Lucian begat Goethe begat Dukas begat Disney begat Richard Hough and Ben Morales Frost; for this new musical by the latter writing duo has history.
Kicking off at the end of a particularly boozy and pizza-fuelled wake, then time-skipping over the months of post-funeral aftermath, Good Grief charts the stuttering relationship o…
The first rule about a Dada performance is that you don’t start one with the history of Dada.
A simple premise lays the foundation for Melanie Gall to recount the story of two of Hollywood’s brightest golden age stars, Deanna Durbin and Judy Garland: a New York Times jour…
What do tomatoes, banjos and a recovering executive have in common? Keith Alessi, who used to consume excessive amounts of tomatoes and had 52 banjos in his closet, but couldn’t …
It is a complete delight to watch these two actors practice their craft.
The phrase "Every Time a Bell Rings" is well known and resonates especially at Christmas time: straight away we expect a link to the classic It’s a Wonderful Life, and …
M6 Theatre Company have put together a heartwarming show filled with the Christmas spirit, with some truly charming use of puppetry, storytelling and stage magic It is exactly the …
Where is the glitter and magic, our annual Christmas treat, without the Sugar Plum Fairy or the Snow Queen? With theatre doors closed during these sad times, Scottish Ballet have c…
When I first heard that TrueStory Theatre would be back with a one man production of A Christmas Carol I felt in parts excited and uneasy.
The works of WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan are jewels in the English theatrical treasury and I, generally, have scant patience (no pun intended) with 'reimaginings'.
What is magic, really? Is it an evil enchantress who can freeze a person in ice? Is it a crow who can talk? Or is it seeing dozens of little faces light up with joy? The Snow Queen…
Outdoor theatre? In December? Yes, it’s happening! Brighton Open Air Theatre (BOAT) have launched their first ever Christmas programme with a bang as Hansel and Gretel? A Postmod…
Working with a tight script from Stuart Crowther and some inspired direction from Stephen Smith, Threedumb Theatre have created a wonderfully atmospheric version of The Strange Cas…
It’s Halloween evening at the Brighton Open Air Theatre and what better time for a séance? Even if it has to be a socially distance séance – there’s no hand holding or grou…
A lot of love has gone into this imagined duet between Frankie Howerd and his lover Dennis Heymer.
Hattie Snooks has staged an existential crisis, and somehow humour and song only enhanced this portrait.
Clap Back Club have done it again! The feminist performance troupe, that started off as a choir, never fail to bring harsh truths to a laughing audience through parody and song.
SpaceXPat explores the motivation and aftermath of an astronaut expat called Pat deciding to stay permanently on the International Space Station (spot that pun in the title).
It’s worth noting first off that My Boy Danny was never originally intended to appear as an MP3 available for streaming on YouTube, with that compromise being a happy result of l…
Iain Dale’s Wednesday broadcast featured Gyles Brandreth’s mellifluously plummy tones navigating his way from pornography to Maureen Lipman, from dad jokes to serial killers, a…
I knew it! This is what the Scottish lassies have been up to during lockdown.
“I lit the spark that burned the world down”, declares Oliver Yellop’s Gavrilo Princip, before a dying trumpet slide suggests the spark may have been, in fact, rather more of…
It shouldn’t be controversial to assume that one’s ability to enjoy this particular interchange may well rest ultimately on personal politics and the level of individual anger …
Lying not too far beneath the CV19 surface of 2020 lie a series of news events that seem to epitomise our times.
Conceived, written and acted by Timothy Quinlan, this short film features some of the better acting on offer at the Fringe, and like so many others, is inspired by the strange real…
This jaunty little potter through the more gruesome elements of Shakespeare’s works really ‘gets’ the tone needed for this strange 2020 hybrid of live theatre / film / desper…
In Nia Williams’ upcoming new musical, Lady Macbeth is a creepy life coach who takes advantage of the collective incapacity of lockdown to bring her own particular brand of… we…
When Covid-19 is up, the economy down and Brexit looming around the corner, you need clown therapy.
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.
The chaos of a house move.
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 …
Closing the first day of [email protected] on Monday 11th of August was an online short film screening and Q&A with Phil Spencer, available to watch online in full.
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…
The Boom Room is a sweet little radio play that captures the ennui and idiosyncratic Englishness of lockdown – cleaning out spice racks, a sudden urge to plant potatoes – and p…
The 72-year-old cabaret performer Nigel Osner knows a thing or two about ageing and self-isolating during the pandemic.
A dodgy MP, a new and potentially dangerous drug and a mysterious whistle-blower.
The lockdown goes on and theatre will likely not return anytime soon.
Tonight I figured out how to beam a Facebook video to my TV so I could watch – amongst other things – a burlesque performer do a striptease on a unicycle.
Annabelszki took to the stage to give a thought provoking, challenging and uplifting insight into the role of women and feminism from a lesbian point of view.
Viv (Katherine Parkinson) has lost her shoe on her London commute.
In 1996, Robert Lepage's initial production of The Seven Streams was far from critic-pleasing.
Marketed as a comedic, feminist fairytale mashup, the concept of Lady Wank (And Other Fairytales For Adults) offered much potential.
Another riotous performance from the Maydays! Proving that they really are the masters of improvisation, Maydays’ latest outing, Confessions had a packed-out Komedia in stitches.
It’s embarrassing recalling your teenager years, isn’t it? Awkward crushes, cringe-worthy fashion choices and dramatic mood swings; most of us are very happy to leave those yea…
Mrs Puntila and her Man Matti is that relatively rare thing for the Royal Lyceum Theatre—a star vehicle, rather than an ensemble production, that happens to have two audience fav…
If you go down to the woods today, you’re in for a BIG surprise.
Jingan Young is a fascinating writer to follow, as her play Life and Death of a Journalist explores the hardships of journalism amid political turbulence and cultural difference.
“It’s about us—together,” explain Jake Jarratt and Cameron Sharp, in their new play in which two drama students – straight “Jake”, gay “Cameron” – end up trying…
Edinburgh’s Traverse has long-championed new drama—indeed, the venue’s self-description is the simple goal of being “Scotland’s new writing theatre”.
Matt Hoss is a man on a mission.
Though we aren’t given the choice that may be implied by the inclusion of the subtitle in The Visit or The Old Lady Who Comes to Call, it is a play that uses juxtaposition as it …
Experimental, inventive and hugely daring, Antigone, Interrupted is Sophocles re-imagined, the first production by Joan Clevillé since becoming Artistic Director of Sc…
An enchanting stage show based on the 2010 book by Julia Donaldson, Zog follows a young dragon of the same name who only wants one thing: a gold star.
The Gielgud Theatre hosts Ben Elton's stage version of his acclaimed TV show, Upstart Crow.
Set in 1854 in the criminal wing of Bethlem Hospital for the Insane and being about the birth of psychotherapy, you would be forgiven for assuming this play will be heavy going.
Annabelszki brought an uplifting and insightful fusion of storytelling, comedy and poetry to her show Professional Breakup Artist to highlight the various stages of love, da…
Fresh from a slot on James Corden’s Late Late Show, Lou Sanders breezes into Brighton to blow away the grubby taint of the coronavirus—and your dad.
Part of the Six Plays One Day event at Tristan Bates, Songs of Innocence really stands out from the crowd.
Written and performed by Jack Hesketh and directed by Coral Tarran, Is Trying Enough? starts with a young man bouncing out of bed to the upbeat sounds of Mr Blue Sky by ELO.
When Kate (Robyn Lovell) starts her new job working in a charity call centre for breast cancer care, her newfound workmate and desk-share partner Garry's (Matthew Bromwich) rel…
According to an ancient myth, the fern flower blooms for a very short time on the eve of the summer solstice, and those who are fortunate enough to find it are granted earthly fort…
Families come in all shapes and sizes.
Love is never easy.
Actor Joann Condon from BBC'S Little Britain fame is fed up with being put into a box.
NUMB, by Timothy Cobeanu, has an unusual start.
Since I last saw Simon David on stage in his 2018 Edinburgh Fringe debut, Virgin, much has happened in his personal life.
Every year the Royal Albert Hall plays host to Cirque du Soleil, whose cast of exceptional performers come from across the globe.
We’ve reached the end of the decade and entered the ‘20s again.
Watching Super Sunday makes you think you really ought to get the gym more.
One party gone wrong and a constellation of friends, family, and sacrosanct values falls apart.
Welcome to The Republic of Biafra, 1967.
A wintry tale of fire and ice where selfless love wins, The Snow Queen, choreographed by Christopher Hampson, is a dangerous journey encountering bandits and snow creatures.
It’s a Thursday afternoon, and I’m sat comfortably in the stalls of Brighton Theatre Royal amongst an absolute army of five-year-olds.
Watching A Little Space made me think of Marmite.
In Midnight Movie, Eve Leigh presents a universe of bedrooms where disabled people are unable to sleep due to the pain of having a body which is, right now, ‘glitching’.
The challenge in attempting to adapt Elena Ferrante's 10 million-selling quadrilogy, The Neapolitan Novels lies not in finding the time to read through the 1,600 pages of sourc…
Panto season is upon us (Oh Yes it is!) and Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch have repackaged the classic tale of Robin Hood and bought it to the stage in a wonderful way.
There is something wonderfully seasonal about Wind of Heaven at the Finborough Theatre.
Many Scots first experience of comics is likely to be two series published by Dundee-based D C Thomson in their long-running newspaper, The Sunday Post.
Full of good cheer, fun and jokes, carols under falling snow, spooky ghosts and glitter, what better way to get into the Christmas spirit than go to An Edinburgh Christmas Carol, D…
The predictably brilliant writer/director/dame Andrew Pollard returns to Greenwich Theatre again for another triumphant Panto season, marking the 50th anniversary of the theatre’…
Connor is on a night out and ready to be open about his sexuality.
Streatham Space Project helped its audience ask questions of themselves during the debut performance of Rage, But Hope.
A long table stretches across the expansive floor of the Coronet.
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…
Billed as a Halloween cabaret extravaganza, The Haunted Ballroom was a loose mix of disco style party and cabaret acts from renowned London based performers Black Cat Cabaret, who …
Going to see comedians with no prior knowledge of their work is always a bit of a risk.
Almost inevitably, doing a show at Christmas draws comparisons to Panto – that staple of British theatre that keeps the house funded for the rest of the year; but stood next to L…
Finding myself once again at the Bridewell Theatre, home of amateur theatre group SEDOS, I know I am in for a treat.
Suspended from the ceiling of the Coronet Theatre are five crystalline orbs that almost look like faces.
Above The Stag Theatre yet again provides us with a beautifully handled love story, whilst sensitively exploring societal issues that LGBTQ+ individuals face.
Forget any notions of political correctness, civility or polite drawing room conversation.
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.
Performing a play in a cathedral about an archbishop assassinated in a cathedral might sound like a match made in heaven.
As a horror fan, I approached this performance with high expectations; I wanted to be scared, disturbed or mildly agitated at the very least.
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.
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 simple production, A Life Twice Given stretches itself to do justice to a very complicated idea, with only limited resources and space.
Friends are often made under unusual circumstances.