed Connections

There’s an unspoken rule on the tube: never try to start a conversation.

Grannies With Guns

Oddly enough, Grannies with Guns is kind of an anti-Matilda.

The Auld Alliance

To make The Auld Alliance, start with a nice big helping of Jane Austen.

The Country Wife

The Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club’s adaptation of the restoration era comedy The Country Wife moves the action to modern American suburbia, but keeps the period’s …

Making Monsters

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the most well known stories in the English canon.

Jerry Finnegan’s Sister

Written in the 90s, Jerry Finnegan’s Sister presents the iconic ‘girl next door’ story without being self-conscious and with a great deal of laughter.

Zero Down

If you’ve been living a safe, healthy lifestyle under a rock, then you might not know that the NHS has been doing less than fantastic as of late.

The Chicken Trial

Was it animal cruelty to bring 6 chickens to a rowdy nightclub, and is that the wrong question? The Chicken Trial is a “documentary fantasy” recounting the trial of Makode Lind…

One Man Star Wars™ Trilogy

Between Episode IV and V of Charles Ross’s One Man Star Wars Trilogy, the writer/performer spent some time polling the audience.

Madwomen in the Attic

The Madwoman in the Attic is a famous piece of feminist literary criticism that dissects the feminine ideal and its opposite, as exemplified by the relationship between Jane Eyre�…

Follow/Unfollow

‘Internet celebrity’ used to sound contradictory.

Academy of Risk

Academy of Risk explores the tremendous pressure placed on students through their own eyes.

Punk Rock by Simon Stephens

Pressure.

Buckle Up

Buckle Up is a trip on board the world’s worst airline, as technical difficulties, drunken pilots and a terrorist plot threaten to cause major delays.

Much Ado About Nothing

“O God, that I were a man,” Beatrice laments in Much Ado About Nothing’s fourth act.

Romanovs

The Romanovs is not about royalty.

Double Bill

Your Fringe guide might describe Double Bill differently than it actually is.

Ursula Invents Old Woman

Ursula K Le Guin, noted author of A Wizard of Earthsea, is visited by an alien adopting her form.

Austensibility

I shouldn’t have liked Austensibility.

Gagarin Way

Scotland has a bit of a communist history.

Edith in the Dark

Edith Nesbit, author of scary stories for children, jumps from the page to the stage in Edith in the Dark, a story fitting of her preferred genre.

Cross the Shifting Sands

L.

The Dock Brief

The legal stage is not unlike the theatrical one.

Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in 80 Days is one of Jules Verne’s famous adventure novels.

Confessional by Tennessee Williams

When the sun is shining on a windowed room, it can be hard to tell if the lights are on inside.

The Last Laugh

Stand-up comedy and theatre rarely interact in meaningful ways.

Richard Parker

What I remember most strongly from Richard Parker, a 2011 dark comedy from playwright Owen Thomas, was the heat.

The River

Playwright Jez Butterworth is best known for his Royal Court/West End triumph, Jerusalem, a quasi-supernatural piece swamped in mystery - for his latest play, The River, Butterwort…

Phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria is Hookhitch theatre’s adaptation of the Lewis Carroll poem.

Clickbait

Those headlines are everywhere these days: “You won’t believe what happens next,” “#8 will blow your mind,” “This video is everything”.

BLAM!

Go see BLAM! With your eyes.

Big Shot

Big Shot is subtitled, “This is not The Godfather”.

All We Ever Wanted Was A Bobby - Hull's Middle Child is a Winner

Feature
Bennett Bonci
Edinburgh Fringe
26th Aug, 2017

The second Bobby of EdFringe 2017 has been scooped by Middle Child for All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.

The Laramie Project wins first #BobbyAward of #EdFringe 2017

Feature
Bennett Bonci
Edinburgh Fringe
11th Aug, 2017

When Matthew Shepard was brutally tied to a fence, beaten, and abandoned outside Laramie, Wyoming, members of Tectonic Theatre Group came to ask questions.

Cherry pops the question: ‘What’s the big deal about virginity?’

‘There are very few things that are universal.

Comedian Kae Kurd on Growing Up Kurdish and the Responsibility of Representation

Feature
Bennett Bonci
Edinburgh Fringe
1st Aug, 2017

Kae Kurd isn’t intimidated by the prospect of debuting his first hour-long stand-up show, Kurd Your Enthusiasm, in a full run at the Edinburgh Fringe.