FringeReview UK

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FringeReview UK 2019

#We Are Arrested

Peter Hamilton Dyer carries this celebration of the conscience to be fully human

A History of Water in the Middle East

Hugely absorbing it’s entertaining too.

A Kind of People

Bhatti nails truth to the doors of injustice. It’s well we heeded it.

A Very Expensive Poison

Prebble’s one antidote for these distracted times.

This has to be the smartest debut from this venue since Jessica Swales’ Bluestockings: no wonder the playscripts sold out early.

It’s conquered both sides of the pond. We need this.

A phenomenally well-written first play

An exciting initiative showcasing new work by womxn

Did I say sucker-punch? It’s what the Orange Tree do every time.

Funny, sassy, disturbing, necessary.

A well-written and beautifully staged new play

Heartwarming. It has the brash conviction of it origins, out and proud of it.

Berberian Sound Studio

Thoroughly absorbing, full of walking shadows who throw vivid questions.

In several ways, this is about as good as it gets.

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

There’s something special and extraordinary here too: a voice.

Club Tropicana The Musical

They deliver, in Costa Blanca spades.

You must see this.

Devastating drama about the DNA of bigotry; and it all starts in surreal farce.

Renders complex sexual feeling and friendship with the grace of the everyday

Dismantle This Room

Dismantle this space? Yes. This theatre at least can take it.

A masterly, unsettling play that in this production never puts a foot wrong. And wrong-foots us all.

Faith, Hope & Charity

Grounded in quiet with a huge howl

An enchanting speed-read of our connectedness, a reminder that a fiver can change your life. Irresistible.

Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp.

For a time you feel that beyond Churchill’s world, nothing else quite seems to exist.

You must queue to see this. It’s quite wonderful.

INK Festival Feast From the East

I’ve not seen a festival of short plays to compare with these.

Visceral and sometimes very very funny. Then not. Essential viewing.

I’m Not Running

Compelling dissection of what hampers the mindset of our main progressive party.

John Greening The Silence

The Crypt organisers as well as John Greening really have hit on an ideal recitation.

Little Miss Sunshine

It’s a quiet heartbreaker, with stoicism and love the only answers. Do see it.

Loving Androids

A beautifully-constructed play, small in compass, big in scope and deft at managing the transitions

Mary’s Babies

Maud Dromgoole’s proved more than adroit, skilful, and deliciously risk-taking. A must-see.

What we have is absorbing

It’s unlikely we’ll get a cleaner version, or a more absorbing production any time soon

My Brilliant Friend Parts One and Two

Cusack and McCormack give the performances of their lives

Noughts & Crosses

A must-see cry for love and tolerance

Absorbing and horribly timely.

Anything Zoe Cooper writes now must be keenly anticipated.

A searing arc of a drama based on true events

In McArdle’s irresistible performance you’re not likely to see a finer Gynt.

Pickwick and Weller

A triumph.

I’m hooked. We need more of this.

Rotterdam’s an outstanding play about sexual identity, choices, and above all what it means to transition.

Sadness and Joy in the Life of Giraffes

Rodrigues is a dramatist we need to see far more of.

We’re offered ‘salt to heal, salt to remember… above all for your wounds.’ Take it.

seven methods of killing kylie jenner

‘What are you gonna do now…. clap?’ Yes, standing.

A superb ensemble piece. Of all dramas on these interesting times in America, it’s the one truly necessary.

If you’ve an appetite for exceptional new writing, just see it.

A reboot for the future, a passport for change.

A reboot for the future, a passport for change.

A searing new talent.

No wonder this play’s just extended its run. Don’t even read this before you try booking.

A Hilliard rather than Holbein, it’s the velocity of Elizabeth’s survival that enthrals

Prepare to be Tartuffed.

Baker pushes dangerously at just what theatre is.

The Brighton Scratch Night 2019

Six new pieces - one of which will be produced at next year's Fringe

The Decorative Potential of Blazing Factories

A daft sublimity in its downright seriousness

A triumph for all concerned. Juliet Stevenson even gains in stature. Icke’s last production could hardly go better than this.

The End of History…

A play you want to return to.

The Glass Piano

A bewitching mix of deconstructive magic and fabulous therapy, it’s above all Grace Molony who brushes distinction into this already distinctive production.

The House on Cold Hill

Sleep as well as you can. The house won’t.

An outstandingly theatrical re-visioning of a film

The Ice Cream Boys

A deeply satisfying play

The Lehman Trilogy

Almost stupefying, but outstanding.

The Seven Ages of Mam

13.10 is a good lunchtime to watch a Mam’s legend in.

An explosively powerful play

Three Shorts – Fruit / When I Call Your Name / Embracing Nature

An assured showcase of shorts

This absorbing production keeps growing in the mind, like to take root.

This spectacular production beats with a fervour and purpose few adaptations achieve. Ellams has made Three Sisters new.

Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation

The most consistently satisfying work of Tim Crouch I’ve seen.

A really worthwhile production with a few missed opportunities

What Girls Are Made Of

Cora Bissett’s set the bar thrillingly high for a new genre. Who could follow her?

When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other

This cast’s exemplary dedication deserves watching for their sheer performative belief.

The finest new play from the Court this year, gleaming and deadly

Youth Without God

We’re launched into a necessary world

Compelling and bleakly miraculous