FringeReview UK
Years: 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
FringeReview UK 2018
A ringing, tolling end to a pioneering season. This play must have a life – and already possesses a miraculous importunity.
An exuberant Christmas production, and a miracle of compression, blocking, set-design and ensemble acting skills.
Gary Essendine’s rampant again. Will Liz Essendine with Miss Reed’s help work out a five-point peace plan as all the writhing lovers seemingly wish to embark on the same boat for Africa (pronounced Efrica, out of that Streep echo)? Will her blithe response to all latch key claimants that they spent the night at her flat make any difference? Do find out. A gem.
The Case of the Frightened Lady
This is still something of a vintage treat, and a rare opportunity to see the old master in action.
Identity Theatre Company’s Blue Remembered Hills was a stand-out last year. Directed by Nettie Sheridan and Gary Cook, this is too: strongly-conceived and mostly well-acted with stand-outs: don’t miss it.
The most enduring British Christmas hits are melancholy, in stark contrast to say American. There’s a profound sadness in the magic. Its not a long work, perfectly proportioned for children. It’s still the ideal winter present, especially on a first trip to the theatre.
It’s incredibly helpful Troupe champion new writing as good as this. It should go to a prize-fight.
This superb production has shifted our sense of Lyly’s pre-eminence still further. Lyly hugely influenced Shakespeare like no other writer. Lyly remains the Globe’s Read Not Dead greatest rediscovery, and this production underscores that more fully and emphatically than even before, in unexpectedly to this bold, necessary reading.
Wolfgang’s Magical Musical Circus
The performing brio is phenomenal, of a standard you’d be happy to see anywhere in the world. So would any child.
