Plays

Pity

Statistics show that last year the most common reason cited in UK divorce papers was "irreconcilable bathroom habits”.

Instructions for Correct Assembly

If The Royal Court’s reputation for producing work that’s a little ahem, “arty” has put you off making a visit recently for fear of Death by Pretension, then the enjoyable …

Beginning

Two desperately lonely people open up to each other at the end of a house warming party and eventually become a couple.

The Red Lion

Patrick Marber’s The Red Lion transfers to Trafalgar Studios, bringing us closer to an understanding of the devastating reality of England today within the confines of a sweaty&…

Jane Eyre

The year for the National Theatre so far has been beset by the dramas over the dramas on its programme – depending on your viewpoint, it either doesn’t contain enough classics o…

Oslo

Review
★★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
National Theatre / The Harold Pinter Theatre
19th Sep, 2017

The challenge with any dramatisation of an historic moment is in trying to appeal to the people for whom the event just ‘rings a bell’ right up to those whose lives were dire…

Barber Shop Chronicles

The Barber Shop Chronicles takes place in barber shops across the world, in Lagos, in Johannesburg, in Accra, in London and beyond.

Salome

“There is no language for what happened that night,” states Salome in narration as her older self shortly after beginning this new, happily more feminist, retelling of the myth s…

The Ferryman

Review
★★★★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
Gielgud Theatre / The Royal Court Theatre
4th May, 2017

If populism breeds cynicism, then there’s a high quota of cheap shots that could be made towards the Royal Court’s latest offering.

Guards at the Taj

Only a few weeks ago, the Bush Theatre emerged from its year-long renovation, boasting a revamped auditorium and studio space, alongside open-air decking for those all-important …

Ugly Lies the Bone

It’s great to see new writing being performed at one of the National’s bigger spaces and there are big themes at play here in writer Lindsey Ferrentino’s National Theatre and UK …

Travesties

I have an inherent discomfort with theatre that requires a certain knowledge or level of intelligence in order to appreciate it (reference my ongoing debate with the current Royal …

The Kite Runner

This adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s best-seller was written back in 2006, a year before the filmic representation.

This House

Taking place over the five years in the seventies that turned out to be the last Labour Government for nearly 20 years and that led to the Thatcher era, the politics being manage…

The Children

If the purpose of life is to continue its perpetuity, the implication is that those of us who spawn children are naturally superior to those who don’t.

Peter Pan

Review
★★★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
Multiple Venues
3rd Dec, 2016

There must be little more that can raise the spirits of young or old than the idea of flying free through the skies.

Review
★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
Royal Court Theatre / The Royal Court Theatre
2nd Feb, 2016

Caryl Churchill rarely does interviews and never discusses the meanings behind her plays (even her stage directions are scant) - so I would be building myself up for a fall if I …