Buy cheap tickets for The Lion King
Second Summer of Love

Yummy Mummy (and Headmaster’s wife, just for extra grown-up points) Louise runs the school choir and helps her teenaged daughter with her homework. She goes to the village exercise class and pops to Waitrose. Oh, and she lives in Surrey, just in case you needed any more hints that she is positively, absolutely, resolutely Middle Class.

The heady days of tape decks and windy windows in cars, Hubba-Bubba and taking ages to snog the boy you fancied

But Louise is finding her Oliver Bonas life just a little… boring. And so she allows herself to float back to the memories of her younger days, when she would sneak out of the school she now lives in to get shitfaced at one of the warehouse raves which characterised 1990s youth culture. Emmy Happisburgh creates Louise as a sympathetic character whose energy and slight goofiness barely abates with age; also playing her motley crew of rufflers Brian (bucket hat), Julie (posh blonde), and Eddie (sexy smile). It is a charming and highly physical performance which chimes particularly resonantly with those of us of a certain cultural niche; throwing us back to the heady days of tape decks and windy windows in cars, Hubba-Bubba and taking ages to snog the boy you fancied.

But there is a sadness too, of missed opportunities and lost connections… of how it felt to be intoxicated by youth… of the ecstasy of… well, Ecstasy. For drugs loom large in the vision of Louise’s rose-tinted specs, and offer a prism on the past every bit as problematic as it is rapturous. Her reliance on disco biscuits to define her may have been replaced by family duties, but the result is the same… her own dreams and hopes and talents have been buried in an avalanche of euphoric love through which it becomes increasingly hard to trudge.


My Second Summer of Love is a warm and witty performance which is as uplifting and sunny as it is dank and sweaty. It is, essentially, the tale we all will tell, and one as old of time… of how our physical flexibility and learned sagacity never quite meet during the long littleness of our lives.

Visit Show Website

Reviews by Rebecca Vines

Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Southern Lane

Othello

★★★★
ZOO Playground

Long Distance

★★★★
theSpace @ Symposium Hall

Can't Stop Carrying On

★★★★★
Palmerston Place Church

Eric Liddell: The Chariot of Fire

★★★★
Swan Theatre

Pericles

★★★★
Pleasance Courtyard

Spy Movie: The Play!

★★★★

Since you’re here…

… we have a small favour to ask. We don't want your money to support a hack's bar bill at Abattoir, but if you have a pound or two spare, we really encourage you to support a good cause. If this review has either helped you discover a gem or avoid a turkey, consider doing some good that will really make a difference.

You can donate to the charity of your choice, but if you're looking for inspiration, there are three charities we really like.

Mama Biashara
Kate Copstick’s charity, Mama Biashara, works with the poorest and most marginalised people in Kenya. They give grants to set up small, sustainable businesses that bring financial independence and security. That five quid you spend on a large glass of House White? They can save someone’s life with that. And the money for a pair of Air Jordans? Will take four women and their fifteen children away from a man who is raping them and into a new life with a moneymaking business for Mum and happiness for the kids.
Donate to Mama Biashara now

Theatre MAD
The Make A Difference Trust fights HIV & AIDS one stage at a time. Their UK and International grant-making strategy is based on five criteria that raise awareness, educate, and provide care and support for the most vulnerable in society. A host of fundraising events, including Bucket Collections, Late Night Cabarets, West End Eurovision, West End Bares and A West End Christmas continue to raise funds for projects both in the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Donate to Theatre MAD now

Acting For Others
Acting for Others provides financial and emotional support to all theatre workers in times of need through the 14 member charities. During the COVID-19 crisis Acting for Others have raised over £1.7m to support theatre workers affected by the pandemic.
Donate to Acting For Others now

Performances

Location

The Blurb

Carol Tambor Award winners Pants on Fire present one woman's first-hand nostalgia trip through the early 90s UK rave scene. Original raver Louise wonders how she went from ecstasy-taking, anti-establishment idealist, to respectable, disillusioned school-gate yummy mummy. A solo story of first love, teenage kicks, mother-daughter bonds, raising palms to the skies in fields and the ups and downs of recreational drug-taking. 'Pants on Fire are capable of the purest theatre' (Metro). 'A shining example of what theatre is' (BritishTheatreGuide.info). 'Happisburgh is mesmerising' (TheSpyInTheStalls.com).
Buy cheap tickets for Back To The Future
Buy cheap tickets for The Lion King

Most Popular See More

Buy cheap tickets for Nutcracker - London Coliseum
Nutcracker - London Coliseum

From £22.00

More Info

Find Tickets

Buy cheap tickets for TINA: The Tina Turner Musical
TINA: The Tina Turner Musical

From £13.00

More Info

Find Tickets

Buy cheap tickets for The Play That Goes Wrong
The Play That Goes Wrong

From £31.00

More Info

Find Tickets

Buy cheap tickets for The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance

From £13.00

More Info

Find Tickets

Buy cheap tickets for The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro

From £13.00

More Info

Find Tickets

Buy cheap tickets for Only Fools And Horses
Only Fools And Horses

From £43.00

More Info

Find Tickets

Buy cheap tickets for Brace Brace
Buy cheap tickets for Cyrano
Buy cheap tickets for Oedipus starring Mark Strong and Lesley Manville
Buy cheap tickets for Stiletto
Buy cheap tickets for Mozart - Her Story
Buy cheap tickets for Mary Queen of Scots
Buy cheap tickets for Rigolette
Buy cheap tickets for Marriage of Figaro
Buy cheap tickets for The Pirates of Penzance
Buy cheap tickets for Fawlty Towers