REVIEW: HONK! (Union Theatre) ★★★
The classic tale of an ugly, little ducking, originally told by Hans Christian Andersen in 1843 is a semi-autobiographical piece. Andersen has been described as “a tall, ugly boy with a big nose and big feet and when he grew up with a passion for the theatre, he was cruelly teased and mocked by other […]
REVIEW: How To Be A Girl (Theatre Utopia) ★★★★
How To Be A Girl starts with nine young girls, power dressed in black trousers suits. All appear to be in the fifteen to seventeen year old age group, though I am no expert. Together they form a kind of oral representation of a typical girls’ fashion/gossip magazine. Except for the new Editor, the girls act […]
REVIEW: FAME (Bridewell Theatre) ★★★★
As well as the 1980 multi award-winning motion picture, Fame, has been performed in many theatres worldwide and has been made into a popular television series. This production of Fame: The Musical, is up there with the best. A group of young people, from vastly different backgrounds, have just been accepted for a five year […]
The Female Gaze and Other Stories (Cockpit Theatre) ★★★★
Rich Creative present a new feminist scratch night, aiming to deliver a different theme each time with an array of separate stories roughly 10-15 minutes long apiece, all connected by a common theme: in this case, ‘the female gaze’. This particular performance was entitled: ‘Volume 1: The Sexual Odyssey’, and consisted of seven pieces. ‘The […]
REVIEW: SAM BAILEY (Orchard Theatre) ★★★★
2013 X Factor winner Sam Bailey released her second album Sing My Heart Out in September 2016 and is half way through an extensive UK tour, promoting the album and performing live to her fans. I went along to check out the show on Sam’s first of two nights in her home town of Dartford […]
REVIEW: THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (Greenwich Theatre) ★★★★
Brecht was a German Marxist playwright and poet. He died in 1956 at the comparatively young age of 58 years, having survived the Second World War. He believed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before them, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical […]
REVIEW: RUN (The Bunker) ★★★
Run is the dramatic story of a seventeen year old Jewish gay youth, Yonni. His forceful, dominating mother, Devorah, embarrasses him in front of his school friends. Not a good precursor to the summer holidays. But then, in the playground, he meets Adam and everything is suddenly different. There is a mutual attraction between them and […]
REVIEW: SOUSATZKA (Elgin Theatre) ★★★
The world premiere of Sousatzka is currently playing in Toronto, Canada, ahead of a planned stint on Broadway in October 2017. Try-out runs like this are much more common in America and Canada than in the UK and gives show the opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t on stage and make changes along […]
REVIEW: DOG ENDS (Tabard Theatre) ★★★★★
A truly hilarious dark comedy, full of fun suspense and Max Bygraves’ music Dog Ends is about three generations of a family. Sensible Julian and soppy Danielle, played by the excellent Alex Mann and delicious Charlotte Peak who are a young married couple. There is also Julian’s parents George and Beatrice and George’s Dad who is […]
REVIEW: DONT WAKE THE DAMP (Soho Theatre) ★★★★
I’m not 100% sure what I thought I was going to be watching when I turned up at the Soho theatre on a drizzly night, but I can guarantee that I certainly wasn’t expecting what Kill The Beast had created. Their new show Don’t Wake the Damp took me completely off guard but by gum […]