Archives: Reviews 0
Reviews
Review: Stoppard The Real Inspector Hound; Bartlett Contractions
As ever it’s a more worthwhile production than several professional ones we’re likely to see.
Review: Gareth Strachan Project M.E. The Rock Inn Pub
Strachan proves he can pull together serious talent who believe in his work. It’s a step up in all directions
Review: St Nicholas Emmanuel Sowicz Guitar Recital September 11th 2024
A consummate guitarist already marked - by many - for greatness.
Review: BBC Prom 68 Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream Garsington Opera
A triumphant revival, it’s still the most elusive of Britten’s major operas, easy to enjoy, still hard to fathom the melodic root of.
Review: 23.5 Hours
A worthy successor to Never Not Once, almost from the other side of the glass, it makes Crim one of the most visible and exciting of US dramatists.
Review: EPHEMERAL ECHOES
A Collaboration between Indepen-dance, LPM Dance Company and ConCuerpos Dance Company
Review: Trick of The Eye
A short piece of dance which does all it needs to, to engage and enrich our understanding of how we see people and need to recalibrate.
Review: Greenhouse Festival LAMDA Festival New Directors in association with Orange Tree
Every one of these productions could enjoy a run at the Orange Tree: they’re exciting and accomplished.
Review: Flux and Flourish
Diverse dance performed with panache, glitter and well-deserved confidence.
Review: Contemporary Sisyphus
A solo journey of pain and discovery beautifully imagined in a movement piece with tremendous grace.
Review: A Conversation Between Hands and Feet
An impressively engaging multi-disciplinary and multilingual showcase of sang, shoogling and music.
Review: WHAKAPAPA
A powerful and heady mix of dance and film that blows your prejudicial cobwebs away.
Review: Morag, You’re A Long Time Deid
An affectionate portrait of the love of song across generations which is prompted by one piano.
Review: The Comedy of Errors
The most intelligent Comedy of Errors I’ve seen since the NT production of 2012 and truer to the play’s temper.
Review: The Silver Cord
A darkly thrilling masterpiece, given what might be its finest UK revival. All are outstanding and Alix Dunmore, and certainly Sophie Ward, should be up for some glittering prizes.
Review: The Real Thing
The Real Thing is infinitely more stimulating than many popular comedies, and though it doesn’t quite ache as it should, James McArdle bestrides this production like a hopeful monster who’s got lucky.
Review: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
This desperate elegy of betrayal, straight from Le Carré’s own hurt, will haunt you with the truth of its despair.
Review: The Unlikely Secret Agent
How it ends I urge you to discover in this sizzling paean to humanity.
Review: St Nicholas Soprano Mandy Ching Man Liu and Pianist Mia Miaoyan Li Recital
Liu has both power and joy, precision and range. Li as pianist has aplomb and discretion in equal measure
Review: BBC Prom 49 Czech Phil/Hrusa Dvorak Cello Concerto, Suk Symphony No. 2 in c Op 27 Asrael
Hrusa elicits playing of astonishing fire from the Czech Philharmonic. Here, they’re out to convince us Suk’s Azrael is one of the great universal symphonies. And they do. Outstanding.
Review: Garry Starr: Classic Penguins
Classic Penguins is an energetic and edgy piece of theatre that truly has it all…except clothing.
Review: Ray O’Leary: Your Laughter Is Just Making Me Stronger
A masterclass is classic stand up comedy.
Review: Guy Montgomery: Over 50,000,000 Guy Fans Can’t Be Wrong
Montgomery presents a great hour of comedy that is sure to, at the least, give you a giggle.
Review: Huge Davies: Album For My Ancestors (Dead)
A comedy music concert showcasing a man and his piano.
Review: Shower Chair
We meet some people's deepest revelations through performance here, actors finding themselves becoming vulnerable through theatre, getting naked.
Review: Bambiland
A performance of a very challenging piece of theatre which targets war and our complicity in the industry of war.
Review: The Gummy Bear’s Great War
An absurd, imaginative, and superb performance on a new level involving Gummy Bears for Peace.
Review: Transhumanist
An astonishing show based on the intersection between us and AI which is simply breathtakingly, body poppingly brilliant.
Review: Dummy in Diaspora
A challenging solo show which does manage to capture the confusion and the liberation of being yourself.
Review: Barbara Fernandez Singing, Sagging and Shagging
Soaring vocals, belly laughs, and touching tales
Review: Don’t Stop Believing
Shine’s show is no doubt a crowd pleaser, and she’s taken what could easily be perceived as a gimmick and created something enjoyable and fun.
Review: Bitty-Bat !
Jeffers’s mastery of the character seems effortless, but the amount of skill it takes to use those arms, manage in the flowing cape costume, and control facial expressions down to the tiniest detail is something once reserved only for cartoon characters.
Review: Sonnets from Suburbia
Witty, droll and suave sonnets that will leave you simply quite astonished
Review: Tweeds
"they nail the toe curling nature of the stereotypical upper classes and it’s on the nose funny"
Review: Trust Me, I’m From Essex
A One Woman Solo Musical full of nostalgia and a whole lot of heart
Review: Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Story
Foreman’s story is a brilliant addition to the canon of Titanic literature, and indeed solo plays in general.
Review: Lies Where It Falls
A compelling and moving exploration of grief, trauma, and the long shadows cast by violence
Review: Bi Curious George: Queer Planet
The nature documentary that the LGBTQ community has been waiting for!
Review: Silence! The Musical- The Unauthorised Parody of the Silence of The Lambs.
Closer Clarice, closer to the musical version of the classic movie.
Review: Dear Billy
love letter to the Bin Yin, from the people of Scotland, his people, lovingly curated and performed by Gary McNair.
Review: DIVA: Live from Hell!
A blood stained love letter to Broadway, live from Hell, as Desmond Channing is forced to retell his journey to the Underworld over and over again.
Review: 12th Year! John Hunt Four O’Clock Afternoon Blues and Swing
A very professional gig, old soulful blues songs with intriguing lyrics and a real blues man who's lived it.
Review: You Deserve It
It is a play which is undeniably a laugh while attempting to highlight some of the realities of a life in the spotlight.
Review: Hardly Working
She is performed confidently by Lily Simpkiss, really coming into her own towards the end of the play.
Review: St Nicholas In Memory of Benjamin Cruft
It would be good to hear far more from this singular ensemble.
Review: Panto Macbeth
All in all, Panto Macbeth does exactly what it says on the tin. The company has created a riotous and delightful fifty-minutes of Fringe, so be the wicked thing, and go their way.
Review: Pride and Prejudice
An unalloyed delight, compressing the story but revealing things even those who know the novel will take back to it.
Review: Eric Davidson’s Amazin Prime Parodies (26 Songs to Make the Whole World Cringe)
Parodies par excellence
Review: Four More Short Plays Loosely Linked By The Theme of Crime
Quartet of four well crafted, amusingly dark and daft plays
Review: Failure Project
A poignant blend of comedy and drama that is very well performed and crafted by Yolanda Mercy.
Review: Dance N’Speak Easy
An energetic dance show based on hip hop dance, breakdance, song and burlesque!
Review: Rose Matafeo: On and On and On
A hilarious look at the relationship between a woman and her notes app.
