‘Experimental dance without the pretension’ Gloriously weird, off-kilter, surprisingly funny, double Bessie Award-winning choreography from Emanuel Gat astounds in this kaleidoscopic collection of pieces. Now I know that contemporary and experimental dance has some folks tied in knots – stony-faced dancers solemnly thrashing around to the sound of heavy machinery in the background. The pretension I think is the main ...

‘Brave but messy reinvention’ “The course of true love never did run smooth” – although from a different play, the line is fitting for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of the bard’s pastoral comedy As You Like It at the Barbican. Despite some exuberant performances – and a giant! – the piece itself takes a less than direct course. The plot centres ...

Posed, well-choreographed and chirpy this story delves into the murky depth of the early years of the silver screen but doesn’t manage to clear the waters. Squished into the studio space of The Other Palace Reputation follows ambitious budding writer Michelle Grant as she fights the comically evil plagiariser and El-Capone knockoff Freddy Larceny (see what they did there with ...

‘Slick look at life in all its shades’ After making the journey down from the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Bryony Lavery’s tasteful adaptation of Alice Sebold’s bestselling 2002 novel The Lovely Bones proves once again that theatre has a magic like no other medium. Starting with murder, this play is as hard going and terrifying as the book and film before it, and ...

‘Classic family drama is given a good shake’ Exploding out of the maelstrom that was Russia in 1910, Maxim Gorky’s political play Vassa manages what many plays try so desperately to achieve – to transmute a complex cultural message but stay entertaining. With enigmatic performances and a very clever adaptation by Mike Bartlett, the classic Russian family drama is given a good ...

‘A shining cast dimmed by technical flaws’ Theatre of Nations continues its culture-spanning mission of touring Russian literature in its original language. It brought Anton Chekhov’s first full-length play Ivanov to the Barbican Theatre this month, along with a second play centred around Vasiliy Shukshin’s short stories. Interestingly, the company’s headquarters, the Korsh Theatre in Moscow, is the first place Ivanov was ever performed ...

 ‘Luxurious nibbling, if a little pricey’ Vins offers a ‘pleasant evening of bite-sized fun’. Just around the corner from Canonbury tube station unassumingly sits Vins, a pocket-sized wine bar and restaurant with an unadorned charm. As the rain poured angrily down, we nestled in the cosy nook and were treated to a pleasant evening of bite-sized fun. The current rise ...

Caryl Churchill’s quartet of plays simmer along, slightly disconnected, only loosely joined by the themes of violence, magic and dark humour (delicious). Unusually, the plays warm up considerably as the premiere progresses.   Starting rather emotionally frozen, Glass is the story of a young girl made entirely of glass, and the comic and tragic reality of her doomed love. Maybe in comparison ...

‘Dark, twisted and imaginative’ When was the last time you were frightened by a ballet? It’s happened to me all of… never. Until now. Akram Khan’s interpretation of the classical ballet Giselle turns everything on its head, and coupled with the English National Ballet’s talented execution of this brave new concept, provides a nail-biting evening. The tale follows a migrant worker (Giselle) ...

Your name up in lights, leg warmers and dubious racial stereotypes, everything is bundled up into the classic film, TV show, Broadway and Off-Broadway musical. But how has the most recent spawning of the famous musical landed from its soaring leap into the Peacock Theatre? Following the various dreams, aspirations and heartbreaks of the class of ’84 at the Fame ...