Review: Men Talking
The end, as it inevitably must be, is a way of recollecting emotion with emotion. An inspiring act of witness, before others, and beyond ourselves.
Genre: Poetry-Based Theatre
Review: Yippee Ki Yay
Die Hard re-telling, blended with Richard Marsh’s journey into fatherhood : Welcome to the party !
Review: Under Milk Wood
This is an exciting production, outdoors and adding a new dimension to our experience. Pace was a little slow in the first act, where the voices don’t pick each other up, and drop a fraction. But this gear-changes and the second act is energy itself, as the day wanes the actors energise and the whole spirit and voicing ups a notch too. It’s beautifully landed. Very warmly recommended.
Review: all of it
Still the most sheerly thrilling yet intimate piece MacDowall has written, though all three pieces amplify that. A miniature classic of snatched meaning its staging too flashes by with shocking brevity. In all it lasts just 90 minutes. Catch it.
Review: Frogmore Poets at 40
If treating of some poets more fully than others, it reflects on what sticks in the aural memory without notes. It was however a memorable evening; the poets themselves will remain present, now their presence at least remains indelible.
Review: Greenfinch
Pete Strong maps his life through walks in nature in a poetic exploration of how we lift ourselves up and move on
Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Enough questions with the child, cruelty and othering, to raise questions that don’t dissolve in a dream. Yet there’s light enough to resolve this too. A warmth between the lovers somehow drags us out from the mask of branches Terry revealingly doffs at the end. Absorbing and a must-see.
Review: Anna & Marina
Dovetailing invention and quotation triumphs. It’s a narrative of thrust and weave as well as tone. Overall it's terrific: one of Richard Crane’s very best works. If you care for gripping drama, can be drawn by hypnotic verse and superb acting, haste over to this unique hour.
Review: Mad(e)
A mind-altering experience, and in writer and director one of the most inspiring partnerships I’ve seen
Review: Sweet William
Naturally enriched by living with Shakespeare Michael Pennington unearths local habitations and names for him.
Review: Troy Story
Again the most educative stand-up and a thrilling presentation. Oh and bloody funny on war, male sexuality and the Bechdel Test.
Review: and breathe…
Yomi Sode’s hybrid theatre is a compelling immersion of witness and poetry: we need more of it.
Review: The Marching SKAletons and Dead Beat Poets
An 8-piece day of the dead inspired parade band plus the Dead Beat Poets
Review: Romantics
As ever consummate, fine performances, and probing memorably into women Romantic poets
Review: The Mahabharata
A dramatic sense of arrival the way the Odyssey here ended: a clash of even vaster ferocity, keening, treachery, humour, mischievousness, sacrifice and grief, joy and the agency of women.
Review: The Rape of Lucrece
The definitive way to experience this troublingly great, disturbingly unresolved poem
Review: Living Newspaper #5
Like all the Royal Court’s Living Newspaper series, we need this. Watch.
Review: 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
Review: I am all the Rooms of the House
A domestic poem about what is in all of our experiences now, but with exceptional poetry to accompany and illuminate the mundane.
Review: 15 Heroines: 15 Monologues Adapted from Ovid
Groundbreaking. The smallest producing theatre in the West End through lockdown has become the largest.
Review: A Letter to a Friend in Gaza
Amos Gitai’s curating hope from the ruins, impelling the audience to construct a narrative.
Review: The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys and The Laments
In nearly every way an outstanding pair of productions.
Review: #Hypocrisy
A Poetic, Personal Reflection on White Privilege, Terrorism and Instagram Activism
Review: Like Orpheus
Queer club culture and surreal movement are married in this rave ridden soliloquy of love in the margins
Review: Poet in da Corner
Exemplary, thrilling, adrenalin-shot and shout-worthy. There has to be a part two, and it ought to be soon.
Review: Square Rounds
Proud Haddock have delivered their own stamp on Harrison’s verse-play, and it’s mostly thrilling
Review: Enough
A violent attack on the social norms which drive self-harm in its many and varied forms.
Review: Everything Wrong With You Is Beautiful
An intimate and polished performance from an accomplished storyteller and poet.
Review: Boudica
Do see this, a magnificent and largely successful attempt to revive History plays, with an energy and on occasion subtlety that with justice should bring us more large-scale Tristan Bernays.
Review: Salomé
Here’s a great divider of critical heads. Yael Farber who made a great impact last year directing Lorraine Hanbury’s Les Blancs returns with her own Salomé at the Olivier. Anyone who saw the Hanbury will recognize the ritualistic use Farber makes of the Olivier, though Susan Hilferty’s set is stripped for swoops of spectacle.
Review: Sand in the Sandwiches
Sand in the Sandwiches is a haunting study, given stature by Edward Fox’s conjuration of an erotically disturbed gentility mocking itself. It reminds us, now Betjeman’s faded from aural as well as visual memory, what he was, what he might yet become.
Review: Babette’s Feast
Maxwell’s script of Babette's Feast helps conjure Buckhurst’s cast into conjurers. They’re both dream-inducing and hyper-alert, their timing and balletic movements spellbinding and unforgettable. It’s one of the finest recent productions from a theatre raising the most consistent magic in London.
Review: Blood Wedding
There’s no swift way to convey duende, the spirit of flamenco, passion and tragedy so unrelentingly – and there’s not a hint of comedy here, no shading to hide in. This hugely challenging drama stamps out its soul in this courageous, literally no-prisoners production.
Review: Comus
Spectacle costumes and use of machinery are outstanding, even by Wanamaker standards. Granted there’s a lower dramatic threshold in Comus, it doesn’t mask as it were the fact that this is the most outstanding production of Comus we’ll ever see.
Review: The Magnetic Diaries
An intelligent and challenging poetic narrative exploring modern day female depression.
Review: The Marlowe Papers
A diamond in Shakespeare’s or Marlowe’s ruff? Ros Barber’s novel adapted for the stage, starring vaulting Jamie Martin.
Review: The Big Stiffy
Absurd and off-the-wall, this surreal funeral party is a bizarre experiment that really does pay off
Review: Loud Poets
Bold, loud, passionate and engaging – poetry for the masses with a wonderful energy
Review: Sex, Strokes, Death, Denial
Jack Duffel's new play mixes extreme naturalism with verse in a play creatively probing death and displacement in the family
Review: ¡OLÉ!
Federico Garcia Lorca: poet, romantic, believer. Salvador Dalí: painter, modernist, scientist.
Review: Liz Lochhead – Making Nothing Happen
Scotland’s National Poet in a surprisingly intimate setting makes a great lunchtime companion.
Review: Death Boogie
A politically relevant graphic novel comes to life via hop-hop, poetry, beat-boxing and live music.
Review: Luna’s History of Madness
A one woman history of sadness, sugar addiction, and....swishing...
Review: Cow Piece/Cheap Lecture
Mind-bending – or mind-numbing? – meditation on the boundaries between music and dance
