‘The meat outdances the veg’ We are always told in the city history lies beneath us, that daily we are traipsing over the Victorian and Roman ruins mouldering away. But we never think that it might be above us, and no, I am not talking about the steel rooftop pleasure gardens of the 1980’s. I am talking about “the chimneys ...

‘Grab your glitziest outfit and be ready for a night like no other’ A quantum core of flashing double-storey screens sheathed in a golden skin, and partly to blame for the aggressive modernisation of Soho’s historic Denmark Street, the Outernet building is a diverse piece of 21st-century architecture. However, Simon Phillips’ clever re-staging of a beloved musical in the custom-built ...

‘Capturing the very human need to collect’ Crystal Pite & Jonathon Young / Kidd Pivot Raise your hand if you’ve bickered in a book club. Or battled over your child’s nativity play with the oafish costume designer. Or snarked over the coffee cooler in an alcohol/drug or cross-stitcher’s anonymous group. These bubbles of society within a society are common, but ...

‘Plummets headfirst into one of humanity’s most inhuman periods’ Covid rather dominated the end of 2019, starting 3 years of global upheaval that we are still paying for. However, 2019 was the year of return, marking 400 years since the first enslaved Africans touched down in Hampton Virginia, stolen from Ghana by the British. An international tragedy that dwarfs the ...

‘How many Faroese shows have you seen?’ Islands are where the world pauses, takes a breath, isolated bubbles with their own rules. Yet the stamp of modernity rarely allows many to escape unaffected. Castle of Joy is another tale in a long lineage, pushing against the conforming boot of the mainland, extending in a furious but rather frantically aimed retaliation.  ...

‘This piece sits squarely in the middle of her extensive portfolio’ Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch+ Terrain Boris Charmatz Pina Bausch has caused a considerable rift in my household (from beyond the grave I might add). Our normally cohesive theatre-obsessed bubble of two, split down the middle by her infamous company’s style, fondness for repetition, and overall aura. So much so ...

‘Flashes of comedy are few and far between and the show even lacks sex appeal’ How jazz hands are you as a person? I only ask as Garry Marshall’s touring production of everyone’s favourite Hooker-Businessman romance will test even the most ardent musical theatre zealot. It was 1990, the last gasp of the 80s, a decade so dusted with cocaine and ...

‘High-quality ingredients kept at refreshingly low prices’ Where once the Roman Empire extended its iron-clad fingers over these isles (admittedly a long time ago), a modern wave of Italian influence has swept into our culture. Pizza, my friend, is a big deal, with many pubs offering a variety, chains popping up like villas all over Britannia, and the internet awash ...

‘Queer joy and friendship must be celebrated’ As someone who has been rewatching the same four 90s sitcoms for the last ten years, I could not be called good at “endings”. So at least I have something in common with Mary Higgins and Ell Potter as they explore the phenomenon from all angles. I mean mainly from the theatrical one, ...

‘Occasional flashes of comedy’ January is a tense month, isn’t it? Cold and tense. Everything seems portentous to the coming year. My first dinner out in 2024, my first run, my first breakdown, my first trip to the theatre. Speaking of, my first tumble on the boards is a resurrection of a long-forgotten Michael Hastings play. Hastings’s work, although not ...