Review: The Prince of the Underground
An impressive piece of solo performance which encapsulates the courage and nervousness of someone facing authority
Archives: Reviews 0
Reviews
Review: More than Conquerors The Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow
A genteel, rather than gentile, musing on the significance of faith that opens up some very interesting and nuanced questions
Review: Guess How Much I Love You?
Rosie Sheehy and Robert Aramayo are phenomenal and wholly believable. Norris’s next play will be worth seeking out, after such an outstanding debut.
Kitty-Maria Clarke's warm hug of a voice recalls the best kind of popular soprano who'd never be out of her depth in an intimate opera house.
Review: The Olive Boy
An extremely fine, and important one-person play, brimming with comedic gambits to open the floodgates.
Review: Safe Haven
There’s a perennial feel not just to the humanity at the play’s core; but the work itself. In these dark days, a must-see.
Review: Deep Blue by Lola Rose Wood
A refreshingly challenging idea that shows us that environmentally, sometimes, we have a struggle to understand what is required.
Review: Stop Look Listen by Elliot Scott
A well performed monologue of a two sided issue of obsession from a single point of view.
Review: Doon Hill – An Inaccurate Retelling by Poppy Hope Smith
A hilarious beginning to an assured plot which engages folk traditions and fairy tales to now.
Review: 4000 Days
There aren’t easy answers here, but there is humour, especially if you’re cheated of consuming 17 boxes of Belgian truffles. A must-see.
Review: Our American Queen
Klingenstein’s attentive, witty above all brilliant re-imagining of two remarkable young people. Exceptional.
Review: Single White Female
There’s potential for this to be a taut-paced thriller with higher stakes than the original. As it stands, this isn’t yet quite ready but there’s months ahead to make it work.
Review: Orphans
No wonder the propulsive energy of Lyle Kessler’s script, knotted with such complexity and switchbacks of violence has held the stage for over 40 years. You must see this.
Review: The Playboy of the Western World
An impossible balance, but having seen Playboy at farce-speed, it’s good to weigh in with a loquacious backbeat of despair. Wholly absorbing.
Review: Beauty and the Beast New Wolsey, Ipswich
Possibly the best pantomime now playing, it proves Stone is currently the queen of writing and scoring pantos.
Review: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
This is a virtuoso production like no other you’ll see in one twice as big with a stage twenty times as huge.
Review: Christmas Day
An absorbing drama, taking risks and never losing its balance. For the most part superbly-crafted, with memorable characters, sparking with urgency and sparkling dialogue throughout. The most exciting new play in London.
Review: Sunny Afternoon
Joe Penhall’s book is outstanding and frankly puts most musical biopics in the shade. His wit and deft charactering of core band and satellites who interact with the complexity of a play, the way the songs move the narrative. Ray Davies’ storytelling and songs are self-recommending. Sunny Afternoon still deserves those awards.
Review: Caroline Goodwin and Zhanna Kemp Soprano and Piano Recital St Nicholas Church
Gorgeously rendered, again with musical discoveries in nearly every song.
Review: Alice in Wonderland
This 23-strong cast triumph in this cavalcade of Carroll. A must-see and pretty outstanding.
Review: Sussex Musicians SMC Chapel Royal
A memorable end of year concert. And all so easily to be heard on the website in a few days.
Review: Little Miss Christmas
Little Miss Christmas can develop and this show doesn't outstay it's welcome. And "All I Want for Christmas" is hugely popular with everyone who sings it.
Review: Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson
Don’t expect Sherlock, and you could be entertained by Ms Holmes. And emphatically Ms Watson.
Review: Cockfosters
Fizzing, witty uber-London without Uber and smart without telling us it is. Blissfully recommended.
Review: The Mask Policy
Tianjiao Tan’s crafted a unique, witty take on an industry with little exposure as it were. A revelation.
Review: Nachtland
Janette Eddisford has scored with this outrageously provocative, troubling satire that flays the German soul and hangs up the skins, stretched.
Review: Ballet Shoes
A winter paean to wonder and possibility, Kendall Feaver’s and Katy Rudd’s Ballet Shoes has proved as evergreen as the book itself. Outstanding.
Review: Here & Now
With young talent like this, no-one need worry just yet about British musical theatre. And that is the best reason to see this silly yet warm-hearted pre-Christmas cracker.
Review: Forbidden Places
Tom Stoppard dying the day before recalled Leopoldstraat to many. No-one expected this harrowing slant successor. No wonder the audience were on their feet. Outstanding.
Review: Bruce Ryan Costella: Spooky and Gay.
Gather around the camp fire for tales with a Queer perspective.
Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Certainly builds as the Globe’s strongest – if not truest - Dream since (at least) their 2013 production.
Review: David Copperfield
An outstanding production, a seasonal offering more satisfying than most pantos.
Review: John Collins Organ Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Another exceptional recital from the unique John Collins. We're lucky to have such a scholarly yet consummate recitalist.
Review: End
Outstanding performances from Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves, and a script fired with conviction and probing tenderness around how we all face death; a must-see.
Review: Jobsworth
A must-see one-person coffee-black comedy, it lasts a full 90 minutes. Libby Rodliffe is a phenomenal performer. And uproarious.
Review: Daria Robertson and Jason Pimblett Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Ten gems delivered by two gem-like musicians.
Review: Óran
A powerful immersive reworking of the descent of Orpheus into the underworld for the digital age
Review: An evening with Will and Tess.
An entertaining evening, split in two with performance poetry and character comedy.
Review: Because We Said We Would
A tender and touching exploration of a relationship that spans decades.
Review: Sussex Musicians SMC Chapel Royal
Real discoveries and delight here. And all so easily to be heard on the website in a few days.
Review: DUSSSKK
An innovative performance which blends audience and performer together to give a unique experience for neurodivergent teenagers.
Review: Duty
A fresh and urgent play, Duty should tour as a salutary reminder of how war impacts community, divides war-influenced majority from the few who see through war.
Review: Kindling
Sarah Rickman and Ciara Pouncett have assembled a superb team. They need to revisit the script once or twice more and they’ll have a winner.
Review: We Are the Lions, Mr Manager
At a time of racialised targeting – a distraction technique born of the very forces Jayaben Desai fought – Grunwick speaks with startling relevance.
Review: Emilia Karaliute Kankles Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
A hidden gem of a recital and a consummate performer. Emilia Karaliute must return.
Review: This Little Earth
Jessica Norman is going to be a force. Watch out for her and see a powerful dramatic imagination at least hatch here.
Review: Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl
For Isabel Renner’s witty one-liners, production values and above all her own performance, this show ends up highly recommended.
Review: The Unbelievers
The Unbelievers confirms the Royal Court’s new phase can again splice the traditionally-crafted with the exploratory. A must-see.
Review: Mr Jones
Once you’ve seen Mr Jones, it will never leave you. Not just history, but the poignancy that shivers across survivors and leaves them buried, ceaselessly pulling them to the past.
Review: The Line of Beauty
Not the most theatrical story, it’s a heady narrative. A dance to the music of a time that marred us, this still compels
Review: Women Only, Albert’s Bridge
Albert’s Bridge is a Stoppard rarity you’re unlikely to see again. And Women Only seems swiftly established as a tiny, semi-precious comic gem.
Review: Emily Jennings and Cassandra Mathews
Exquisite and again a hidden gem. Back in February, this duo are already gaining an enthusiastic following.
Review: The Talented Mr. Ripley
A must-see. Minor caveats aside it’s as absorbing as some productions recently have plodded. This isn’t just any Ripley….
Review: Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts
For Morse fans, this is still a low-yield vintage that can mature
Review: Company of Elders: Mixed Bill
A double-bill of new work by Company of Elders that invites us all to the dance
Review: Sussex Musicians SMC Chapel Royal, Brighton
An almost completely baroque evening with a modernist tail!
Review: Circumscribed: A True Tall Tale of One Father, Two Sons, and Thousands of Foreskins
Delightfully engaging, heartfelt autobiography
Review: Common Tongue
This is a funny, warm, and energetic play about home, ultimately - and the seemingly perpetually impossible subject of speaking Scots
