‘A quiet scream in the face of an increasingly heartless world’ “Growing old is not for sissies,” said Bette Davis at her most adroit. With rising healthcare and living costs, that statement is even truer now. Chie Hayakawa’s new film, Plan 75, shunts us a few years into the future and a few horrific steps forward along our current trajectory. Japan ...

‘Everything feels skin deep’ Climate change is all the rage right now.. or at least it certainly is raging… Theatre is especially leading the charge while the thing that mainly pollutes, oil, or methane leaks in Turkmenistan for example are sadly lagging behind. Enter into this frantic scrabble of conscious shows “nature songwriter” Erland Cooper and friends. Now I reviewed ...

‘Both pieces wallow in the metaphorical river’ On an almost island next to an old mill, and across from the colossal carcass of the abandoned Debenhams is the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. A 60s spaceship of a building in layers of glass and fluffy blue carpets. Guildford’s second theatre to border the slow path of the winding river Wey. Having missed ...

‘Nothing will stop this genre as it rivals ballet for a space on the dance table’ 20 years, that’s almost my whole life…if you add a couple of years… OK…10 years, who’s counting? Back in triumphant fashion, this hip hop happening has weathered the last few (hard) years with style and sensational energy. As a confirmed sycophant of the festival, I ...

‘A formidable lead performance let down by a disjointed story’ When you picture the mid-90s, what comes to mind? For me, it’s everything “gangsta”, drugs, bad haircuts, and liberally spray-painted surfaces. If you add all those to the world of dirt bikes and stunts, you have Rodeo – except it’s somewhat confusingly set in the present day. French writer/director Lola Quivoron’s first ...

‘Think of it as Bong Bong’s greatest hits album’ Bong Bongs Manila Kitchen are certainly friend’s of mine. Which practically writes my intro as they pop up in the Australian coffee shop/brunch spot Friends of Ours. Back in Hoxton for two nights only after a sojourn in central, I catch up with Lee and Sinead (co-owners) on what is next ...

‘A mammoth achievement’ Amidst the city, the fortified seat of British commerce, Giles Terera’s debut play about the slave ship Zong finds a strikingly fitting home. However, as the show unfolds, we realise that it would have resonance in any ancient theatre or Town Hall in the country. “Anyone who lifts a spoon of sugar to their tea,” proclaims one ...

‘Charming food is the easiest way to put it’ What two nations spring to mind when I mention hospitality? I can wait… ok not that long. Maybe something about the optimising cheering rays of the sun means that the countries that pop up are mainly warm, no? Italy? Thailand? Greece? Australia? If you said the last two, then you would have been correct ...

‘Plunges you headfirst into a world of dysfunctional adults and snowy winters’ Complicité’s most recent production is haunting me, goading me, calling to me to witness it. Interestingly afterward I did it continues its ghostly persecution as only an eco-murder-mystery or climate-revenge-story can. I will explain. A close relative (who prefers to stay anonymous in worry of backlash) saw Drive ...

‘Constantly confusing, delighting, and scandalising’ With Arthur Miller’s The Crucible popping up like a perineal plague (the Gielgud in June if you’re interested) Britain’s obsession with witches, misogynism and singeing is alive and well. But what if we turned all that on its head? Well…. Let’s pull things back, to the very country the Puritans of Salem were fleeing. 1640, Charles the ...