2 Star Shows

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…

Retrogression: A Horror Play

An escape room style experience with a paranormal twist, Retrogression is about a ghost who scares visitors to the Brighton Toy Museum and needs to be released.

Jerk

If you took the E4 teen drama Skins and combined it with Disney’s Inside Out, the by-product would be something similar to that of Jerk.

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…

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…

Ancient Antics: Mock the Greek

Mock the Greek was a show that sent up the myths and legends of Greece.

Séance

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…

Lady M

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…

Haunted

Review
★★
Rebecca Vines
Online & Broadcast
Thespace
15th Aug, 2020

The chaos of a house move.

Lady Wank (And Other Fairytales For Adults)

Marketed as a comedic, feminist fairytale mashup, the concept of Lady Wank (And Other Fairytales For Adults) offered much potential.

Mrs Puntila And Her Man Matti

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…

My Brilliant Friend

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…

Call of Cthulhu: A Cold Case

As a horror fan, I approached this performance with high expectations; I wanted to be scared, disturbed or mildly agitated at the very least.

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…

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.

Brooklyn The Musical

Set in the shadow of Brooklyn Bridge on a shabby corner, Brooklyn The Musical is a play-within-a-play staged by a rag-tag bunch of street performers who call themselves the Ci…

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…

Fatherland

Review
★★
Monica Yell
Brighton
The Old Market
25th Sep, 2019

It seems like a few years now that people have been saying virtual reality is the future of theatre.

Meatball Séance

As the caffeine levels increase and you approach the final week of the Festival Fringe, it is a fair observation to make that your shock tolerance increases.

The Heresy Machine

The Heresy Machine, by Seth Majnoon, claims to be about Alan Turing.

The Female Role Model Project

The Female Role Model Project is just that, a project.

Landscape (1989)

With its eclectic composition of scenes, monologues, choreography and voice-over, Landscape (1989) is a genuinely intriguing production full of interesting elements – although th…

Like Animals

Through a series of slightly disjointed comic scenes, two actors, Pete and Kim, tell the story of three different relationships.

Rattigan's Nijinsky

Written by Nicholas Wright for the Chichester Festival, Rattigan’s Nijinsky explores sexuality, privacy, autonomy and unconditional love within the central conceit of why the dyi…

Everyman

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

Miss AmeriKa

Review
★★
Jane Prinsley
Edinburgh Fringe
Summerhall
20th Aug, 2019

If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.

The Perfect Body

The Perfect Body is a one woman show written and performed by Lavinia Savignoni.

Rock'n'Roll Girls

When so many songs written by men are condescending (Wake Up Little Susie), dangerously demeaning (Blurred Lines) or darn right creepy (Every Breath You Take) towards women, it is …

21 Futures by Olly Hawes

Review
★★
Jet Green
Edinburgh Fringe
Pleasance Dome
18th Aug, 2019

At the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, there is a work by the artist Robert Montgomery, a large piece of signage that declares ‘THERE WILL BE NO MIRACLES HERE’.

Daddy Drag

Review
★★
Jodie McVicar
Edinburgh Fringe
Summerhall
18th Aug, 2019

Leyla Josephine presents us with 'Daddy', a seeming parody of Rab C Nesbitt, oozing toxic masculinity.

Shakespeare Up Late!

This 50-minute adaptation of Hamlet is one for Shakespeare lovers with short attention spans.

Buzzing

Buzzing is the story of Julie, a 50-something recent divorcee who is wanting to discover herself and “find meaning”.

Lucy McCormick: Post Popular

Post Popular is Lucy McCormick's attempt to follow-up her fantastic and hugely popular show Triple Threat.

This Island's Mine

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

The Domestic

To make a piece of gig theatre work, you need to find a musical genre or vibe that can imbue the show with energy, and you need to find a story and a storyteller that can harness t…

Suicide Pact

Any piece of art that tackles a complicated subject like mental health is worthwhile.

Parasites

Seesome Theatre’s new production Parasites is presented as an issue play, getting to the heart of problems with the welfare state, domestic abuse and teenager stuck in an unforgi…

Well That's Oz

Review
★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh Fringe
Venue 13
11th Aug, 2019

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

Spray

We find ourselves between a neighbourly feud in a block of flats in Seoul.

Friendsical: A Parody Musical About Friends

Friendsical is billed as a ‘musical parody’ of Friends and unfortunately it fails to hit the mark on both counts.

Bismillah! An ISIS Tragicomedy

Review
★★
Sophia Charalambous
Edinburgh Fringe
Underbelly, Bristo Square / Underbelly, Cowgate
10th Aug, 2019

The premise of Bismillah! An Isis Tragicomedy, in the Fringe guide, "a story of radicalisation, disenfranchisment and the rock band Queen" was compelling enough to want t…

Monica: This Play Is Not About Monica Lewinsky

In order for theatre to be political, it certainly does not have to make any truly profound statement on the state of the world.

Romeo & Juliet

A classic retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy, this piece is brought to us by Guy Masterson, TTI in association with Maverick Theatre Co.

My Mum's a Twat

What happens when your mum abandons you at the age of 12 to join a cult and move to Canada? That’s exactly the predicament Anoushka Warden found herself in, subsequent to her par…

Cabaret of Curiosities

Tatwood Puppets make their Edinburgh Fringe debut with the perfectly titled Cabaret of Curiosities.

Apollo: Take 111

James Stuart – or Stuart James – is passed out at his desk as the audience file into the space.

Stepping Out

Stepping Out, performed by Stage Avenue Performing Arts at theSpace @ Nidry Street, is a serviceable production of the British comedy originally written in 1984 by Richard Haaris.

Forest

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Forest in question refers to the cast – a fourteen strong group of graduates from the Moscow Art Theatre School.

Taiwan Season: Monster

Monster choreographed and performed by Yen-Cheng Liu of Dua Shin Te Production is a show about the monster within us but the trouble with alienation is that it alienates the audien…

R'n'J: The Untold Story of Shakespeare's Roz and Jules

Perhaps the end of Romeo & Juliet wasn't quite as tragic as we remembered.

Google Me

Google Me is the new offering from 2018 Fringe debut comedian Eleanor Colville.

Tom Lenk Is Trash

Rarely is a title so apt.

The Gray Cat and the Flounder

One bright and sunny day, a fish jumps out of a river, and promptly meets a fellow animal with whom he will share the next 46 years of his life.

Inspirational India

With over 4000 shows to contend with, including some of the largest exhibitions and names in the art world, it’s understandably difficult to stand out from the crowd.

Sketch You Up!

Sketch You Up! bills itself as “Catherine Tate meets Little Britain”, and mostly manages to replicate the character-driven performances that made Tate, Walliams and Lucas house…

Sink

The current offering at The Space’s Foreword Festival, which champions new and upcoming playwrights, is Sink, by Tobias Graham.

Ogg 'n' Ugg 'n' Dogg

Ogg 'n' Ugg 'n' Dogg starts brilliantly, with Ogg and Ugg peering through the backdrop grasses, and simple choreography that made all the children laugh.

Icons

A single actor, Jack Klaff, tell a series of interconnected stories about the most influential minds of the 20th century in Icons.

Unmythable

Review
★★
Beth Watson
Brighton Fringe
The Warren: The Blockhouse / The Warren: The Hat
27th May, 2019

Unmythable promised an ‘unforgettable blend of sketch comedy, cross-dressing, stories and songs’ but unfortunately, it didn’t deliver.

Stand Up Yours

Entering The Old Market on a Thursday night, to view a 'prize-winning feministic and queer Swedish comedy' was soon to be met with disappointment.

Ross & Rachel

Billed as a ‘dark, uncompromising play about the myths of modern love’, this starts promisingly enough but soon veers off.

Mary Blandy's Gallows Tree

Based on actual historical events, Mary Blandy’s Gallows Tree is a one-woman play that charts the last hour(s) of Mary Blandy as she awaits the gallows in Oxford Prison in 1752, …

Conflict of Interest

Review
★★
NJ Joslin
Brighton Fringe
Sweet Werks 2
6th May, 2019

Punny man Richard Pulsford hangs up his comic hat in tribute to the many that perished during The Great War.

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.

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…

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…

Shipwreck

Review
★★
Skot Wilson
London Fringe
Almeida Theatre
23rd Feb, 2019

‘I haven’t had a Trump free 24-hours for… I don’t know how long’ complains a house-guest, ushered in from the cold before a snowstorm strikes a recently purchased farmste…

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…

When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other

Review
★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
Dorfman Theatre
29th Jan, 2019

It was only towards the very end of last year that it was announced – or rather whispered, hidden away as it was somewhere in the list of actors always included in the National T…

An Enemy Of The People

Review
★★
Skot Wilson
London Fringe
Union Theatre
14th Jan, 2019

‘Enemies of the People’ is a welcome and observant theme for a theatre programme as we enter another year of post-truth politics, domestic division, and the third year in the r…

The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven

When Jo Clifford ("proud father and grandmother") first performed her play, The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, at Glasgow's Tron Theatre, it attracted bo…

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”.

Parents’ Evening

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

The Prisoner

Review
★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
Dorfman Theatre
24th Sep, 2018

Full disclosure.

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…

Blood Wedding

Some productions are enhanced when a director changes the contexts of a play.

John-Luke Roberts: Terrible Wonderful Adaptations

As a reviewer I'm fortunate enough to get free tickets to many shows.

The Forecast

I’ll start by being honest – it is incredibly difficult to do sci-fi at the Fringe.

In Your Own Sweet Way

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

I Am Orestes and I Am Electra Too

The far future.

From Today Everything Changes

Before Chris’s wife died, she made him promise to be himself.

Bad Luck

Billed as part cabaret, part wannabe warehouse rave, my expectations were prepared.

Working Class Hero

Working Class Hero’s biggest flaw is that it isn’t about anything.

The Fun Club Presents...

I’m not sure how to explain The Fun Club Presents… Three performers – Sara Page, Franny Anne Rafferty and Alistair McPhail – in a room, all in animal face-paint, talk obliq…

3am Waitress

3am Waitress by UK company Rogueplay is billed as "merging physical theatre with dance and aerial circus", but may be better described as a duo acro-dance piece since the…

Bullingdon Revisited

Bizarre is the word that has stalked my mind since watching Bullingdon Revisited.

Plucked

Plucked is a barnyard fable declaring the high ground on animal cruelty, a sermon on cycles of violence from bird to child to wife.

BARK! The Musical... How the Little Dog Found His Voice

The secret life of man’s best friend is pondered in BARK: The Musical.

Reigen

Review
★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh 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.

Sarah Keyworth: Dark Horse

Dark Horse covers lots of ground and it is evidently the result of Keyworth tirelessly exploring multiple comic avenues.

I'll Have What She's Having

Millennial anxieties are unpacked and explored in devised comedy I’ll Have What She’s Having.

Skin Deep

This comedy revue is billed as a ‘celebration of (and for) every body’, an admirable theme for our times when people of all genders, persuasions and body types are finding thei…

Forget Me Nots

Review
★★
Richard Beck
Edinburgh 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 [email protected]…

Framed!

Art and crime collide in a ‘brush with the law’ from Laughing Mirror.

Love Cycle: Love Chapter 2

Love Chapter 2 by L-E-V, choreographed by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, is a twin-piece to OCD Love, both part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus, by the Philippe Saire company, didn't live up to its initial promise.

...and Peggy

Attempting to create a spin-off to one of the most beloved musicals of recent memory is a brave choice, and unfortunately it is a gamble that didn't pay off in this case.

Jungle

Jungle by the Bernese company Pink Mama under the direction of Slawek Bendraf and Dominik Krawiecki, purports to be about post-colonialism and in particular who survives but how do…

Alma, a Human Voice

Review
★★
Sarah Virgo
Edinburgh Fringe
Summerhall
6th Aug, 2018

Alma: A Human Voice is a one-person performance focused on portraying and contrasting two characters from the early 1900s.

Sex Waitress

Sex Waitress catapults us forward to the year 2020, in which a dystopian London has emerged from female empowerment and consent campaigns, to a society in which misogynists and sex…

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