‘A witty show focusing on one man’s struggle with death, family, sexuality and HIV’ “…Like a big gay lion called Lesley”, this sentence from Bingo has stayed with me long after seeing the show, rattling around in my mind and causing me to giggle furtively to myself mid-morning. It both sums up and badly represents a show of scathing comedy ...
‘This production has it all’ The world of office politics can sometimes be a petty microcosm of the worst side of human nature. As someone who has worked in an office, I am familiar with this strange world of tiny battles and bubbling undercurrents. When race and human prejudices rear their ugly head, you have a powder-keg ready to blow ...
‘Chaos is part of the charm’ Can a show that blends the different skills of a famous choreographer, composer and fashion designer work? In this production, the crème de la crème of their respective fields, Holly Blakey, Mica Levi and Andreas Kronthaler (for Vivienne Westwood), collaborate, the question is will it create a masterpiece or a hot mess? This is ...
‘Give me A Midsummer Night’s Dream any day’ William Shakespeare’s little known and last project (in collaboration with John Fletcher) has been rather forgotten by the theatre-going public, debated by academics but left on the shelf to gather dust. Excluded from most Shakespeare festivals and uncredited for a long time, this play does not give us the classic grander, that ...
‘Nobody is safe; Turandot, Madame Butterfly and Carmen’ Did you ever want to watch 3 incredibly complex operas slimmed down into 35-minute slots? Simplified beyond all rhyme and reason? No? Well neither did I! Pamela Tan-Nicholson’s vanity project TriOperas takes the shows we know and love and picks them clean to the very bones, creating a comic, bland remnant in ...
‘Hauntingly filling the space with “I dream able-bodied”‘ Theatre is at its best when it has a link to reality. Instead of existing in a world of smoke and mirrors, theatre can be a force for great change and therapy, and with a tie to human experience, it can breathe fresh air into an old art form. Stroke Odysseys is a ...
‘We can’t lose sight of the importance of humour’ An explosion of silliness in a world that has become too cynical, A Sockful of Custard is a celebration of the influential post-war comedian the late Spike Milligan on his one-hundredth birthday. With a clear love for the subject, a flare for his signature foolery, and childlike spirit, Jeremy Stockwell and ...
‘A had-to-be-there sort of show’ So, you thought the 80s were all power ballads and big hair? Well…. you were partly right, but Chess proves that along with the shoulder pads and chiffon, there was a bubbling undercurrent to the period that was not quite so flashy. Chess’s opening night was a spectacle, as we crushed into the glittering London ...
‘Too much is attempted and not enough is achieved’ Sometimes a piece of theatre can aim too high, extending its hands out far beyond its actual reach, trying for something admirably complex but ultimately unattainable. Unfortunately, this is Spit Ends, a piece that tries to tread the line between tragedy and comedy, a piece that attempts the Love Actually style ...
‘Shines a new if flickering light on the religious origin story’ Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be stranded in a garden with someone you find vaguely irritating while only surviving on a diet of onions and temptation? Well look no further, delve into the dark and twisted world of The Garden. In this comic Waiting for ...