REVIEW: Conspiracy (New Diorama Theatre) ★★★
Conspiracy from Barrel Organ gets a London premiere at the New Diorama Theatre, following a sold out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and winning the Untapped Award. As the audience enters the room to take their seats, the cast are sitting at a table commenting on their observations; how many people are wearing glasses, […]
REVIEW: VISION OF YOU (The Other Palace) ★★★★★
I saw Bat Out of Hell four times at the Manchester Palace, Coliseum and the Dominion Theatre and was blown away by the energy and power of the cast. So it was an absolute pleasure to see Sharon Sexton and Rob Fowler create a cast reunion at The Other Palace, for a full blown Jim […]
REVIEW: THE FISHERMEN (Trafalgar Studios 2) ★★★
Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma‘s 2015 Man Booker prize nominated debut novel, The Fishernen, is by all accounts an epic powerful read, so it is quite adventurous to take this tale and convert it into a two hander seventy minute play. But that is exactly what Gbolahan Obisesan and production company, New Perspectives, have attempted to […]
REVIEW: THE STRANGE CASE OF JEKYLL AND HYDE (Jack Studio Theatre) ★★★
Writer and director Ross McGregor’s intriguing and original adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s gothic horror story transplants the action from Victorian London to the 2020 US Presidential Election campaign but retains the original’s theme of duality and the darkness within all of us. McGregor and the Arrows and Traps team have been working their way […]
REVIEW: CHIAROSCURO (Bush Theatre) ★★★★
This was my first visit to this wonderfully conceived Bush Theatre and there was an energetic feel about the place and a welcomeness that draws you in. I felt the excitement even before the play started. It built once the lights dimmed on the young diverse audience and this beautifully written play unfolded. Staged in […]
REVIEW: TORCH SONG (The Turbine Theatre) ★★★★★
Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy is a collection of three one-act plays International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, and Widows and Children First! The first of his trilogy, International Stud opened in 1978 at Off-Broadway’s Players Theatre, followed by Fugue in a Nursery and Widows and Children First! at Off-Off-Broadway’s La Mama in 1979. All […]
REVIEW: FALSETTOS (The Other Palace) ★★★★
The award winning Falsettos originally started life as the one-act musical ‘In Trousers’, written by William Finn premiering in 1979 at Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons. After having two successful Off-Broadway runs of the show, Finn collaborated with James Lapine to create two additional one-act musicals, ‘March of the Falsettos’ and ‘Falsettoland’. March of the Falsettos premiered […]
REVIEW: GREASE (Curve, Leicester) ★★★★
Director Nikolai Foster delivers once again with this fantastic, rambunctious performance of Grease, which takes the iconic film and drags it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. With harmonies that’ll give you goosebumps and tunes that’ll be stuck in your head for weeks, this is definitely a production to bring the whole family to. […]
REVIEW: APPROPRIATE (Donmar Warehouse) ★★★★★
Director Orla Ince delivers an absolute masterpiece with Appropriate at the Donmar Warehouse – a beautifully rich piece of theatre that is a joy to watch. Written by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins the drama takes place over 2 days as the Lafayette siblings return to their father’s plantation house in Arkansas in the deep south of America. […]
REVIEW: THE SON (Duke Of York’s Theatre) ★★★★★
Writer Florian Zeller, and his regular translator Christopher Hampton, have become a modern-day powerhouse amongst playwrights. Following the extraordinary “Height of the Storm” about grief and loss and the spell binding “The Father” about dementia, they have taken another modern theme, mental health amongst teenagers and produced an utterly brilliant new play “The Son”. Transferring […]