FringeReview UK

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FringeReview UK 2021

A Splinter of Ice

Absorbing. With such an acting masterclass the play’s a bewitchingly-voiced fugue on the limits of belief and betrayal.


Adorable Dora

Consummate, the complete Dolly-d up experience.


and breathe…

Yomi Sode’s hybrid theatre is a compelling immersion of witness and poetry: we need more of it.


Aphrodite

Dazzling: wise, clever twists about choice, male determination, and consequence.


Before After

A pristine, heartwarming Valentine of a musical, starring a pair of real-life lovers, it deserves a real-life run


Between the Cracks

Another hugely stimulating triple-hit from Creative Associates.


Branching Out

Three very fine and one outstanding work, Scratches – the best kind of play on depression, self-harm, black holes. Because it’s screamingly funny and deeply connected to why we do theatre.


Eng-er-Land

Writer/performer Hannah Kumari leaves you alert and exhilarated


Evening Conversations/Life Laundry

Engrossing, it should provoke. Sudha Bhuchar absolves us by being bloody funny.


Groan Ups

Just wait for the second act.


Hamilton and Me: An Actor’s Journal

In rapid, elegant, idiomatically kerned language, Giles Terera proves himself a superb expositor of where it happens.


Hole

Don’t miss the chance to see this transcendent actor prove she possesses another dimension altogether.


How I Learned to Swim

Ends in a hush of absorption as you lean in for every word.


Hymn

Its potency lies in a fine peeling apart by Adrian Lester and Danny Sapini, and the language that bridges it.


I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical

Flawless, a stunning pocket-sized musical you really must see.


Icarus

After all the gods and their lack of choice, we come to the final instalment, the human dimension. Where we have one. A heartfelt, satisfying finish.


Illusions of Liberty

A finely-calibrated solo play of what it’s like to enter that tunnel of near-undiagnosable but very real illness. Corinne Walker’s both authoritative and quicksilver. Do catch it.


Inside

They’re live. And Orange Tree. Catch them.


Is God Is

A stunning, preternaturally timed production


Jew… ish

One of the wittiest but also truthful comedies about love, identity, sexual politics and gefilte fish I’ve seen


Leaves

This haunting 45-minute tale is a superb small gem from Jermyn Street’s Footprints Festival.


Leopoldstat

Stoppard’s written out his theatrical testament. Outstanding.


Living Newspaper #3 Royal Court Theatre

Hot off Sloane Square a team of writers, actors and creatives twist the news to truth


Living Newspaper #4

We need this. Watch.


Living Newspaper #6

Like all the Royal Court’s Living Newspaper series, we need this. Watch what this does with the future


Living Newspaper #7

Like all the Royal Court’s Living Newspaper series, we need this. Watch a group of young dramatists take on the future


Lockdown, Taboo and You

Four fine lockdown plays on zoom


Lockdown, Taboo and You 2

Another five fine lockdown plays on zoom


Lone Flyer

An absorbing drama, absorbingly acted and produced.


Love in the Time of Corona

The finest drama to emerge from the pandemic


Mac and More

A consummate, intimate homage to theatre


Metamorphoses

The overriding sense, not surprisingly with these actors, is joy.


New Moon Monologues April

As we saw in March, don’t be lulled by friendly colours and fluffy fonts. Queens of Cups again proves they’re a company to revel with and wait for heart-stopping reveals


New Moon Monologues March

Don’t be lulled by the friendly colours and fluffy fonts. Queen of Cups is absolutely a company to watch, and its showcase productions are literally unmissable


Ode to Joyce

A gem of an incarnation.


On Arriving

On Arriving takes sixty minutes it seems we’ve been immersed in a Greek Tragedy of ninety. See it.


Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied Tunisia

A profound parable for co-existence and its sometime impossibility, perpetually skewed by others’ disruptions.


Orpheus

A terrific reinvention, bringing gods and heroines up from the death of myth to an altered world.


Outside

As with Inside, Outside not only fits us, they help us to move on, and become in their modest, unassuming and utterly transcendent way, part of how we learn to.


Paradise

A sleeping classic in the making


Persephone

Dazzling: wise, clever twists about choice, male determination, and consequence.


Plays for Today

A truly absorbing series. And free to stream on Soundcloud.


Public Domain

At 65 minutes it’s worth anyone’s time and emphatically money.


Push and Pull

A quietly thrilling evening, after it goes off with a bang and a bear.


Pygmalion

The most profound reinvention of this particular myth I’ve seen


Rare Earth Mettle

Absorbing. Rare Earth Mettle has found its time.


Rice

Do see this work of understated virtuosity, rich in character, substance, a shape-shifting singularity.


Sacrament

A revelation, superbly written and acted. Comparisons have been made with A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing. I can think of no higher praise either. You must see this.


Saviour

A remarkable one-person play, performed to literal fever pitch by its creator.


Sci-Fi Poetry

Utterly refreshing, breaking new ground.


Shook

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


Stay Awake, Jake

Once you tune in, you’ll be held all the way to Carlisle.


Tethered

Grab it while you can


The Game and Love and Chance

If you ever need a kick-start to theatre, this is it.


The Girl Who Was Very Good at Lying

Andrews vividly conveys what it is to be an undone thing, someone unravelling tales to live.


The Shock of the Old

A wryly consummate musician.


Troy Story

Again the most educative stand-up and a thrilling presentation. Oh and bloody funny on war, male sexuality and the Bechdel Test.


Two Horsemen

The glaring energy of this piece can’t disguise how it strikes profundity in its funny-bone.


Vagabonds My Phil Lynott Odyssey

An original off-kilter approach to elegy, tribute and becoming yourself.


Vespertilio

Vespertilio marks Barry McStay’s emergence as a writer of distinction. Anything he writes now should be looked out for.


What If If Only

Churchill’s anatomy of grief is what abides. Its emotional plangency and pulling the future open is unique.