Articles by Richard Beck

Placeholder

Review
★★★★★
Richard Beck
Dundee Fringe
The Keiller Shopping Centre, Chapel Street
3rd Oct, 2024

There’s a wealth of research that shines through Placeholder, presented by Fronteiras Theatre Lab in association with the Colonial-Era Caribbean Theatre and Opera Network at Dund…

Juno and the Paycock

Juno Boyle (J.

Look Back In Anger

The Almeida’s Angry and Young season has opened with John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger that heralded the mid 1950s revolution in drama and gave birth to the Angry Young Man gen…

He's Not Gay, He's Just My Brother!

Review
★★★★★
Richard Beck
Dundee Fringe
The Keiller Shopping Centre, Chapel Street
4th Oct, 2024

Humour is a funny thing and while I have a reputation for not doing comedy, many things amuse me and some even make me laugh out loud.

The Truth About Harry Beck

The Cubic Theatre inside the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden, provides the most fitting venue for Natural Theatre Company’s The Truth About Harry Beck, which commemorates …

I Believe in One Bach

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
Dundee Fringe
The Keiller Shopping Centre, Chapel Street
17th Sep, 2024

Alan Gottlieb (Chris Brannick) has spent forty years on the back row of the second violins, but changes are afoot that threaten everything that gives meaning to his life.

Buckets of Blood: Fairy Tales Not For Kids

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Dundee Fringe
The Keiller Shopping Centre, Chapel Street
21st Sep, 2024

In a gripping and hilarious show, Yorkshire storyteller Eden Ballantyne takes us back to the original versions of some of the most famous children’s stories and leaves us wonderi…

Hellcats

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
Dundee Fringe
The Keiller Shopping Centre, Chapel Street
18th Sep, 2024

There is an enduring theatrical interest in witch trials.

Snake in the Grass

Alan Ayckbourn’s Snake in the Grass gives an opening impression of a potentially genteel tale concerning reunion of two sisters in the garden of their late father’s country hou…

Maybe This Time

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
Dundee Fringe
The Keiller Shopping Centre, Chapel Street
17th Sep, 2024

The Dundee Fringe provides the perfect context for Maybe This Time, a story of love, frustration and delusion rooted in the city.

Roots

The Almeida’s Angry and Young season has opened with two seminal works from the dramatic revolution of the late 1950s: Arnold Wesker’s Roots and John Osborne’s Look Back in A…

I Did Something I Shouldn't Have...

Marketing a show as a thriller often raises hopes that are not met.

Gaudi: God’s Architect

The Archdiocese of Glasgow Arts Project (AGAP) was founded in 2006 to engage people of all backgrounds through faith-inspired arts events and activities often through dramatic prod…

BOBBY WINNER

RUM by Joe Mallalieu

The exposed brick of a top-floor cavern at Underbelly Cowgate is the ideal setting for actor/writer Joe Mallalieu’s premiere of Rum, a solo play rooted in his experience of growi…

A Silent Scandal

Meade Conway discovered that the school he attended was involved in one of the Ireland's many school scandals.

Tales from a British Country Pub

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall / theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall
21st Aug, 2024

Once in a blue moon you take a punt on a show at 11pm and to your surprise, you find pure gold.

Winchester

History can do strange things to a person’s reputation, and Sarah ‘Sallie’ Lockwood Winchester (née Pardee,1839-1922) has probably not fared too well in those stakes.

Athens of The North

Three Edinburgh characters weave in and out of each other’s lives in Mark Hannah’s Athens of the North, premiering at the Hibernian Supporters Club, A play that confronts the w…

The Ruffian on the Stair

It’s sixty years since Joe Orton’s The Ruffian on the Stair, was broadcast as a radio play and now his unmistakable style is brought to life by Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group…

A Singular Deception

James Barry was born Margaret Anne Bulkley, but she fooled the world in order to become a doctor in the British army, which in the very early nineteenth century was an unthinkable …

The Popess: Instructions for Freedom

Writer/performer Elena Mazzon presents an unusual piece of theatre in The Popess: Instructions for Freedom, directed by Colin Watkeys at The Carbon Lounge as part of PBH’s Free F…

I Am Yours Sincerely

Writer and performer Ed Saunders-Lee presents the remarkable untold true story of his step-grandfather, Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent John Cox MC in the charming solo sh…

A Play by John

For lovers of absurdist theatre, A Play by John at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall is not to be missed.

Doped

Reconnect Theatre’s Doped at the Hill Street Theatre is a fascinating and delightfully crazy study of the relationship between three guys that questions the nature of friendship,…

Sessions

Working Progress Collective is ‘a Midlands-born theatre company, making theatre for, by and with working class communities’.

RTFM (Read The F***ing Manual)

Building an IKEA wardrobe is probably a challenge at any time.

Super Second Rate

Leah Coloff is an impressive musician.

Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Story

It wasn’t just the toffs and millionaires who sought a cabin on board the Titanic’s maiden voyage; workers also vied for positions.

Dummy in Diaspora

Chicago-based American actor and writer Esho Rasho is the child of an Assyrian-Iraqi refugee and an Assyrian-Lebanese immigrant, both of whom are war survivors.

My English Persian Kitchen

Attending the world premiere of My English Persian Kitchen at The Traverse Theatre is a real treat.

Out of Woodstock

Whatever the mention of Woodstock conjures up in your mind it's probably represented in this ‘99-inspired show by Tom Foreman Productions, written, directed and produced by T…

3 Couples, 2 Breakups, 1 Barbie and The Berlin Wall

Square Pegs, the Macready Theatre Young Actors’ Company are back again at C Arts Aquila with another joyous bag of wild imagination, comedy and physicality.

Rat Tails (WIP)

We don't normally review works in progress, but that description is more a mark of Jeremy McClain’s honesty and humility than a reflection of his solo show Rat Tails at the F…

BOBBY WINNER

An Adequate Abridgement of Boarding School Life as a Homo

Not the longest-titled show at the Fringe, but surely in the top ten, An Adequate Abridgement of Boarding School Life as a Homo, at Just the Tonic, Cave, must also rate as one of t…

Divine Invention

Sergio Blanco’s latest offering with Tangram Theatre Company, which he directs, is radically different from his other works.

Dee Allum: Deadname

As we walk in to Dee Allum: Deadname at Pleasance Courtyard , Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson is playing.

Corpse Flower

Threepenny Collective’s Corpse Flower at C Venues Aquila is a weird piece, though not in a negative sense, but in its amalgamation of multiple elements and curious happenings tha…

You Can't Escape an Aussie Boy

Hailed by the company as ‘loud, obnoxious and darkly humorous’, one is left wondering what happened to those elements in You Can’t Escape an Aussie Boy.

Red Speedo

As the Summer Olympics approach, the UK première of Lucas Hnath’s Red Speedo at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond comes with timely prescience of the almost inevitable doping sc…

Skeleton Crew

The Donmar Warehouse, with its exposed bricks and systems, provides an ideal setting for Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew that opened off-Broadway in 2016, was subsequently no…

The Beckett Trilogy

The Coronet Theatre again hosts Gare St Lazare Ireland, the leading exponents of Samuel Becketts’ work.

L'Amore Del Cuore (Heart's Desire)

Caryl Churchill’s wild family debacle, Hearts Desire is given a make-over at the Coronet Theatre by acclaimed Italian theatre maker Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli who directs the company l…

Kiss Me, Kate

Cole Porter’s highly imaginative dual play, after Shakespeare, a musical within a musical, Kiss Me Kate, has opened at the Barbican.

Franz Kafka's The Hunger Artist

The opportunities for speculation about meaning abound in Franz Kafka’s The Hunger Artist at Etcetera Theatre, Camden in a production by London Actors Workshop, with Jonathan Sid…

The Untold Fable of Fritz

Let out your inner child and enjoy The Untold Fable of Fritz by Unsettled Theatre at the Prague Fringe Festival in the Divadlo Inspirace Theatre.

The Chemistry of Love

What do Shakespeare, thermodynamics and biochemistry have in common? The somewhat surprising answer is Love.

Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act

For fans of Holmes and anyone who enjoys a solid solo show, this performance of Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act at the Prague Fringe by celebrated actor Nigel Miles-Thomas is a must-…

Twelfth Night

If you’ve never seen Shakespeare performed Aussie style, this is your chance.

UnErase Poetry - Stories from India

Making their international debut, UnErase Poetry, India's biggest spoken-word collective, with over two million followers on social media, provide an hour of delightful tales, …

At Home with Will Shakespeare

Who knows what Shakespeare looked like? We might think we do, yet as Pip Utton points out in his solo performance of At Home With Will Shakespeare at the Prague Fringe, the most fa…

Barrier To Entry

Ed Oulton booked his studio at Theatre Peckham as part of their Fringe programme before he’d written Barrier to Entry.

RANK.

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Brighton Fringe
Grania Dean Studio (Lantern Theatre @ ACT)
14th May, 2024

At the end of drunken night out all that Gemma and Jane want is to jump into a taxi, get home and crash into bed.

Far From Home Close To Love

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
Multiple Venues
14th May, 2024

Actor and writer Benjamin Kelm taps himself repeatedly about the face as he repeats the mantra, “You can do it, you can do it , you can do it.

Six Characters in Search of Pirandello

Playwright Tim Coakley has created an interesting twist on Luigi Pirandello’s groundbreaking play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, with his latest work, Six Characters in …

A Song of Songs

The European premiere of A Song of Songs at the Park Theatre sees a work as mysterious in theatrical categorisation as the book on which it is based is in terms of religious litera…

The Government Inspector

Bribery and corruption, greed and stupidity dominate Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector.

So That You May Go Beyond The Sea

As we sit in the Camden People’s Theatre, a performance of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is taking place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, at least for the purposes this pl…

A Year And A Day

Christopher Sainton-Clark, the sole actor in A Year and a Day, founded Raising Cain Productions in 2021 ‘with the aim of producing bold, innovative and cinematic small-scale thea…

Frozen

Bryony Lavery’s Frozen embraces difficult issues and circumstances.

Laughing Boy

Connor Sparrowhawk died this morning.

What The Butler Saw

Artistic Director and Founder of London Classic Theatre, Michael Cabot opened the company’s touring production of Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw at the Devonshire Park Theatr…

Community Service

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
Multiple Venues
16th Apr, 2024

Stan’s Cafe Theatre, Birmingham, is rooted in the community, so it’s no surprise that they have taken the local story of Trevor Prince, a gospel guitarist and one of the first bl…

Besa

What an extraordinary and charming play this is, courtesy of De Insomniis Theatre.

Horne's Descent

It all starts off so nicely, but it’s not long before Nina Atesh’s drawing-room drama turns into a battleground of conflicts that resurrect the past, fight for the present and …

My Beautifull Laundrette

Hanif Kureishi’s adaptation of his screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette was at the Liverpool Playhouse as part of its UK tour, courtesy of the Theatre Nation Partnerships conve…

Les Misérables (School Edition)

To stage Les Misérables is a massive undertaking for any theatre company, but Director Ben Jeffreys has consummately risen to the challenge with a production of the School’s Edi…

Foam

Harry McDonald’s Foam, at the Finborough Theatre, is a chronological series of snapshots that capture events in the life of Nicky Crane (1958-1993).

Hide and Seek

It’s refreshing to see a much-visited subject of bullying and homophobia in a world dominated by social media, given a fresh treatment that is both innovative and extraordinary, …

Rika’s Rooms

Rika’s Rooms is the second in the series of four works that form the Playground Theatre’s season of plays by Gail Louw and features Emma Wilkinson Wright in the eponymous solo …

Guys & Dolls

Celebrating the show’s first anniversary, Nicholas Hytner’s sensational, immersive production of Guys & Dolls continues at the Bridge Theatre with a new lineup of stars, th…

Uncle Vanya

The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, has scored a major triumph in securing the services of Sir Trevor Nunn to direct his faithful adaptation of Uncle Vanya in a production that has …

Blonde Poison

Gail Louw's best-known work, Blonde Poison, forms part of a four-play season devoted to her work at the Playground Theatre.

The Duchess of Malfi

Director Rachel Bagshaw has created a vibrant and vivid production of John Webster’s tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi, at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre that revels in the candlelight se…

Robin Hood (that sick f**k)

Baby Lamb Productions have scored another success with their latest production, Robin Hood (that sick f**k) at the Bread and Roses Theatre.

She Stoops to Conquer

Artistic Director Tom Littler, with Francesca Ellis, scores another inspired triumph with his production of Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer.

Ghosts

The traditional blacked-out auditorium that marks the start of a play at the Sam Wanamaker theatre is illuminated one candle at a time, until the six candelabra and four sconces br…

Treason - the Musical

The brief descriptor of Treason the Musical as “a historic tale of division, religious persecution, and brutality” reads like a modern-day newspaper headline.

Now Entering Ely, Nevada

Memory is a strange thing.

To Have And To Hold

The final days of a sixty-year marriage are turned into a domestic comedy in the latest offering from playwright Richard Bean, of One Man, Two Guvnors fame, in To Have and To Hold,…

Manic Street Creature

Making its London premier Maimuna Memon’s multi-award-winning Manic Street Creature is now showing at the Southwark Playhouse, Borough, following its barnstorming, sell-out world…

1984

Playwright Adam Taub says, “In the era of Google, Amazon and Meta, when our every move is monitored and recorded, there is no more relevant story than 1984”.

Casting the Runes

Following their hugely successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year Box Tale Soup are now performing Casting the Runes, based on stories by M R James, at the Pleasance…

The Loaf

Head to the Bridge House Theatre, Penge for an evening of delightful storytelling and charming performances in Alan Booty's two-hander, The Loaf.

The Nag's Head

If you are partial to rather extraordinary pieces of theatre, that contain elements of many genres but cannot be pigeon-holed into any of them, then The Nag’s Head at the Park Th…

Trueman and the Arsonists

Review
★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
Roundhouse
1st Nov, 2023

Writer Simon Stephens has taken Max Frisch’s 1953 Biedermann und die Brandstifter, variously translated as The Fireraisers or The Arsonists and given it a heightened absurdist in…

The Kaspar Hauser Experiment

Winston Churchill’s famous expression, “It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma…” could accurately be applied to the subject of The Kaspar Hauser Experiment a…

Jez Butterworth’s The River

Is it a parable? If so, what is it trying to teach? Is it an allegory? If so what does each of the components represent and if it’s a metaphor, then for what? These elements alwa…

Owners

Carly Churchill looks upon Owners, now revived at Jermyn Street Theatre, as a watershed in her life.

Iolanthe

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
West End
London Coliseum
16th Oct, 2023

There is nothing subtle about Gilbert and Sullivan’s satirical attack on the House of Lords in Iolanthe, which premiered in both London and New York on 25th November 1882; the fi…

Gentlemen

From time to time a play comes along that ticks every box and gives a surprise treatment to a contemporary topic.

fell

The current transformation of the postage stamp stage of Barons Court Theatre, located in the cellar vaults of The Curtains Up pub, has been wrought by Designer Jane Linz Roberts, …

The Island

There is an intriguing opening to The Island at the Cervantes Theatre.

Lessons on Revolution

Billed as ‘documentary theatre’ Lessons on Revolution at the Hope Theatre is a fascinating excursion into performance and the creative process that challenges the traditional i…

Am I Irish Yet

Described as a ‘one-woman show chronicling the life of Kate Kerrigan’ Am I Irish Yet? lays bare her problem as soon as she opens her mouth.

The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria

The play’s excessively long title has a folktale ring to it and with only limited knowledge of Balkan history sounds like a work of comic fantasy.

The Red Lion

Religious fervour and football fanaticism have much in common, so it seems entirely appropriate that Patrick Marber’s changing-room drama, The Red Lion should open to the sound o…

The Threepenny Opera

Review
★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
The Cockpit
13th Oct, 2023

Taking on The Threepenny Opera can be a precarious business, as OVO demonstrate, without flinching from the challenge.

The Old Queen's Head

A sincerely told story, a captivating performance and a wealth of humour make for a well-spent eighty minutes upstairs at The Lion & Unicorn Theatre with David Patterson, who makes…

I, Daniel Blake

Two lives come together in an unlikely match.

Mess Maker

We’re all familiar with mess in one form or another, but for most of us dealing with it is probably not an all-consuming activity in the way that it is for writer and performer Jen…

Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends

The contribution of Stephen Sondheim to musical theatre was commemorated in a one-off tribute show last year, following his death in 2021.

Boys From The Blackstuff

The extent to which you appreciate James Graham’s adaptation of Boys from the Blackstuff might depend partly on how well you know Alan Bleasdale’s original television series.

The White Factory

With horrific events occurring around the world, The White Factory at The Marylebone Theatre, written by Dmitry Glukhovsky’s and directed by Maxim Didenko comes as a poignant rem…

Artefact & Something Unspoken

The ever-flexible performance space at the Playground Theatre is once more transformed with great imagination, this time to accommodate the double bill of Rena Brannan’s Artefact…

The Lady With a Dog

Publicity for Lady With a Dog, written and directed by Mark Giesser, at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, promises a version in which ‘Chekhov’s famous short story of romance and infi…

Sorry We Didn't Die at Sea

The traditional direction of migrants seeking a better life is turned on its head in Emanuele Aldrovandi’s Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea (translated by Marco Young) at the Park Th…

One Under Par

Was she or was she not fully aware of what she was doing? He certainly was, and for that reason should he have stopped before taking Birdie’s virginity? There’s a suggestion th…

Rebecca

After all the hype from it’s reception elsewhere in Europe combined with the legacy of the original film version, the intriguing yet simple plot and the clear characterisation in…

Dead Dad Dog and Sunny Boy

It was a low turnout at the intimate Finborough Theatre for John McKay’s Dead Dad Dog, but we were all clearly in the mood for a fun night out.

God of Carnage

Who has not experienced a situation in which a surmountable incident escalates out of all proportion? Then, on the way to resolving it, further baggage accumulates around the subje…

Oggie! Oggie! Oggie!

This show’s title summons up many associations except, perhaps, the one that forms the foundation of the play.

The TUNEabomber

Another in the seemingly endless flow of musicals about unlikely subjects that prove successful.

Everything That Annoys Me, and You

Thomas is excited about tonight; so excited that he has called his parents and his brother with the time to look out for biggest meteor storm in 33 years that will fill the night …

14-18 Cyrano de Bergerac

Students from Westcliff High School for Boys, Essex, have arrived in Edinburgh with 14-18 Cyrano de Bergerac, an exciting re-imagining of Edmund Rostand’s 1897 classic tale writt…

JM Coetzee's Life & Times of Michael K

Puppetry arguably reached a new level of realism and sophistication with War Horse.

The Typewriter

The 20 seater upstairs theatre at Riddles Court provides a suitably tight space for The Typewriter, a play based in a cramped office.

Square Peg

This intensely personal show is a fascinating performance with hints of a lecture about it and a suggestion that it is really an audience, in this case with Simeon Morris, as he in…

Groovicle

Dancer and performer Elliot Minogue-Stone presents pop art, contemporary dance and cabaret in his brand-new mish-mash show, Groovicle at Zoo Southside.

The Standard Short Long Drop

Ticking Clock Theatre brings to life the grim days of the Victorian hangman at the Space Triplex Studio in The Standard Short Long Drop, a fascinating play set in the cell of two p…

Be Home Soon

A chance meeting in an art gallery and a new flatmate moving in provide the simple framework for Be Home Soon, a beautifully crafted and sensitively performed debut play from By Th…

The Grandfathers

What would it be like for young people if national conscription were still part of growing up; to receive the letter giving you time and place to report for 547 days of duty and ha…

2nd Picture of Dorian Gray

Nine bubbly teenagers all dressed in white, a reverberating baritone saxophone and an accordion fill the stage around an empty white picture frame mounted on a white easel.

Mrs President

A haunting celeste chime creates a sombre mood that permeates John Ransom Phillips’s Mrs President at C Aquila as Mary Lincoln (LeeAnne Hutchison) poses for photographer Mathew B…

Sing, River

The magic and mystery of midsummer combine with things past and present in Sing, River, written and performed by Nathaniel Jones of Love Song Productions at the Pleasance Courtyard…

BOBBY WINNER

A Manchester Anthem

Making its Fringe debut after winning VAULT Festival ‘Show Of The Week Award’ and Pleasance ‘Pick of the VAULT Award’, Manchester Anthem has been restaged from the linear L…

Collar

If you think coming out as gay or announcing any change from the heteronormative might be difficult, then try telling your parents and friends that you've just been accepted on…

Bones

In 70 action-packed minutes, Bones highlights mental health issues in sport, looking at one man’s struggle to reconcile his inner mental turmoil with the physical demands expecte…

Dr Semmelweis

Having emerged from a period in which we were exhorted to wash our hands at every opportunity and instructed on how to carry out the ritual, it is strange to go back in time to an …

Song From Far Away

Simon Stephens and Mark Eitzel wrote Song From Far Away in 2014 for director Ivan van Hove, who wanted ‘a monologue with song’ for the actor Eelco Smits.

Lady Inger

Review
★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
The Space
3rd Jul, 2023

Ottisdotter theatre company’s production of Lady Inger provides a rare opportunity to see one of Henrik Ibsen’s earliest, least performed and less well-known works.

Vincent River

Playwright Philip Ridley seems to be enjoying a resurgence at the moment; not that he has ever been out of fashion.

Behold! The Monkey Jesus - a (kind of) restoration comedy

From the extraordinary story of Cecilia Giménez (Mary Tillett), writer Joe Wiltshire Smith has created a beautifully crafted play that embraces her innocence and resilience, while…

Self Tape

Jonas (Michael Batten) would ideally like to be in full-time employment as an actor on stage.

Rose

Review
★★★★★
Richard Beck
West End
Ambassadors Theatre. / The Ambassadors Theatre
31st May, 2023

Martin Sherman’s Rose is already an award-winning production that received widespread critical acclaim during its sell-out runs at the Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester, and the Park T…

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical

Making the move from its seven-year residency at the Lyric Theatre, Showstopper! The Improvised Musical has opened at the Cambridge Theatre, its new home, where the team will be do…

The Dumb Waiter & A Slight Ache

Artistic Director James Haddrell has made a brave and perhaps rather surprising choice for the Greenwich Theatre’s first in-house production of 2023.

Leaves of Glass

Philip Ridley’s multi-layered, complex and highly acclaimed story Leaves of Glass is breathtakingly revived by director Max Harrison in collaboration with Lidless Theatre in a mi…

Under Milk Wood

For 30 years now, Guy Masterson has been successfully taking on the monumental challenge of presenting Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood as a solo show; revelations from the fictional …

Biscuits for Breakfast

It’s not only the title of the play; Biscuits For Breakfast is all that some people have to start the day, and that’s if they are lucky.

The Circle

The Artistic Director might have changed but the Orange Tree Theatre continues to resurrect plays from eras that many houses might shun.

Teechers Leavers ‘22

John Godber reinforces his campaign for the arts in education with Teechers Leavers ’22, an updated version of his original play now on its fourth UK tour courtesy of the outstan…

Getaway / Runaway

Noah McCreadie has scored a triumph with his debut play Getaway/Runaway and the intimacy of the King’s Head Theatre provides the perfect setting for this intense drama from Shot …

The Good Person of Szechwan

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
Lyric Hammersmith / Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
28th Apr, 2023

It was just another day in Szechwan with people going about their daily business until three wandering gods in disguise turned up in the city in need of a place to stay while they …

F★★king Men

The current production of Joe DiPietro’s F**king Men at Waterloo East Theatre is an updated version of his original 2009 script that successfully takes note of developments on th…

Jules and Jim.

In a rather surprising debut choice, Stella Powell-Jones has commenced her incumbency as Artistic Director of Jermyn Street Theatre with Timberlake Wertenbaker’s uninspired adapt…

Breeding

A fast pace and some hilarious banter about their names, how to pronounce and spell them, gets Barry McStay’s Breeding off to an immediately engaging and rip-roaring start that s…

Trumpets and Raspberries

Given the vast repertoire of plays available to theatre companies one often wonders how they decide on what to perform next and why: in this case, the somewhat lesser-known work by…

The Sun, the Mountain, and Me

In an unlikely melding of three disparate stories, Jack Fairey finds common ground in his moving play The Sun, The Mountain, and Me for Bedivere Arts at the Jack Studio Theatre, in…

TWO

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
2 Bath Road
17th Apr, 2023

One night, in a pub, in the North of England is the setting for Jim Cartwright’s carefully crafted dark comedy TWO.

The Only White

There is an inherent difficulty with plays that seek to tell a well-known story and thus lack a sense of mystery and element of surprise.

Dance of Death

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
The Coronet
22nd Mar, 2023

The Coronet Theatre is once again hosting The National Theatre of Norway, who have arrived with their take on August Strindberg’s dark matrimonial drama Dance of Death.

Ten Days

Matthew Jameson embarked on a major project ten years ago.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist

Hilarious, satirical, superbly staged and brilliantly performed, Accidental Death of an Anarchist has hit the Lyric, Hammersmith in an explosion of theatricality following its sens…

Family Tree

Our lives are indebted to many people.

The Emperor's New Clothes

What a joy to see a very simple and equally silly story adapted for the stage and turned into an hour of light-hearted frivolity, full of humour and ingenuity.

Under the Black Rock

Promoted as ‘a twisting and darkly comic thriller’, Under the Black Rock, at the Arcola Theatre, has each of those elements in different measures, but probably doesn’t achiev…

The Long Run

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Vault Festival
Pit
4th Mar, 2023

There are situations and circumstances in which if you didn’t laugh you’d cry or perhaps in Katie Arnstein’s case just freeze.

Burn

The setting for Lucy Beresford-Knox’s Burn, could hardly be better.

This Bitter Earth

Two main strands are interwoven in Harrison David Rivers’ This Bitter Earth, currently making its UK premiere at the White Bear Theatre, Kennington.

Happy Meal

I was invited to see Tabby Lamb’s Happy Meal at Brixton House and made it quite clear that it wasn’t my sort of thing, that I would go in order to be supportive, that I almost …

The Walworth Farce

What could be more appropriate to mark the opening of the Southwark Playhouse Elephant than Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce.

Macbeth

A Macbeth that features only the eponymous hero and his wife is an opportunity to define the characters and chart the shifting balance of power between them as the tragedy unfolds.

Passion

A heteronormative upbringing fights homosexual desire on a battleground that moves from a playful and sometimes argumentative bedroom to the secluded cell of a conversion therapy u…

Rebus: A Game Called Malice

The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch has opened its Spring 2023 season with the world premiere of Ian Rankin and Simon Reade’s Rebus: A Game Called Malice.

SMOKE

Too many cooks, so the saying goes, can spoil the broth.

I Found My Horn

A man is going through almost a lifetime’s accumulation of important junk in his attic.

A Manchester Anthem

A breath of theatrical fresh is often much needed at big fringe-style events and it can currently be found at the Vault Festival in A Manchester Anthem.

Escaped Alone & What If If Only

The ladies with their mugs of tea sitting outside a cottage with a fenced-off lawn would have grown up with the song In An English Country Garden, whose tune introduces George Savo…

How Not To Drown

The debate surrounding refugees, migrants and asylum seekers has dominated the political scene both internationally and domestically for decades.

Have I None

Described by its author as a ‘tragi-farce’, Edward Bond’s Have I None at the Golden Goose Theatre is a blunt dystopian nightmare packed into an energetically angry fifty-five…

The Lehman Trilogy

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
West End
Gillian Lynne Theatre / National Theatre
14th Feb, 2023

The National Theatre’s production of the The Lehman Trilogy has now opened at the spacious Gillian Lynne Theatre where it looks set for another sell-out season.

The Elephant Song

Although written in 2004 this production of The Elephant Song at The Park Theatre is the UK premiere of Canadian playwright Nicolas Billon’s captivating psychological thriller, o…

The Unfriend

The need to willingly suspend disbelief in order to fully enter into the spirit of a play is sometimes an essential requirement if the potential for enjoyment is not to be lost alt…

little scratch

If you are looking for a remarkable piece of unusual drama then the Hampstead Theatre’s production of little scratch is now being presented by New Diorama in their perfectly-suit…

Hamlet

There are time when you wonder, “Why?” Lazarus Theatre Company’s Hamlet at the Southwark Playhouse, Borough, is one of those.

On The Ropes

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
West End
Park Theatre
29th Jan, 2023

Scheduled over twelve rounds, On the Ropes at the Park Theatre goes from 7.

Handel’s Messiah: The Live Experience

Being dead, the great maestro of late baroque composition has the hope of being raised incorruptible.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Westcliff High School for Boys’ drama club under the direction of Ben Jeffreys, who otherwise teaches history, first came to our atttention at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 20…

Wickies: The Vanishing Men of Eilean Mor

The creative team behind Wickies: The Vanishing Men of Eilean Mor at the Park Theatre have done an outstanding job on this production.

Keeper Of The Flame

Two main strands run through Keeper of the Flame, written and performed by Rob Adams, a play that fits neatly into the confines of the delightful Bridge House Theatre.

Wasted

Kae Tempest’s credentials as a poet and lyricist shine through in Wasted at the Jack Studio.

Arms and the Man

There’s a delightful anecdote about George Bernard Shaw at one of the early performances of Arms and the Man.

Top Hat

The fabulous Mill at Sonning has revived last year’s Christmas success for another run over the festive season, It’s hard to believe that a full-scale musical like Top Hat, wit…

Here

Clive Judd’s fascinating debut play HERE won the 2022 Papatango New Writing Prize from a record 1,553 submissions.

MSND

We’ll never know what, if anything, Shakespeare was on when he wrote AMidsummer Night’s Dream, but the team at Intermission Youth Theatre have based their ‘Shakespeare Remix�…

Cheer Up Slug

Jamie Patterson (Will) and Charis Murray (Bean) give delightful performances in Cheer Up Slug by Tamsin Rees, the debut production for their company, Shot in the Dark Theatre, at t…

The Yeomen of the Guard

There was a more than usual buzz in the air at the Coliseum in anticipation of ENO’s latest foray into the world of Gilbert & Sullivan with The Yeoman of the Guard.

A Butcher of Distinction

When the setting for your play is the basement of a London pub, where better to perform than at Barons Court Theatre which is located in the basement of the west London pub aptly n…

Paddy goes to Petra

Paddy (Brendan Dunlea) leads a traditional life in rural Ireland.

Mary

Douglas Henshall has wasted no time in returning to the stage after his years in Shetland.

Something in the Air

A note on the back cover of Peter Gill’s latest play, Something in the Air, at Jermyn Street Theatre, claims that the stories of the two old protagonists “flow like mist down t…

The Poltergeist

The frantic moto perpetuo of Philip Glass’s Rubric fills the auditorium as an overture to Philip Ridley’s breathtaking work, The Poltergeist, at the Arcola Theatre.

Dmitry

In marked contrast to the UK’s recent smooth transition from one monarch to another, the story of Dmitry (Tom Byrne), at the new Marylebone Theatre, tells a woeful tale of power-…

Long Nights in Paradise

There’s a lot packed in to Long Nights in Paradise, probably too much, but it still makes for an interesting story that explores the ups and downs of life, the building and disin…

BOBBY WINNER

Trial by Jury

Stunning, imaginative, inspired, colourful, amusing, brilliantly performed and beautifully sung, this Trial By Jury is Gilbert and Sullivan at its very best.

Alright?

Patrick Withey gives a delightfully engaging and endearing performance as the troubled 15-year-old in Black Hound Productions’ Alright!, which has absolutely nothing to do with C…

Appraisal

We’ve all been there! That sense of recognition permeates the room during Tim Marriott’s latest play Appraisal.

Tempus Fugit: Troy and Us

The Greeks knew a lot about war and told great tales of heroism, victory and defeat.

Spit Me Out

Slap ‘N’ Tickle Theatre Company, founded in 2020 by East 15 Acting School alumni, has created a fabulously entertaining piece of devised theatre that explores sensitive issues …

Los Guardiola – The Comedy of Tango

The rhythm of the tango underpins Los Guardiola - The Comedy of Tango in this superb production from Musique et Toile, but the show is much broader than the one dance form.

Horsepower

Not all shows have clarity of meaning or purpose yet they still retain a certain charm.

The Collie's Shed

There is nothing like a timely reminder from the past.

Walk-Man

It’s a day like any other.

DNA by Dennis Kelly

The Year 12 girls from Wycombe Abbey school in High Wycombe under the direction of Phoebe Francis have created a fine production of DNA by Dennis Kelly.

Bits 'N' Pieces

Saltire Sky Theatre have lived up to all the expectations they raised following 1902, their smash hit of last year’s Fringe that won them the Broadway Baby Bobby Award and Off We…

Polly Peculiar

Polly Peculiar, at Greenside Nicholson Square, is a joy from beginning to end: the sort of play that under normal circumstances you might not be tempted to see.

Rebel

Two contrasting elements combine to make Rebel into a spectacular show ideally suited to the vast tent that is Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows.

Unseen Shepard

What if the characters you created in your plays were to come to life and challenge the lives and circumstances you created for them?Unseen Shepard finds Pulitzer Prize-winning pla…

Fitry

Fitry is an intriguing one-man show from Faso Danse Théâtre, Brussels, featuring Serge Aimé Coulibaly as the performer.

The Funny Thing About Death

There are very few taboo subjects left these days, but the one that will eventually come to us all still leaves many people uncomfortable.

Heroin to Hero

There are many rags-to-riches stories around but probably not another that follows a young heroin addict’s journey from death’s door to the gates of Buckingham Palace.

Are You Being Murdered?

People can be sensitive about how they are described.

False Start

What happens when you train for something your whole life, only to fail at the crucial moment? This question is the stimulus behind False Start, from acclaimed French-German theatr…

Fanboy

Fringe-first award winner Joe Sellman-Leava (Labels, Monster) is back at the Fringe with his new work Fanboy in which he explores his relationship with his past and future self.

Irvine Welsh's Porno

The highly anticipated world premiere of Irvine Welsh's Porno catches up with the lives of Renton, Sickboy, Begbie & Spud, fifteen years after their appearance in TRAINSPOT…

In the Name of the Son

If the title sounds familiar you’re probably thinking of the film, In the Name of the Father, but you’d be on the right track because In the Name of the Son deals with the same…

9 Circles

From House of Cards writer Bill Cain and The Shark is Broken director Guy Masterson, 9 Circles is a brilliantly performed, harrowing psychological thriller that would be shocking a…

Viva Your Vulva: The Hole Story

As the crescendo of complaints and controversy was rising over the comedy circuit I was persuaded to abandon the safe confines of the theatre category and go in at the deep end, so…

The MP, Aunty Mandy and Me

Award-winning writer and actor Rob Ward returns to the Fringe with his latest creation The MP, Aunty Mandy & Me.

The Transfiguration of Mrs Lamen

The story of the theatrical Dame has had many incarnations and they all revolve around a fairly standard trope.

Sniff

Have you had the experience of sitting through a play and thinking, “If I’d known that was how it was going to end I’d have paid far more attention to all the details in the …

The Lesson

Director Max Lewendel has taken Theatre of the Absurd to a new level in his engrossing production of Eugène Ionesco’s The Lesson in a translation by Donald Watson at the Southwa…

Offered Up

Set in Chester in 1645 as England was ravaged by the Civil War, Offered Up, at the Liverpool’s Royal Court Studio Theatre is a commentary on the political and social life of the …

The Convert

Stunning from beginning to end The Convert is perhaps the most remarkable piece of theatre ever staged at Above The Stag in Vauxhall and that is no disrespect to the many fine prod…

Cancelling Socrates

Howard Brenton’s new play Cancelling Socrates at Jermyn Street Theatre is a fascinating piece that transports us to classical Greece in a consideration of the circumstances that …

Starcrossed

Shakespeare knew what it took to pen a romantic tragedy when he wrote Romeo and Juliet and hence carefully structured all the ingredients to meet the demands of the genre and creat…

No Particular Order

Set in an unspecified time and without a location, No Particular Order resonates across the ages, through civilisations and empires, dictatorships and democracies and more, vividly…

Barry Humphries: The Man Behind the Mask

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
West End
Churchill Theatre / Gielgud Theatre / Richmond Theatre
10th May, 2022

The event might fall short of the hype that The Man Behind the Mask would be a ‘confessional evening – seasoned with highly personal, sometimes startling, and occasionally outr…

Soho Boy

Soho Boy, at the Drayton Arms Theatre, is a new musical, written and composed by Paul Emelion Daly.

Confessions of a Goddess Unhinged

Did Alissa Finn choose to perform Confessions of a Goddess Unhinged at the Water Rats in King’s Cross because the stage has a pair of ionic columns framing the stage? No, is the …

Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy

Searchlight Theatre Company returns to the Brighton Fringe with their delightful show Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy at the Rialto Theatre.

The Dwarfs

The Dwarfs is a semi-autobiographical work and Harold Pinter's only novel.

The Man In The Shed

The Man In The Shed is a highly amusing and at time hilarious solo rant by actor Alex Dee, co-written as Alex Donald with Tim Connery.

The Recollection of Tony Ward

Jim Spencer Broadbent is a playwright based in South-East London, so he is delighted to be presenting his play The Recollection of Tony Ward as one of twenty-seven companies contri…

My Fair Lady

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
West End
London Coliseum
25th May, 2022

Expectations can work in many ways and it’s interesting to realise the extent to which we can be influenced by what we have just seen.

The Breach

Celebrated director Sarah Frankcom makes her debut at Hampstead Theatre in a spartan production of Naomi Wallace’s morality-defying play The Breach.

two Palestinians go dogging

Brecht would have felt at home watching two Palestinians go dogging at the Royal Court Theatre, Jerwood Studio.

Busman's Honeymoon

Both a restaurant and a theatre, The Mill at Sonning, with its beautiful river setting in the countryside near Reading, is currently host to the Busman's Honeymoon, co-written …

Orlando

Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s amusing challenge to the norms of society, stemmed from her own life and that of her lover Vita Sackville-West, but in her novel, the eponymous hero'…

The End of the Night

Dust-sheets cover what little furniture there is in the expansive room of Dr Felix Kersten (Michael Lumsden), trusted personal physiotherapist to Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler (Ri…

If. Destroyed. Still. True.

Sometimes all the elements of a production combine to form something that is stunning and deeply moving.

Oklahoma!

When Marisha Wallace, who plays Ado Annie, sings “I’m just a girl who cain’t say no” we are left in no doubt as to what she means and it gets the ovation it richly deserves…

Absolute Certainty?

Absolute Certainty? staged by Qweerdog Theatre revolves around the confused lives of two brothers and a friend.

How It Is (Part 2)

How It Is (Part 2) being Part 2 of a three-part novel of which Part 1 comes before it and Part 3 follows it after which there is no more being a novel it is not a play yet here at …

Rabbit Hole

After sitting through two acts of around fifty-five minutes each at the Union Theatre, quite why David Lindsey-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, five To…

Fighting Irish

If you are into boxing, and I’m not, Fighting Irish gives you something to latch onto from the outset.

Mojo Mickybo

Two stunningly energetic performances keep Owen McCafferty’s Mojo Mickyboy, courtesy of Bruiser Theatre Company, rolling along at a cracking pace that provides an hour of action-…

The Gondoliers

Gilbert & Sullivan have survived the test of time and now seem to have successfully weathered the pandemic.

Diary of a Somebody

John Lahr’s Diary of a Somebody makes a return to the stage after an absence of 35 years, this time at Seven Dials Playhouse.

The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

There is deceit in the title of this play.

Sasha Regan's All Male H.M.S. Pinafore

Wilton’s Music Hall has come a long way since 1885 when Nelly Power sang The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery.

Under Electric Candlelight

I’ll settle for the company’s own description of Under Electric Candlelight as an ‘existential tragicomedy’, but dont worry about interpreting that.

Abigail’s Party

That irresistible 1970s suburban comedy, Abigail's Party, has been revived again; this time at the Watford Palace Theatre under the direction of Pravesh Kumar.

Dev's Army

Review
★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
The Bread & Roses / The London Irish Centre
14th Mar, 2022

Dev’s Army, by Stuart D.

Bacon

Bacon, at the Finborough Theatre, showcases the talents of two remarkable young actors in a moving exploration of teenage angst.

Moreno

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
Theatre503
11th Mar, 2022

Simple acts can often have huge repercussions.

When We Dead Awaken

For aficionados of Ibsen this is a production not to be missed; nor should those who just like to wallow in the velvety richness of traditional theatre ignore this rare opportunity…

The Collaboration

Andy Warhol once declared, 'Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art'.

The Stars Are Fire

The University of Cambridge did not grant degrees to women until 1948.

HOLST: The Music In The Spheres

In modern parlance Gustav Holst might be regarded as something of a one-hit wonder, though aficionados could point to many other worthy works that have a more esoteric appeal and a…

Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story

Bart Lambert and Jack Reitman were joint winners of the OffWestEnd Award 2020 for Best Male Performance in a Musical for their roles in Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story at The…

Juliet & Romeo

Reversed, deconstructed and re-imagined to create a truly remarkable piece of theatre, Juliet & Romeo is the inaugural long-run production at The Chelsea Theatre, following its…

The Art of Banksy

Banksy’s works pop up in all sorts of places, but seeing them is often a challenge.

For Queen And Country

Writer/Director Paul Stone has unearthed a gem of World War II history and transformed it into a delightful monologue, now on stage at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

The Tony Awards for comedy must have had a lean year in 2013 when Christopher Durang won Best Play for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.

Accidental Birth of An Anarchist

Review
★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
The Space
12th Nov, 2021

Luke Oldfield’s Accidental Birth of an Anarchist at The Space on the Isle of Dogs tells of two novice activists from The People’s Movement to Protect the Planet who get jobs on…

Footfalls & Rockaby

Some people pace up and down, others rock back and forth.

HMS Pinafore

As W S Gilbert once observed, “Oh, wouldn't the world seem dull and flat with nothing whatever to grumble at?” Cal McCrystal provides plenty of material for that in his pro…

The Dresser

Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser evokes memories of a bygone age in British theatre and no setting more befits it than that glorious monument to thespian achievement, the Richmond Th…

The Sugar House

Australian playwright Alana Valentine makes her UK debut at the Finborough Theatre with The Sugar House, in its first production outside of her home country, where it was nominat…

Joe & Ken

A stony silence filled the air at the end of act one of Joe & Ken at The Old Red Lion Theatre, Islington, the old stomping ground of the eponymous couple who lived just down th…

The Witchfinder’s Sister

The Salem witch trials are well known, perhaps in large part due to Arthur Miller’s outstanding play The Crucible that put the Massachusetts town on the map.

Rat King

Rat King at The Hope Theatre, Islington, is a new production written and produced by Bram Davidovich for Kryptonite Theatre Company.

The Idea

The Brockley Jack Theatre is currently offering the opportunity to see a rarely performed and probably almost unknown operetta by Gustav Holst.

Foxes

It doesn’t take long to appreciate why Foxes, at Theatre 503, was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award.

Hamlet

The long-awaited Hamlet, directed by Greg Hersov, is finally on stage at the Young Vic and as the young prince Cush Jumbo gives a commanding performance that keeps the whole produc…

How to Survive an Apocalypse

The renowned Finborough Theatre is still alive and well as witnessed by its latest production of Jordan Hall’s How To Survive An Apocalypse presented by Proud Haddock.

Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act

How do you successfully relate the biography of a theatrical legend, tell the history of a remarkable period in the development of the arts, create portraits of the famous names of…

Love, Genius and a Walk

Love, Genius and a Walk, at Theatro Technis, a venue billed as ‘one of London's best-kept secrets’, is an ambitious exploration of how artistic individuals struggle with ma…

Relatively Speaking

Noël Coward described Relatively Speaking as ‘a beautifully constructed and very funny comedy’ and this production at the Jermyn Street Theatre demonstrates how right he was.

Small Change

In addition to much discussion of the play itself, Peter Gill’s Small Change at the Omnibus Theatre Clapham had the bar buzzing with anecdotes from people recalling what their mo…

Prison Games

Marcus Hercules, Artistic Director of Hercules Productions, is the one-man wonder behind Prison Games, currently live on-stage at The Pleasance in north London having previouslybee…

Beginning

Two people are left standing on opposite sides of the room at the end of a housewarming party in Crouch End: the hostess and a guy who came as the friend of a friend, but on whom s…

This is Paradise

This is Paradise, Michael John O'Neill’s new play at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, is a lengthy monologue in which Kate (Amy Molloy) provides a complex interweaving of the…

Éowyn Emerald & Dancers – Your Tomorrow

Éowyn Emerald & Dancers return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in a somewhat different context from previous years with their new work Your Tomorrow.

Intricate Rituals

Intricate Rituals by York DramaSoc at theSpace Triplex is a monologue with alternating actors.

Still

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
Scotland
21st Aug, 2021

Still by Frances Poet makes its world premiere courtesy of The Traverse Theatre Company at their theatre.

It's Not Rocket Science

It’s Not Rocket Science at theSpace@Surgeons’ Hall is presented by Nottingham New Theatre, England’s only fully student-run theatre venue.

For All The Love You Lost

For All the Love You Lost is presented by Morosophy at theSpace@Surgeon’s Hall.

Rossetti's Women

Lemon Squeeze Productions are presenting a new adaptation of Rossetti’s Women at the Space@Surgeons’ Hall, written and directed by Joan Greening, award-winning writer of ITV si…

Madhouse

Madhouse by Nottingham New Theatre at theSpace@Surgeon’s Hall does what it says on the tin.

Run

Jonathan Smeed is making his Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut in Run by Stephen Laughton at Lauriston Halls, courtesy of No Frills Theatre Company.

Pool (No Water)

Oddly Ordinary Theatre Company has made a highly successful adaptation of Mark Ravenhill’s Pool (No Water) at theSpace Triplex as part of the contribution by the graduates of Que…

Shook

Three lads have certain things in common.

Saving Mr Ultimate

Saving Mr Ultimate by John McEwan-Whyte at theSpace Triplex is the debut show of Extra Arca, a young theatre group within New Celts Productions, a consortium of young theatre compa…

Paddy the Cope

Paddy the Cope, written and directed by Raymond Ross, makes its world premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the delightful Netherbow Theatre at the Scottish Storytelling Cen…

Corpsing

For a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe entitled Corpsing you might be forgiven for thinking it’s a comedy about laughing out of place.

Moonlight On Leith

Moonlight on Leith, by Emilie Robson and Laila Noble, at theSpaceTriplex is inspired by the ‘Save Leith Walk’ campaign; a grassroots movement seeking to preserve the historic s…

Smile Like You're Happy

Smile.

Plasters

Plasters is an original play by Emma Tadmor who founded RJ Theatre Company with co-producer, Daniel Feldman.

Tropicana

Billed as ‘the future of queer comedy cabaret’ Tropicana is Aidan Sadler’s 80’s solo show of classic queer hits at the suitably late hour of 23:15 at theSpaceTriplex.

BOBBY WINNER

Myra's Story

A ninety-minute monologue about a homeless person? Embrace it.

A Weekend Away at the Hotel Decevoir

Chalkhill Theatre Ltd currently has a double debut with the company’s first appearance at the Festival Fringe and the premiere of their new play.

Sunshine on Leith

Captivate Theatre returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year with their production of Sunshine on Leith, at Multistory, first performed in 2014 and twice thereafter.

Theatre-19 Presents: John

Described as a ‘wonderfully chaotic and colourful tragicomedy’ Theatre-19 Presents: John is a particularly silly devised piece at theSpace@Surgeons Hall from a group of Bristol…

BOBBY WINNER

1902

In 1902 Hibs won the Scottish Cup.

Medicine

The banner proclaims, ‘Congratulations’ as it hangs from the ceiling above the unimaginable mess left by the previous afternoon's party in which inmates and staff seemingly…

My Night With Reg

Is there an issue with capturing plays from the second half of the twentieth century that deal with gay issues of the period? The Southwark Playhouse recently managed a production …

every seven years

For many it will be impossible to see writer/director Jack Fairey’s every seven years at the Brockley Jack Studio Theatre and not be reminded of the groundbreaking sociological T…

Two Worlds No Family

Writer/Director Ben Reid has made a stunning professional debut at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, Kentish Town, with his play Two Worlds No Family, originally written as his final y…

The Game of Love and Chance

As if so-called ‘Freedom Day’ had not generated enough excitement on Monday 19th July, the Arcola Theatre had its planned reopening that evening and showcased its fabulous new …

Helium

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
The Space
10th Jul, 2021

The Space on the Isle of Dogs continues its practice of supporting new talent with Helium, an original work by Grumble Pup Theatre, a fledgling company founded in the Black Country…

Mr and Mrs Nobody

A wonderfully entertaining evening of laughter and fine acting is currently to be found in Keith Waterhouse’s Mr and Mrs Nobody, staged by Gabriella Bird in her directorial debut…

Exile

Exile at the Southwark Playhouse, by JoMac Productions Limited & Blue Heart Theatre, is an interestingly constructed piece consisting of two life-crisis monologues by individu…

Staircase

The Southwark Playhouse has been transformed into an authentic 1960’s barbershop for the revival of Charles Dyer’s hit play Staircase, by Two’s Company and Karl Sydow in asso…

Bad Nights and Odd Days

The Greenwich Theatre reopened last week with the inspired programming of four short plays by Caryl Churchill.

Warhol: Bullet Karma

Garry Roost’s one-hander, Warhol: Bullet Karma, at the Rialto Theatre, as part of the Brighton Fringe, explores aspects of the artist’s life through encounters with various peo…

Mayhem at the Cabaret Voltaire

The apologetic opening to Mayhem at the Cabaret Voltaire, explaining the failure of the actors to turn up, might seem out of place in any standard piece of theatre, but then it wou…

Shedding A Skin

The Soho Theatre launched its post-lockdown summer season this week with Shedding A Skin, written and performed by Amanda Wilkin, the 2020 winner of the Verity Bargate Award.

Trestle

The Jack Studio Theatre in Brockley has opened its doors for the first time in fifteen months with a wonderfully heart-warming production of Stewart Pringle’s Trestle.

Watson: The Final Problem

Following on from his success at the Brighton Fringe with Waiting for Hamlet, a two-hander with Nicholas Collett, Tim Marriott returns to the Rialto Theatre with a solo show that i…

Diary of an Expat

Diary of an Expat makes a striking impression even before Cecilia Gragnani enters the stage for her solo play at the Rialto Theatre, directed by Katharina Reinthaller.

Make-up

One day perhaps someone will write a play about a drag queen where, beneath the frock and below the wig, above the high heels and under the layers of slap exists a man who is happy…

Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: An Audience with King Henry VIII

Period music greets loyal subjects as they enter the Friends Meeting House to attend Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: An Audience with King Henry VIII, written and directed by John Wh…

The Sensemaker

Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is anything but that when played ad nauseam on a loop while you are kept on hold by a robotic voice saying, “All our operators are currently busy.

Lone Flyer

The Jermyn Street Theatre continues its Footprints Festival with Lucy Betts’ acclaimed production of Ade Morris’s Lone Flyer, which was first staged at The Watermill Theatre la…

After All These Years

After All These Years is a trilogy of plays courtesy of Close Quarter Productions and Theatre Reviva! in association with Holofcener Ltd.

Drama King

Unless you have studied the history of theatre it's easy to imagine that performances on stage have always been very much as they are today.

Chamberlain: Peace in our Time

History is brought to life, and the man behind one of the most famous speeches in British history is revealed in this delightful two-hander, Chamberlain: Peace in our Time, from Se…

Waiting for Hamlet

Waiting for Hamlet has itself been waiting for some time.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

There seems to be a resurgence of interest in the adaptability of works by Robert Louis Stevenson for the stage, with productions popping up in many quarters.

Why I Am an Avocado

The title of the show and the name of the company drew me to this production.

An Intervention

Juicy Lime Productions presents Mike Bartlett’s 2014 play An Intervention, as part of the Brighton Fringe at the Sweet Room, Old SteineTwo characters, identified in the script on…

The Vertical Hour by David Hare

The burst of applause did not mark the end of the performance.

The Tragedy of Dorian Gray

Blue Devil Productions closed the Rialto Theatre’s Brighton Fringe season last week with a two-act production,The Tragedy of Dorian Gray; their first full-length play.

Between Two Waves

Between Two Waves by Australian playwright Ian Meadows interweaves an urgent call to recognise the world’s impending climate crisis and the troubled smaller world of a young clim…

Vespertilio

The greater mouse-eared bat belongs to the family Vespertilionidae of the genus Myotis.

Bard in the Yard: The Scottish Play

Review
★★★★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
12th Jun, 2021

The Scottish Play is a solo performance written by Victoria Gartner, founder and artistic director of Will & Co which produces plays about Shakespear, under the umbrella title …

Vampire's Ball Ultimate Halloween Party

Brad Tassell and Steve Goodie describe themselves as a pair who have been ‘all-around nutty goofballs for more than 30 years’; and it shows.

Lockdown Drag-out

It’s either a mid-conversation pick-up or a recording error that opens Jane Martin’s monologue, Lockdown Drag-Out, in which she appears as the plummy and plumpy Audrey Stanton …

The Plague Thing

If you’ve been feasting on BBC iPlayer during lockdown and enjoying the delights of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, it’s worth taking six minutes out of your social isolation t…

Wind of Heaven

There is something wonderfully seasonal about Wind of Heaven at the Finborough Theatre.

Sydney & the Old Girl

Forget any notions of political correctness, civility or polite drawing room conversation.

Murder in the Cathedral

Performing a play in a cathedral about an archbishop assassinated in a cathedral might sound like a match made in heaven.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane is an intensely Irish play set in the wilds of Connemara, premiered locally by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway in 1996.

A Kind of Loving

The decade might be set in history as ‘Swinging’, but for many of us who lived through the ‘60’s the appellation has only a marginal connection with the realities of life.

The Match Box

The prospect of a two-act monologue that lasts around two and a quarter, an interval, is perhaps daunting for both the actor and aficionados of the genre alike.

The House of The Spirits / La Casa de Los Espíritus

The mission of the Cervantes Theatre “to showcase the best Spanish and Latin American plays in London” is strikingly realised in its closing play of the 2019 season that featur…

Gaslight

Gaslight has stood the test of time in the canon of British theatre.

Vassa

In a rare proscenium-style presentation at the Almeida Theatre, director Tinuke Craig offers Maxim Gorky’s Vassa as her debut production for the venue in a new adaptation by Mike…

Breaking The Code

It’s only two years until the face of Alan Turing appears on the new £50 note.

Velvet

To compile his one-man show, Velvet, Tom Ratcliffe combined personal experience and the disturbing revelations that emerged as the #MeToo movement gathered momentum.

I Am Gavrilo Princip

Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler all stand out in the history of the twentieth century.

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

Playwright Peter Nichols died only last month at the age of 92.

Blood Wedding

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
West End
Young Vic
4th Oct, 2019

In the late 1920s Frederico García Lorca allegedly read about a bride who fled her wedding to elope with a former amor.

Mother Of Him

Is a mother’s love unconditional, or can it be stretched beyond breaking-point? This is the consuming theme in Evan Placey’s Mother of Him at the Park Theatre, which was inspir…

Youth Without God

Youth Without God at the Coronet Theatre is heralded as ‘a dark fable about the individual conscience in a time of social uncertainty’ and the 1937 novel by Ödön von Horváth…

So Here We Are

Luke Norris's Southend-based play and winner of the Bruntwood Prize, So Here We Are, finally comes to Essex in a delightful production that fits perfectly into the Queen’s Th…

Stiletto Beach

The world premiere of Sadie Hasler’s Stiletto Beach has burst onto the stage at the dynamic Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch in a bold, brave, fearless and funny exploration of what…

Falsettos

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
West End
The Other Palace
12th Sep, 2019

Falsettos has been around since 1992, but it’s UK premier has only just opened at The Other Palace, London.

Torch Song

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
West End
Turbine Theatre
16th Sep, 2019

The neon sign above the stage at the new Turbine Theatre, Battersea, hints at the lights of New York City, but it also reminds us of the history behind director Drew McOnie’s pro…

Everyman

As the saying goes, "The path to hell is paved with good intentions".

Unicorns, Almost

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Army @ The Fringe in Association with Summerhall
17th Aug, 2019

Name a Second World War poet.

This Island's Mine

The Italia Conti Ensemble changes its membership every year as another cohort passes through the famous drama school.

Identity

With a highly experienced team behind this production it is no wonder that Identity by CTC COMPANY at Greenside, Infirmary St.

EAST

Steven Berkoff’s irresistible EAST makes an inevitable return to the Festival Fringe, this time in a vibrant and energetic production by HiveMCR.

44 Inch Chest

Rarely does the stage premiere of a work take place twenty-three years after it was written, but Out Of Bounds Theatre has claimed the honour with their gritty production of 44 Inc…

Ugly Youth

“I’ve not seen anything like this in the 12 years I’ve been working at the Fringe,” was the observation from one of the tech guys I spoke to after seeing Ugly Youth, this y…

Real Eyes

Aged just 16 and 17, Harrison Sharpe (Matt) and Archie Stevens (Mikey) make their Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut with Real Eyes, an intensely moving story of brothers growing up t…

The Brave Anthology

Angus gets a review that says he’s ‘watchable’.

Well That's Oz

Absurdism runs amok in Well That’s Oz, one of four plays in this year’s programme from CalArts at Venue 13.

Fight Song

Fight Song is part of this year’s programme of four plays by students from the celebrated CalIfornia Institute of the Arts (CalArts) at Venue 13.

Here Comes the Tide, There Goes the Girl

Here Comes the Tide, There Goes the Girl is one of four plays presented by CalArts at venue 13 this year and is steeped in their tradition of producing original material that stret…

Wrath of Achilles

Writer Jack Fairey has taken on a huge task in adapting the substance of Homer’s Iliad into a modern story still firmly embedded in the Trojan War with a running time just short …

Dear Mother Moon

Dear Mother Moon is one of four works presented by CalArts this year in what has become the Institute’s Edinburgh home, Venue 13.

Thief by Liam Rudden

The Edinburgh Fringe programme’s standard listing format provides a simple yet clear message about Thief at the Hill Street Theatre.

Bleeding Black

Christopher Watts returns to the Festival Fringe with his one-man-show, Bleeding Black, at Greenside, Nicolson Square.

Judas

Smokescreen Productions is supporting the work of Amnesty International through its new work, Judas, at Assembly Blue Room.

Bacon

Francis Bacon once observed that ‘in order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present’.

Dream of a King

Actor/writer Christopher Tajah of Resistance Theatre Company gives an impassioned performance in Dream Of A King at theSpace Triplex, as he reimagines the hours leading up to the a…

The Words Are There

The Words Are There is a moving and innovative piece of physical theatre that appeals both for its approach to male domestic abuse, and for its style of performance.

Stanley

There’s Stanley the man and Stanley the play.

(Ab)solution

(Ab)solution is the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe Play from Swindon-based Jackrill Productions, and it’s an impressive debut at Greenside, Infirmary St.

Teach

Matthew Roberts’ solo show, Teach, at theSpace, Surgeons Hall is performance brimming with conviction and energy.

Franz and Marie: Woyzeck Retold

For an incomplete play, Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck has nevertheless managed to secure enduring interest.

Conversations With Myself

It’s fifty years since the Stonewall riots sparked off the movement that became known as gay liberation.

BOBBY WINNER

Letter to Boddah

“Will they or won’t they go through with it?” That is the consuming question that hovers for an hour over Letter to Boddah, written and directed by Sarah Nelson and performed…

The Thinking Drinkers: Heroes of Hooch

Award-winning drinks writers and comedy performers Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham return to Edinburgh with their latest libation, The Thinking Drinkers: Heroes of Hooch, in Underbel…

The Tempest

Many strange things occur in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but in this production, by Oxford’s Creation Theatre, there are more surprises than even Prospero might have conjured up…

The Hunt

Relax and enjoy the welcome extended to guests at the local infants’ school which Michele Austin delivers with considerable warmth and obvious delight.

The Hired Man

The Hired Man has been doing the rounds since 1984 and now finds a home at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch.

Man of La Mancha

A rousing overture, with blasting brass and pounding percussion raises hopes at the Coliseum for the first London production of Man Of La Mancha for over fifty years.

The Dramatic Exploits of Edmund Kean

Despite occasional complaints, audiences over the centuries have generally become well-behaved.

Post Mortem

It’s not just a dead body that can be the subject of a post mortem.

Three Sisters

An air of timelessness perversely pervades Three Sisters at the Almeida.

Market Boy

A rollicking romp around the stalls of Romford fills the Union Theatre, Southwark, in a joyous revival of David Eldridge’s Market Boy.

After The Dance

Terence Rattigan personifies the maxim that you can’t keep a good man down.

Tony’s Last Tape

Possibly less famous than Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, Andy Barrett’s Tony’s Last Tape has much in common with it; not least the obsession each of the eponymous heroes had …

The Trials Of Oscar Wilde

Court rooms can often make for high drama, but unfortunately in this case the transcript of ‘the trial of the century, proves to be less than gripping.

Cry Havoc

There is plenty of barking in the street during Tom Coash’s Cry Havoc at the Park Theatre.

The Conductor

Review
★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
The Space
1st Apr, 2019

The tragedy of World War II is remembered in many ways, but The Conductor, at The Space, takes a highly focussed look at just one small event in Russia’s window on the west in 19…

Hair

We might still be in the age of Aquarius, or we may not yet have entered it, depending on whose calculations you prefer, but it is now over fifty years since Hair opened on Broadwa…

Othello

There are times when a production comes along that is a powerful reminder of the beauty and eloquence of Shakespeare’s writing, his clarity of exposition and ingenuity of plot, e…

Fiddler on the Roof

Welcome to Anatevka! The Playhouse Theatre has been transformed to create this ‘dear little village’ for Trevor Nunn’s penetrating production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Othello

Review
★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
Union Theatre
22nd Mar, 2019

The need for ‘a willing suspension of disbelief’ traditionally associated with an appreciation of Shakespeare’s Othello reaches a new level necessity in director Phil Willmot…

Richard III

The palatial ceiling aloft the shattered plaster and exposed brick walls of the newly restored Alexandra Palace Theatre are aptly suited to Headlong’s powerful production of Shak…

The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
GUILD HALL / Stamford Arts Centre / The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre
18th Mar, 2019

Master of the monologue, Mark Farrelly, sits slumped forward in an upright chair shrouded in a white smock, whose back-ties make it resemble a cross between a straight jacket and a…

To She Or Not To She

"Frailty, thy name is woman!" That is probably not most women’s favourite line from Shakespeare and could not be further from the truth when applied to Emma Bentley.

The Story's End

I didn’t actually see this performance; not by virtue of being absent, but rather because I had followed the request of actor and spoken word poet, Paul Daly, to blindfold myself…

Blasphemy

In the sad world of factory farming the horrors of animals trapped in cages for the duration of their painful lives is well-documented and visually familiar.

DNA

Just because you’ve committed a crime doesn’t mean you have to be caught; at least, not if you can devise a clever cover-up.

The Tempest

The are more "sounds" than "sweet airs" in Lazarus Theatre Company’s production of The Tempest at the Greenwich Theatre and while some elements of the perform…

The Orchestra

The programme notes aptly describe The Orchestra at the Omnibus Theatre, which might be regarded as one of Jean Anouilh’s more incidental pieces.

Summer and Smoke

The Almeida Theatre’s highly acclaimed production of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke, boldly and sensitively directed by Rebecca Frecknall, is now playing at the Duke of Y…

Love-Lies-Bleeding

A family on the verge of a momentous decision forms the focus of Don DeLillo’s Love-Lies-Bleeding at the Print Room at the Coronet in a stark production by director Jack McNamara…

The Recruiting Officer

In her article for the British Library on Restorations Comedy Diane Maybankobserves that “little can be gained from removing the plays from their historical settings”.

Indebted To Chance.

Actor/scriptwriter Charlie Ryall leads an entertaining troupe of actors from Mercurius Theatre Company in her play Indebted to Chance at the Old Red Lion Theatre.

Haunting Julia

After Alan Ayckbourn had seen The Woman in Black and the film The Haunting he was inspired to depart from his usual comedic tales of middle class life and try his hand at a ghost s…

BRASS, an Award-winning Musical by Benjamin Till

Brass, Benjamin Till’s winner of the ‘Best Musical’ in the 2014 UK Theatre Awards, fills the stage at the Union Theatre, Southwark, in its professional London première.

Dealing with Clair

The Orange Tree Theatre in a co-production with English Touring Theatre could hardly have expected that renewed police investigations into the mysterious disappearance of estate ag…

The Giant Killers

Darwen is probably not the most well-known town in England, but it holds a very special place in the history of football.

ear for eye

There are several peaks and notable features in debbie tucker green’s ear for eye that rise above the lengthy exposition of her themes that otherwise dominate this new work.

LOVE

The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch has reconfigured it’s stage and auditorium to house writer/director Alexander Zeldin’s production of Love.

The Wild Duck

A brightly lit auditorium and bare stage, with its exposed brick walls, look all set for a rehearsal.

The Paradise Circus

A little-known theatre hosts a lesser-known play and the result is a theatrical triumph.

Parents’ Evening

The Rebels’ Season continues at the Jermyn Street Theatre with Bathsheba Doran’s Parents’ Evening.

To Have To Shoot Irishmen

To Have To Shoot Irishmen opens the Irish Theatre Season at the Omnibus Theatre, Clapham.

Quietly

Quietly is set in a pub in Belfast.

ONCE

“It’s only people up there with guitars and other instruments telling and singing their way through an everyday love story.

Little Fools

The autumn/winter season at the Space on the Isle of Dogs got off to a punchy start this week with Little Fools.

Kids Play

Kids Play is now running in London following its triumph at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it received multiple five star reviews.

No Help Sent

Gordon Brown once observed how Aneurin Bevan’s vision of a National Health Service was unimaginable in its day, yet it has withstood the test of time.

Revelation 1:18

"I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!" Although never spoken in Revelation 1:18 these words from the last book in the bible capture the aspirational i…

Wine

Wine makes a return to the Tristan Bates Theatre following its successful run earlier in the year.

The Outsider (L’Étranger)

Albert Camus’ The Outsider (L’Étranger), is starkly brought to the stage in an adaptation by Ben Okri, Winner of the Man Booker Prize, commissioned by The Print Room at The C…

Losing Venice

Shakespeare created ‘the vastly fields of France’ in a cramped ‘cockpit’ and crammed within his ‘wooden O the very casques that did affright the air at Agincourt’ all c…

Prairie Flower

Perhaps as a five-part radio serial Prairie Flower might provide some particular interest to crime enthusiasts, but as a two-hour monologue in the Upstairs at the Gatehouse, even w…

Abi

Despite its title, we know very little of what actually happened at Abigail’s party.

About Leo

About Leo is the first offering in The Rebels Season at Jermyn Street Theatre; an autumn programme that focuses on ‘people who dared to be different’.

Abigail's Party

It’s a mark of how well a play is rooted in a particular era that the mere mention of Estée Lauder’s Youth Dew perfume can send ripples of mirth throughout the auditorium to a…

In Your Own Sweet Way

Hoghead Theatre Company Returns to the Fringe with their devised piece In Your Own Sweet Way.

Cezary Goes to War

Review
★★★★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Army @ The Fringe in Association with Summerhall
18th Aug, 2018

The Regional Medical Draft Board has strict guidelines for the classification of recruits and their suitability for deployment.

Goodbye Rosetta

Goodbye Rosetta abounds with youthful enthusiasm and passion.

Picasso's Women

Given how many inhabited his life, Picasso’s Women is but a mere glimpse from one side of the bed into what they endured.

Reigen

Review
★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
theSpace @ Niddry St / theSpace @ Venue45
15th Aug, 2018

Some plays lend themselves to radical reinterpretations and stagings while others need handling with more care.

Waiting for Ofsted

Oh how easily this ambitious project could have fallen flat on its face and oh how wonderfully it sustains itself.

HMS Pinafore

The University of St Andrews Gilbert and Sullivan Society makes their regular contribution to the Festival Fringe, this year with HMS Pinafore.

BOBBY WINNER

Kids Play

Glen Chandler, Edinburgh’s theatrical detective story-writing son, returns to the Festival Fringe this year with yet another ingenious triumph.

Forget Me Nots

Review
★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Army @ The Fringe in Association with Summerhall
13th Aug, 2018

Forget Me Nots is a new piece of ‘queer theatre’ from Rokkur Friggjar, a collective of theatre makers based in Iceland and the UK, who are contributors to this year’s Army@Su…

The Troth

Review
★★★★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Army @ The Fringe in Association with Summerhall
17th Aug, 2018

Based on Chandradhar Sharma Guleri’s iconic Hindi short story Usne Kaha Tha, The Troth is about one soldier, Sardar Lehna Singh, and the sacrifice he makes to keep his secret pro…

Shell Shock

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Army @ The Fringe in Association with Summerhall
15th Aug, 2018

"A British soldier never runs away from a fight", Tommy Atkins proudly proclaims.

InValid Voices

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Army @ The Fringe in Association with Summerhall
13th Aug, 2018

When the soldier goes to war what of those left behind? This is the question posed by InValid Voices, a new theatre piece based on interviews with women serving as and married to C…

The Dame

Peter Duncan’s The Dame is hosted at The Dome, one of Edinburgh’s glitziest and most glamorous buildings.

The Gin Chronicles in New York

The Gin Chronicles in New York is the latest saga in this well-established series that by now has something of a following.

Bucket Men

Bucket Men takes place in a small basement studio at C Royale where two men coincidentally have jobs in a small basement of a faceless government building.

You Are Frogs

If some of what you are about to read sounds completely bonkers then you are well on the way to an appreciation of You Are Frogs.

Man Down

Man Down emerges from three years of research and hours of interviews and discussions with people in Baltimore, USA.

Red and Boiling

Red and Boiling is an entertaining cabaret-style show with some serious undertones.

Éowyn Emerald and Dancers

A young man waited outside the Greenside Royal Terrace Venue for Éowyn Emerald & Dancers to appear after their performance.

My Name Is Dorothy

The first point to make clear is that My Name is Dorothy has nothing to do with The Wizard of Oz.

Shackleton's Stowaway

Making their debut at the Festival Fringe, Stolen Elephant Theatre bring to life one of the great voyages of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration in Shackleton’s Stowaway.

Virgin

Simon David bursts onto the stage in a bout of eccentricity that boldly asserts his dominance over the evening.

Romeo and Juliet

Curious Pheasant Theatre reinvents the Bard’s most famous tale of ‘star-cross’d’ lovers in a bare-bones, twisted production that will have purists running for shelter and a…

To Have Done With the Judgement of God

Leaving the theatre with no idea what you have just seen but having enjoyed it immensely is perhaps an appropriate response to a production of Antonin Artaud’s To Have Done With …

Hymn to Love

“I've always known that one day I would have my own niche in the annals of song.

Iolanthe

Prime Minister Clement Attlee once observed that ‘the House of Lords is like a glass of champagne that has stood for five days’.

Fred and Ginger

Love is a many-splendored thing, or so the soundtrack maintains as it heralds a fifty-minute romp through teenage troubles, acting aspirations and romantic realities.

The Final Journey of Edward Wilson

Recent years have witnessed mounting criticism of mumbling actors, mostly on television but also in the the theatre.

Barry Humphries Weimar Cabaret

Ernst Krenek, Erich Korngold, Frank Schreker, Erwin Schulhoff and Mischa Spoliansky were not household names in the late 1940s when a young Barry Humphries in Melbourne, Australia …

Earthquakes in London

In a lengthy whirlwind of staccato scenes with lento, adagio and presto interludes, Mike Bartlett’s Earthquakes in London combines political intrigue, corporate corruption, perso…

Knights of the Rose

Review
★
Richard Beck
West End
Arts Theatre
6th Jul, 2018

"Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon" (II Samuel 1:20) is a line that does not appear in Knights of the Rose.

The Play About My Dad

According to its author, Loo Killebrew, The Play About My Dad “should feel quick-moving, and hopefully have a rhythm that is similar to the rhythm of a storm.

Two by Jim Cartwright

Clueless Theatre makes a remarkable company debut with a production of Jim Cartwright’s Two.

The End of History

The End of History is billed as “a moving and funny site-responsive play with music which uses a chance encounter to explore the impact of gentrification on two radically differe…

Woyzeck

Having spent three months eating only peas, it comes as no surprise that the eponymous central character in Woyzeck appears in a state of both physical frailty and mental instabili…

Rope

Nietzsche’s notion of the Übermensch receives one scant mention towards the end of Patrick Hamilton's Rope, yet it is the driving force that underpins the play.

Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope

Review
★★★★★
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
Multiple Venues
4th Jul, 2018

“I come from a time and country where I was treated like a wrong hushed up.

More Heat Than Light

In a well-paced, one-hour monologue, eighteen-year-old Alex talks about the generations of family who have had a significant impact upon his life.

Will

The happy band of players that performs Will or Eight Lost Years of Young William Shakespeare’s Life is reminiscent of the troupes that wandered the country when the Bard was ali…

Bomb Happy

Bomb Happy is a verbatim victory.

The Overcoat

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
Omnibus Theatre / The Old Sorting Office Art Centre
7th Oct, 2017

Scandal and Gallows theatre company shines as a remarkably talented team in this production of The Overcoat by rising star scriptwriter George Johnston, who has imaginatively tra…

Wired

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Army @ The Fringe in Association with Summerhall
28th Aug, 2017

Wired is one of several productions with a military theme being performed at the Army Reserve Centre, Summerhall’s new venue, army@Fringe.

When the Sky Falls In

When The Sky Falls In is written and presented by Janet Gershlick.

Certain Young Men

Peter Gill”s Certain Young Men was first performed at the Almeida Theatre in 1999.

One for the Road...

In the early 1980s Pinter became increasingly interested in human rights abuses and in particular the torture of political prisoners in Argentina and Turkey.

Mary, Queen of Scots

“All I knew was the playground song Mary Queen of Scots got her head chopped off,” says opera singer Louise Macdonald, “until I started learning Schumann’s Maria Stuart Lie…

Semi-Toned: Stay Tuned

If the boys of Semi-Toned ever tire of a cappella they could always take up comedy.

Gunshot Medley

“Black lives matter!” Hold it there and let that well-known refrain ring in your head, along with the image it conjures up in your mind.

About a Goth

Life as a Goth is not easy.

Fox and Hound Presents Tennessee Williams' Ivan's Widow and Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen

For lovers of Tennessee Williams and anyone who appreciates good theatre the double bill of Ivan’s Widow and Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen makes for a very rewardin…

Lord Dismiss Us

Scottish award-winning playwright and novelist Glenn Chandler’s best-known work might be television detective series Taggart, but he also has a string of successful plays and pro…

Bleach

There are downsides to most jobs and many come with dangers, hidden or otherwise, but there are usually compensatory factors as well.

Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story

Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story won the first Broadway Baby Bobby Award in 2014 as one of the most outstanding productions of that year’s Festival Fringe.

A Thousand Doorways

A finely-woven, patterned rug hangs from the ceiling, its design typical of the region.

Venus and Adonis

It is a rare treat to hear a dramatised performance of Shakespeare’s first published work, Venus and Adonis.

Coming Clean

It’s 35 years since Kevin Elyot’s first play, Coming Clean, premiered at the Bush Theatre and 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK.

A Boy Named Sue

Sid, struggling to become Sue, proclaims, “The great barrier between myself and the outside world is my appearance”.

Tremors

An ‘incident in a hotel room’ becomes a life-changing event for Tom Crowe, a rising star of the Labour Party whose past, present and future form the basis of Tremors.

Queers

Queers comes with no explanation, but the title alone is enough preparation for an hour of material that is amusing and sad, historical and contemporary.

Thirty Three

Saska (Corinne Furlong) decides to hold what which she hopes will be a cosy dinner party for a select group of her closest friends.

Sweet Charity

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Brighton Fringe
The Brighton Academy - Preston Park Campus
9th Jun, 2017

The Brighton Academy of Performing Arts uses its Preston Park studio theatre to showcase the talents of its students.

Brawn

Ryan was a bright lad at school.

Collapse

In under thirty minutes Collapse presents a hauntingly hypnotic exploration of Cassandra’ agony as she prophetically laments the collapse of her city.

The Fool, The Champ and The Bandito

The Fool, The Champ and The Bandito is “presented by BA(Hons) Acting and Creative Performance students, from the University Centre Colchester” who “in their final year of study p…

The Stroop Effect

The disparity between the promotional material put out by theatre groups and the reality of what they present to audiences is often quite staggering.

Goggles

Pets come in many forms.

Blink by Phil Porter

Described as “unconventional, quirky, and voyeuristic”, Peppered Wit’s production of Blink by Phil Porter fulfills each of those descriptions.

Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton

Summer in the south is aggressively hot and stiflingly humid.

Kings Cross (Remix)

I’m always interested in the extent to which the publicity for a performance matches the reality of the production; how the promise materialises on the stage.

Thrive

Post Traumatic Stress from a variety of sources is a familiar phenomenon in modern times.

The Tempest

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
Multiple Venues
21st Oct, 2016

Welcome to The Tempest as Shakespeare and probably most other people never imagined it could be.

If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You

Casey and Mikey cannot escape: not from who they are, not from how their lives have moulded them and, more immediately, from the rooftop onto which they have just clambered.

The Gin Whore Tour

Much has been said and written about gin but Dorothy Parker probably uttered the most appropriate for this event.

Krapp's Last Tape

Krapp stands frozen staring into the distance, barely living in the present, heading to an unknown future and transfixed on the past.

No Exit (Huis Clos)

No Exit (Huis Clos) is an existentialist drama, adapted from Jean-Paul Sartre’s classic by Charlie Rogers.

The Rose and Crown

There’s always a good smattering of obscure, seldom-performed or minor plays at the Festival Fringe.

Decade

9/11, as it now succinctly known, is one of those ‘where were you on the day?’ events.

Attempts on Her Life

Take a play with no plot, an unspecified number of players, no defined characters, pages of intense prose and lines that can be spoken by any performer and what do you have? Unmis…

The Wall

The Wall is a wonderfully refreshing play from Corby Productions.

The Telemachy

It’s rare to come across a wandering poet these days and it’s probably not the most effective way to get your message across to the public.

Twix

Jamie’s comical lack of good fortune is beautifully summed up in the last two lines of this play, where the parallel monologues of Twix finally come together.

Grey Matter

Adrian Raine’s pioneering work in neurocriminology can be seen as a reaction to the supremacy of nurture over nature in the debate about the causes of criminal behaviour.

Posh

Theresa May went to Oxford, but unlike Messrs Cameron, Osborne and Johnson, she could never have been invited to become a member of the infamous Bullingdon Club, to which Laura Wad…

Bildraum

Bildraum is part of the ‘Big in Belgium’ series, featuring six of the country’s many outstanding theatre and performance companies.

The Age of (Distr)action

In Edinburgh as members of Group 64, the cast of The Age of (Distr)action are an inclusive young people’s theatre company from Putney who have created, written and performed this…

West Side Story

This tragic romance has always been about the individual consequences of divisions in society.

Three Jumpers

The tweeting of the birds portends a beautiful day, but the view from the bridge is spoiled by an ominous thick mist.

Jumping the Barriers

There are many symbols of class division and expressions of social stratification in this country.

Family Voices and Victoria Station

Harold Pinter’s two short plays make only rare appearances nowadays and yet they are rewarding pieces.

Spool

Suppose, just suppose, that your mind and body lived separately from each other.

The Mikado

St Andrews Gilbert and Sullivan Society with Mermaids Performing Arts return to the Festival Fringe with their typically entertaining style of presenting Gilbert & Sullivan, this t…

Road

It’s Road, but not as we know it.

Felix Holt: The Radical

‘Wholesome’ is how a lady I spoke to after the performance described Felix Holt: The Radical.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Italia Conti Ensemble returns to the Festival Fringe with their second-year students again split into two groups, each with its own choice of play.

Year Ten

Never judge a play by its title.

Confetti

There’s no confetti in Confetti, but there is a complex mix of language and movement that makes it intriguing.

Dieser Ort

A bell tolls.

Chapel Street

If ever the strength of a story lay in its telling, Chapel Street would be a perfect example.

The White Crow

Adolph Eichmann never personally killed anyone, but he was hanged in 1962, having been found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Éowyn Emerald & Dancers

Éowyn Emerald and Dancers, make a welcome return to Edinburgh in their usual Greenside, Royal Terrace location.

5 Out of 10 Men...

Top ratings aren’t always just about putting on a remarkable production, although 5 Out of 10 Men is that.

I Keep a Woman in My Flat Chained to a Radiator

I Keep a Woman in My Flat Chained to a Radiator.

Are We Stronger Than Winston?

The British might be renowned for talking and complaining about the weather, but if you come from Fiji there are more heightened concerns than just cold rainy days.

On Ego by Mick Gordon

Many theatre companies oversell their wares with outrageous hyperbole.

Lïnger

Breandán de Gallaí, the celebrated ex-Riverdance principal, has devised a biographical series of dances to create Lïnger, which is performed in the generously spacious main thea…

2 By 5

International Collegiate Theatre Festival has put together a delightful programme of both well-known and less familiar works to create this production of 2 By 5.

Red

The redness of Red is not visible.

Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening won an impressive list of Tony, Grammy and Olivier Awards.

Partial Nudity

This might only be Partial Nudity, but it’s a full-on piece from writer/director Emily Layton and actors Kate Franz and Joe Layton.

The End

Celebrated Scottish choreographer Jack Webb has brought his latest, typically idiosyncratic work, The End, for performance at this year’s Festival Fringe as part of the extensive…

Call Mr Robeson

Call Mr Robeson is Tayo Aluko’s tribute to one of the twentieth century’s most recognisable singers in terms of looks and voice.

Three for Two by Phil Booth

We all have our price.

A Dream of Dying

It seems almost almost impossible that a man could go through his life and when his naked body is washed up on a shore in Ireland no one knows who he is.

Oliver!

The Spiegeltent is a far cry from the workhouse and rarely can a setting have been better used than in this stunning production of Lionel Bart’s Oliver! by Captivate Theatre.

Troika

Great composers sometimes create a theme that is so captivating or remarkable that other great composers write variations on it.

Alba Flamenca

If you missed this show all is not lost.

5 Guys Chillin'

If your idea of chillin’ is sitting in the armchair with a cup of cocoa and a novel, you probably won’t feel at ease with this play.

Oh Hello!

“Charles Hawtrey 1914 -1988 – Film, Theatre, Radio and Television Actor Lived Here.

Chef: Come Dine With Us!

Chef: Come Dine With Us! should not in a way be confused with the TV series Come Dine With Me.

Growing Pains

Standing ovations are rare, but the house rose as one at the at the end of Tom Gill’s Growing Pains in tribute to a remarkable performer and a stunning show.

Bash

Neil LaBute sets out to upset and disturb audiences and he made a spectacular start with his first play Bash: Latterday Plays.

Saturday Night Forever

I’ve left theatres in all sorts of states from elation to depression, anger to jubilation, in tears and totally numb.

Denton and Me

Never underestimate the power or repercussions of a gift.

The Dwelling Place

Two large basement rooms in Summerhall have been transformed into a remarkable installation and immersive theatre, musical, video, sound, and light performance area.

Squirm

The toilet, which dominates the floor space of this production, is essential to the performance of Squirm.

Wank Bank Masterclass

The Aussies have a certain way with words and in the case Adam Seymour with his hands also.

Adam & Eve and Steve

In the beginning it all seemed so straightforward.

Fresher

There are two very good reasons for going to see Fresher: it is an outstanding play that ingeniously tackles contemporary issues, and the production is also raising money for Young…

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

If you’re expecting a cosy drawing-room comedy about an aging female relative then you have clearly not read the publicity and are in for a big surprise.

Bucket List

What do you do when your mother is murdered for protesting corporate and governmental corruption? In the case of Milagros, you fight for the justice your mother was denied and see…

Dropped

There’s a lot of camouflage in Dropped.

Care Takers

Seeing Care Takers is like watching all the episodes of a fabulous five-part drama series in one sitting.

Hamlet in Bed

Hamlet in Bed is an exploration of one man’s obsession with Shakespeare’s tragic masterpiece ‘The play’s the thing’ that forms the subject of the production and also the m…

Damián Ortega

The Fruitmarket Gallery boasts “World class contemporary art at the heart of the city”.

H.M.S. Pinafore

While it is laudable to have an open policy for membership of an amateur operatic society the knock-on effects can be dire as demonstrated in Cat-Like Tread’s production of H.

Piaf

Piaf opens with a spectacular tableau of the entire cast.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men could be seen as a dark comedy or as just dark.

Oliver Twist

Italia Conti Ensemble score an absolute triumph with Neil Bartlett’s Oliver Twist.

Party

Party isn’t that sort of party; well, it sort of is, and maybe it should be, but overall it isn’t – though it might be after it’s finished.

For Queen and Country

For Queen and Country.

I Loved You and I Loved You

If Morfydd Owen had lived three weeks longer she would have been immortalised in the 27 Club.

Last Man Standing

For those who like their dance without frills, Last Man Standing provides an hour of unrelenting raw movement.

I Am

I Am is the sequel to LCP Dance Theatre’s Am I.

YAMA

There is dance and there is Scottish Dance Theatre.

Savage

Aimee has an ironically funny line in Savage when she refers to John as “a boring old queen”.

Oliver!

With a cast of nearly fifty, there’s no shortage of oom-pah-pah in this dazzling production of Lionel Bart’s Oliver! by Stage 84, The Yorkshire School of Performing Arts.

Faust

In sixteenth-century Germany it was not regarded as irreverant to perform comic puppet shows featuring characters and scenes from the legend of Faust.

The State of Concrete

The Britwell estate, built in 1957, was created to rehouse people from the slum clearance areas of London and Essex.

Odd Shaped Balls

‘The last 12 months have been very difficult for me.

A Little Respect

Here we go again.

Undermined

Undermined was going to be called Shafted, but a guy named Godber had already beaten Danny Mellor to it.

Romeo and Juliet

A Daily Mirror awaits us on our seats announcing the death of a ‘pair of “star-crossed” lovers … in the wake of increasingly violent clashes in the streets’.

Antigone: An Arabian Tragedy

Antigone: An Arabian Tragedy started out as two plays in a year-long project by One World Actors Centre (Kuwait) to produce Jean Anouilh’s Antigone in both English and Arabic.

Roaring Boys

Roaring Boys makes a welcome and very successful return to the Festival Fringe this year adding a further chapter to its interesting history.

Posh

With this year’s general election behind us and members now in office the return of Posh to the Festival Fringe is timely.

The Pirates of Penzance

“In Pirates, there are gems from the first to the last minute.

My Name is...

When Gaby disappeared from her Scottish home in 2006, it was assumed that her Pakistani father had kidnapped her.

Five Drinks

It might be a good idea to take five drinks into the auditorium, to see you through a play that has moments of wit and humour but contains nothing profound.

Reconciling

Fractals are frequently found in discussions within the realms of science, maths, art and nature.

IamI

Yet again CalArts pushes forward the frontiers of theatre with an extraordinary, fascinating and labyrinthine work.

Bayou Blues

Bayou Blues is beautiful.

Ozymandias

Interviewed by Broadway Baby, Hugh Train explained how Ozymandias was generated through free writing around the words of Shelley’s poem until eventually the “nonsensical rambl…

The American Soldier

We must be nearly at saturation point with plays and particularly monologues about war veterans.

BED

Eddie, Imogen and Lena share a flat.

Wonderland

Wonderland is the story of Alice’s encounters in the tale of the Red Queen.

Rent

Fans of Rent will love this full length presentation and for those who have never seen it, this is a great opportunity to watch a rip-roaring production.

The Ascension of Mrs Leech

This hilarious beginners guide to theology is the funniest presentation of religious concepts imaginable.

Bones

Bones is an intimate and tragic tale of growing up in a bruised family and having to take responsibility not only for yourself but also for those who who should be caring for you.

The Amazing World of MC Escher

Given our familiarity with Escher’s unmistakable style it’s hard to believe that this is the first major exhibition of his work in the UK and that there is only one print of …

Styx

For once, we are given a programme description that is completely accurate and delivers what it promises: ‘a tragicomic thriller about love and accidental murder….

The Hendrick's Emporium of Sensorial Submersion

Review
★★★★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Hendrick’s Emporium of Sensorial Submersion
26th Aug, 2015

The Hendrick’s Emporium of Sensorial Submersion is yet another triumph for the phantasmagorically fertile imaginations of the genial geniuses of gin.

Thirteen (13)

The storyline is shallow, the message insubstantial and the script contrived, so you don’t have anything deep to think about.

Homme | Animal

‘How can I know who I am …feeling with pure energy, / With my heart, my mind, my body, my soul, / This is who and what I am.

A Face That Fits

Moon Fly Theatre Company was created this year with the aim of affording opportunities to new and promising writers, actors and directors.

The Trials of Galileo

Galileo lived in age when the church reigned supreme, faith was more important than fact and dogma denied discovery.

Edinburgh Gin O'Clock

The Edinburgh Gin Company has left its distillery behind and moved to The Boards in the Edinburgh Playhouse to tell a brief history of the city’s alcohol and gin heritage along w…

International Stud

Originally a one-act play consisting of five scenes, The International Stud premiered Off-Off-Broadway in 1978 and later became the first part of Harvey Fierstein’s landmark work, …

The Unknown Soldier

The Unknown Soldier finds an interesting perspective on the lives of men who fought in the First World War.

Comfort Slaves

Suitability: 16+ (Restriction).

RAZ by Jim Cartwright

It’s a deceptively simple bag of ingredients that Jim Cartwright lists in the script for his new play Raz, which has had its premiere at this year’s Festival Fringe.

K'rd Strip: A Place to Stand

K’Rd Strip: A Place to Stand is a bizarre yet beautiful blend of Māori culture, contemporary dance, vocals and music, drag and real life stories.

Labels

Labels are easy to create: they can even be fun.

Loot

There’s a huge difference between comedy and black comedy that seems to have eluded the Lincoln Company in their production of Joe Ortons’s Loot.

As Is

New York, 1985.

S.E.N

You can find the characters Taylor and Aalia in every comprehensive school in the country.

Danza del Caribe: Itara

Welcome to a world in which West Africa meets Jamaica, meets Cuba: A world of burning desire, or as they say in Yoruba, Itara.

La Ronde

In keeping with its history, this latest production of La Ronde by Zebronkeyis controversial.

Simon Singh: The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

Simon Singh has a very easy style and voice which belies the genius within.

Compulsion

Declan Cooke is a physically big guy with a powerful presence: if you saw him standing at the bar you would imagine him to be full of confidence and completely in control of his li…

Confusions

One of the confusions in this production, although not without precedent, is the running order of the five interrelated plays that make up the complete work.

James Bannon: Running with the Firm

James Bannon’s story has all the ingredients of a good novel: a down-to-earth setting; some very shady characters, some good guys and some dumb ones; a developing plot; plenty of…

Who's Afraid of Michael Gove?

The Tories have take control and Michael Gove is Prime Minister.

Now We Are Pope: Frederick Rolfe in Venice

Frederick William Rolfe (1860-1913) was a minor English writer, artist and photographer and serious eccentric.

Nature's Heart

Koji Takeuchi was born in Japan and began his search for truth in his teens.

Footloose

“Footloose may be a hit, but it’s trash - high powered fodder for the teen market.

Dorian

In a 1990 interview on Japanese television, Berkoff said, “I believe that you don’t need anything more than just utter simplicity and that everything in my art must be created …

Falling in love with Frida

Caroline Bowditch, Welly O’Brien and Nicole Guarino provide a wonderful evening in a cosy little room at Dance Base: it’s not very often a full house can consist of twelve peop…

Edinburgh Traditional Building Festival - Maintaining Sash and Case Windows

If you think the Fringe is just about theatrical performances then think again.

Winter of Our Discotheque

Autistic, severely depressed and with inadequate provision for her, Tess Humphrey left school at the age of thirteen.

Woodbine Willie

Chain smoker and chaplain, poet and padre, furnisher of faith and fags, Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy dispensed Woodbines and the word of God on the Western Front during the First Worl…

O is for Ofsted

Ofsted inspections are generally not much fun.

The Hacienda Tales

Canterbury may have one of the world’s most famous cathedrals, but Manchester had the Hacienda.

MacBheatha

Summerhall’s steeply tiered Demonstration Room gives off the air of an amphitheatre, but its back wall houses very modern projections.

Violetta's Last Tango

The stunning Grand Auditorium of the Ghillie Dhu provides a spectacular setting for Violetta’s Last Tango and raises high hopes for a marvellous milonga and an evening of songs f…

Miann

Soiled bodies writhe across across a primordial swamp in earthbound exploration, rising from time to time in contorted gestures.

Cafe Voices

Cafe Voices is held in the beautiful John Knox House, where the elegant wooden panels of the large bright room provide perfect acoustics for storytelling.

Hendrick's Parlour Bar

“Immersive theatre productions tend to operate in dynamically fluid settings, allowing the audience a more active, voyeuristic, and central role, while also individualizing their…

SHOUT! The Mod Musical

Bored with Berkoff? Choking on Chekhov? Fed-up with Feydeau? “Don’t sleep in the subway, darlin’, don’t stand in the pouring rain.

Rock Trial

Forget the defendant, it is the cast of this excruciating production who should be in the dock.

Nunsense

“I always had a good experience with nuns,” said Dan Coggins, who wrote the book, music and lyrics we all know as Nunsense to show us what nuns are “really like.

Things from Before Pt. 4

“Do we not all spend the greater part of our lives under the shadow of an event that has not yet come to pass?” Maurice Maeterlinck published his play in this intriguing perspe…

The Noctambulist

This is a rock-solid, totally refreshing naturalist drama performed by outstanding actors.

The Caddington Affair

The boys of Tiffin School are in town and look set to make a huge impact with The Caddington Affair, one of two devised pieces presented by different groups of year 12 A Level st…

Edinburgh Jews

Edinburgh Jews is an exhibition originally compiled by two students at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity.

An Extraordinary Light

“The Nobel prize, by canonising individuals, disguises the truth that they are all, in Newton’s famous phrase, standing ‘on giants’ shoulders’ and on each other’s as well.

Evil

Jesper Arin, who performs this one-man play, stood at the exit to the theatre as the audience left.

Forty-Five Minutes

Flying High Theatre Company from Nottinghamshire is aptly named; that is exactly what this group of lively youngsters do throughout this performance.

Éowyn Emerald and Dancers

Éowyn Emerald and Dancers made a successful debut at last year’s Fringe and are back again this year with another varied programme of short dances.

Faith

Faith is based on the story of Imber, a village which had the misfortune to be located too near to a military base on Salisbury Plain.

Olaudah Equiano: The Enslaved African

The spoken content of this play, written and directed by Adam Tulloch, is minimal; the direction is bold and brave.

Tea Time Story

How many kilos of flour does it take to tell a good story? In the case of Heather Lai, over fifty during the course of her Fringe run and every gramme is put to excellent use.

Error 404

“Instagram is a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends and family.

Pennyroyal

This is one for all the lads who have ever had girlfriends problems, all the lassies who have had to put up with boyfriends, and anyone who likes tea.

A Virgin's Guide To... Rocky Horror

“This is not The Rocky Horror Show stage production” - a significant point of clarification in the Fringe programme lest anyone might think that this is the real thing.

Man Enough

Chris is 18 years old, gay, and in search of fun and attention.

Hancock’s Last Half Hour by Heathcote Williams

“Ladies and gentlemen, I shall now bid you all good day.

MenSWEAR Collection: Three, Two, F*ck

What does it take to be remembered? What would you have to do to ensure that your name lives on forever? Three young lads have spent a few years on the music scene and have finally…

Steve Gove Goes Fringe Crazy

Feature
Richard Beck
Prague Fringe
7th Sep, 2024

Steve Gove announces Prague Fringe 2025, the 1st Prague Comedy Festival and the 1st Mumbai Fringe Festival.

Tom Dugan’s Universal Hero

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
6th Sep, 2024

Richard Beck looks into the background of Tom Dugan’s play on SImon Wiesenthal at the Kings Head, Islington.

Authentic Voice of Scotland in the Raw

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
13th Aug, 2024

Our Editor-in-Chief, Richard Beck looks at the work of Saltire Sky in revealing a darket side of Scotland.

Sue Crawley’s Tweed and Tartan Slow Stitching Workshop

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
8th Aug, 2024

Our Editor-in-Chief, Richard Beck takes Sue Crawley’s Tweed and Tartan Slow Stitching Workshop.

Alex Franklin: Looking in the Trans Mirror

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
2nd Aug, 2024

Alex Franklin writes about life as a trans person post HRT.

Take Me To Your Live Theatre

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
27th Jul, 2024

Casey Feigh, founder of Holy Shit Improv writes about live performance being even more important in the face of AI.

Comedy, Or How to Make Sense of Life

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
25th Jul, 2024

Comedians Juliet Cowan and John Meagher make their Fringe debut this year. Here they write about how they slid into comedy.

Craig Hill's Been Sitting On This For A While

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
24th Jul, 2024

James MacFarlane talks with Craig Hill about his Edinburgh Fringe show, I’ve Been Sitting On This For A While.

Comedy: The Antidote to Tragedy

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
24th Jul, 2024

Comedians Anna Akana (l) and Catherine McCafferty (r) make their Fringe debut this year. Here they write about tragedies in thir lives and the healing power of comedy.

Otter Lee: From Super-Serious to Snarky and Sexy

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
21st Jul, 2024

Otter Lee takes us on his journey from super-serious, quiet baby to an authentic, snarky, and sexy version' of himself.

Kevin James Doyle: After Endgame

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
21st Jul, 2024

Kevin James Doyle tals to our Editor-in-Chief, Richard Beck about his Edfringe show, After Endgame and the lessons that can be learned from chess.

Todd Almond is Almost There

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
21st Jul, 2024

Todd Almond talks about the background to his Fringe show, I'm Almost There.

Where is the fun in circus?

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
20th Jul, 2024

Emma from Nova tells the back story to the show.

When Second-rate is the Best

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
20th Jul, 2024

Grammy-winning cellist Leah Coloff tells the story behind her Fringe show, Super Second Rate,

Louise Leigh: Don't Fear the 'Bad' Review

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
20th Jul, 2024

The Bristol-based powerhouse of a mum-cum-Gen X comic, says, “Don't fear the 'bad' review".

Kevin Quantum Explains Anti-Gravity the Show

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
15th Jul, 2024

Physicist-turned magician Kevin Quantum tells the truly uplifting story behind his levitation-based Fringe show.

Tragedy? Run At It Shouting!

Feature
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
15th Jul, 2024

Charlie MacGechan tells the tale of a wonderful woman, a tragedy and the phoenix that rose out of the ashes. His moving story is being told here for the first time in public.

Chopped Liver and Unions: The Struggle Continues

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
15th Jul, 2024

Charlotte Walker talks about returning to the Fringe with an extended version of her production of Chopped Liver and Unions.

Edinburgh Deaf Festival returns but its future is threatened

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
15th Jul, 2024

Edinburgh Deaf Festival is returning this year despite fears about its survival.

Chess and Life According to Vald Ilich

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
15th Jul, 2024

Our Editor-in-Chief, Richard Beck, meets up with the multi award-winning stand-up Vadd Ilich ahead of his show, Vladislav, Baby Don't Hurt Me, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Lewis Hetherington: Smelling the Wildfires

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
15th Jul, 2024

Scottish playwrightLewis Hetherington write about the climate crisis and his latest work no one is coming to save us,

Matt Hale: Suspending Disbelief and Diving into the Absurd.

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
15th Jul, 2024

Comedy hypnotist Matt Hale explains that he loves the Fringe because it is a fabulous dreamscape of the imagination.

Lubna Kerr: Chatterbox

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
15th Jul, 2024

Lubna Kerr’s write about the background to her Fringe production Chatterbox.

Queen Elizabeth I In Her Own Words

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
12th Jul, 2024

Carole Levin writes about her background and play The Life of Elizabeth I in Her Own Words.

The Audience Is Not Your Therapist

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
12th Jul, 2024

New York comedian Julia VanderVeen writes about the relationship between audience and performer.

Joking About Death Makes You Less Afraid Of It

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
12th Jul, 2024

Rich Spalding writes about turning death into comedy.

The 8th Best Legs in San Francisco

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
7th Jul, 2024

Our Editor-in-Chief, Richard Beck, meets up with Ryan Patrick Welsh, aka the 8th Best Legs in San Francisco to talk about his life and debut show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, ...

Laughing in the Face of Fear

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
4th Jul, 2024

Our Editor-in-Chief, Richard Beck, interviews Kelly McLaughlan about her latest show, Catholic Guilt.

Once a Rascal

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
4th Jul, 2024

Our Editor-in-Chief interviews Stephen Mullan about his life and new show, Rascal.

A Suitcase Full of Stories

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
4th Jul, 2024

Our Editor-in Chief, Richard Beck, interviews Stephen Smith about his years since graduation and the name he has made for himself.

BYMT: A View From Inside

Feature
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
3rd Jul, 2024

We invited Cerys Jones to facilitate a conversation between Lewis Cornay, a BYMT alumnus and West End performer and Emeli Mumford a current BYMT young performer.

Welcome To The Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party.

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
22nd Jun, 2024

Our Editor-in--Chief, Richard Beck, talks to Jake Mace aout his play play, Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party.

Prague Fringe Festival Awards 2024

Feature
Richard Beck
Prague Fringe
20th Jun, 2024

Prague Fringe Festival Awards 2024

Polka Theatre Announces Playwriting Award

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
17th Jun, 2024

Polka Theatre announces the launch of their inaugural Polka Playwriting Award.

Alison Cotton Talks About Her Little Angels

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
15th Jun, 2024

Musician Alison Cotton talks to our Editor-in-Chief, Richard Beck about her multimedia production, Engelchen (Little Angels)

I Am Yours Sincerely, Major John Cox MC

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
4th Jun, 2024

Ed Saunders-Lee writes about the research and background to creating his solo show, I Am Yours Sincerely, on the life of his step-grandfather, Major John Cox MC.

Don’t Put Your Mother On The Stage

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
27th May, 2024

Sabina Westrup writes about opportunities for middle-aged women and her play Kara, Mickey and Pol Too

Lessons On Revolution: A Meta-theatrical Manifesto

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
24th May, 2024

Gabriele Uboldi write about Lessons On Revolution: A Meta-theatrical Manifesto

Queerdog Theatre Talk About JUMP

Feature
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
23rd May, 2024

Editor-in-Chief, Richard Beck, spoke to Playwright Nick Maynard (NM), Director Scott Le Crass (SLC) and actors Stewart Dylan-Campbell (SDC) and Aiden Kane (AK) about the play about...

Popcorn Writing Award 2024 Opens

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
19th May, 2024

Submissions are now open for the Popcorn Writing Award 2024

Brendan Shelly - A Lifetime in the Making

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
15th May, 2024

Brendan Shelly talks about Ageless Arts' inaugural production, Porridge Boy at the Greenwich Theatre .

Frozen: Where Right and Wrong Melt Into One

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
26th Apr, 2024

We ask the director and cast of Frozen at the Greenwich Theatre about their experiences of putting on this hugely demanding play.

The British Theatre Challenge 2024

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
8th Apr, 2024

Director John Mitton tells tell us about this year's , The British Theatre Challenge, the plays and the writers.

Edward Oulton: Young, Northern and Hopeful with £45,000

Feature
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
8th Apr, 2024

Richard Beck met up with Edward Oulton to find out about the grants he's received and his thoughts on the future of writing and regional theatre.

BYMT and Ellie Jones take on Animal Farm

Feature
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
1st Apr, 2024

We talk to Ellie Jones and some of the cast about her production of Animal Farm for BYMT.

Barry McStay: My Story of Breeding

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
30th Mar, 2024

Barry McStay tells us about his experience of writing and revising his play, Breeding

Comedian Lama Alfard - Self-Confessed Total Badass Who Truly Stands Out

Feature
Richard Beck
World Tours
11th Mar, 2024

We talk to Lama Alfard about her career in comedy.

FemFestBrighton Celebrates Five Fabulous Years

Feature
Richard Beck
Brighton
29th Feb, 2024

FemFestBrighton this March celebrates its fifth anniversary.

Merging Metatheatre, Autofiction and Necrophilia

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
2nd Feb, 2024

We interview the director and cast of Sergio Blanco's When You Pass Over My Tomb at the Arcola Theatre.

EdFringe 2024 Registration Opens

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
11th Jan, 2024

EdFringe 2024 Registration Opens

From Lady to Gentleman - That's Shalott

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
28th Dec, 2023

We interview Gareth Watkins about his exciting new play The Gentleman of Shallot.

Greenside Vacates Old Town Infirmary Street in Move to New Town George Street

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
22nd Dec, 2023

Greenside makes a dramatic move to The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) on George Street for 2024 Fringe.

Cocktails, Concerts and Carols at St Martin-in-the-Fields

Feature
Richard Beck
West End
25th Nov, 2023

St Martin's-in-the-Fields announces it Christmas celebrations.

Malevo: From La Pampa To The Peacock

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
28th Oct, 2023

Argentine dance sensation Malevo perform at the Peacock Thatre.

What Price A Slice of Bread?

Feature
Richard Beck
London Fringe
15th Oct, 2023

This week The Loaf by Alan Booty opens at The Bridge House Theatre in Penge, SE20. We spoke to him about his background, the play and its development.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Sam Leishman

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
28th Aug, 2017

The final day! Richard's alcohol-fueled quest to find Edinburgh's best bar staff ends up at WestRoom, where he found Sam Leishman, a 20 year old Guinness drinker with a passion for...

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Gavin Robertson

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
27th Aug, 2017

Richard didn't stumble far from yesterday's bar, Foundry 39, as just a few yards up Charlotte Lane he fell into Sygn, a trendy retro-style cocktail bar & diner where Edinburgh Bars...

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Sarah Brown

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
26th Aug, 2017

Tucked on the corner of Queensferry Street and Charlotte Lane you'll find the ultra-hip bar and eatery, Foundry 39.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Nathan Hinze

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
25th Aug, 2017

Warm and welcoming, and always entertaining, 99 Hanover Street is at the heart of Edinburgh's bar scene.

Summerhall’s army@TheFringe: An Affront to the Arts or an Ambitious Alliance?

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
25th Aug, 2017

The Army has set up camp for the first time at the Fringe and is stationed with Summerhall in its own premises.

The Edinburgh Cocktail Festival is this Year’s New Kid on the Block

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh
24th Aug, 2017

Back in 1947 the founders of the Edinburgh International Festival could hardly have imagined what their legacy would be.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Dale Welstead

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
24th Aug, 2017

In the heart of the Old Town, Cabaret Voltaire is a legendary live music venue in the vaults beneath North Bridge.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Lainey Corroon

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
23rd Aug, 2017

The Three Sisters – renamed the Free Sisters during the Fringe – has long been a festival hub and a jewel in the crown of the Free Festival.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Erik Stenersen

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
22nd Aug, 2017

Just around the corner from the iconic Greyfriar's Bobby you'll find the Oz Bar, and that's also where Richard found today's Edinburgh Barstar, Erik Stenersen.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Danny Smith

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
21st Aug, 2017

Edinburgh is Festival City for good reason, and amongst all the theatre, comedy, books and arts there's even a Scottish Gin Festival.

The Scottish Story Telling Centre: A Venue for Voices

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
21st Aug, 2017

The Scottish Storytelling Centre is, in its own words, ‘a vibrant arts venue with a seasonal programme of live storytelling, theatre, music, exhibitions, workshops, family events...

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Denise Garland

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
20th Aug, 2017

Formerly a parsonage, Cloisters Bar is a uniquely traditional Edinburgh pub.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Maurice Penny

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
19th Aug, 2017

Just off the Royal Mile and Cowgate you'll find a craft beer shop and bar called the Salt Horse.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Tomas Germanavicius

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
18th Aug, 2017

The Heads & Tales bar is the home of Edinburgh Gin, and it's also where Richard found today's Edinburgh Barstar, Tomas Germanavicius, a Lithuanian who's a dab hand at mixing up a c...

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Jay Weeks

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
17th Aug, 2017

Richard's headed over to Leith to the eclectic bar that is The Mousetrap where he finds today's Edinburgh Barstar, Jay Weeks.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Molly McCluskey

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
16th Aug, 2017

Richard is exploring Edinburgh's East End today to discover the Barstar of the Day at The Newsroom, where Glaswegian Molly McCluskey is making plans on photography while sipping a ...

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Montse Pearce

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
15th Aug, 2017

Richard's headed south to Clerk Street where at the unique Dog House bar he's discovered today's Edinburgh Barstar, Montse Pearce, a Spanish-born artist with good taste in whisky.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Sophie Malone

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
14th Aug, 2017

Just off George Street you'll find the Thistle Street Bar (the TSB as it's affectionally known).

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Donald McGhie

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
13th Aug, 2017

An authentic Tiki bar in the New Town? Richard popped on his hula skirt and hotfooted over to the Auld Reekie Tiki Bar to meet today's Edinburgh Barstar - Donald McGhie, former ban...

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Briar Russell

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
12th Aug, 2017

Hidden away in the Old Town on Advocates Close you'll find The Devil's Advocate, and if you're lucky today's Edinburgh Barstar will also be on shift.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Alan Mulvihill

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
11th Aug, 2017

It's only open from July to the end of September, but Richard's sought out pop-up bar Whisky Or Death to find today's Edinburgh Barstar Of The Day, Alan Mulvihill.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Ross Bryant

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
10th Aug, 2017

Richard's in one of Edinburgh's most unique bars today to meet Ross Bryant, co-owner of Bryant & Mack Private Detectives on Rose Street North Lane.

Edinburgh Barstar of the Day: Robbie Johnston

Feature
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
9th Aug, 2017

Richard is still in New Town, but with great bar staff like Robbie Johnston at Nightcap - why would you want to leave? Nightcap might be a relatively new addition to the Edinburgh...

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Articles by Richard Beck