Archives: Reviews 0
Reviews
Review: Anna Brikciusova Solo Cello Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
One of the most musicianly traversals of cello writing I've heard in a while.
Review: Calamity Jane
See this for the onstage musicians and above all Carrie Hope Fletcher giving Calamity soul as well as heart. Highly recommended.
Review: The Secret Garden/Bleak Expectations
Deliciously wholesome satire, this is a deliriously-paced, superbly-acted production.
Review: The Kelton Hill Fair
A mix of a brutal Brigadoon and the whimsy of the Wonderful World of Dissocia, this is a keen addition to the development of Scottish narrative.
Review: Dr Strangelove
Steve Coogan reigns supreme, and a cast like John Hopkins then Giles Terera are a gift to both Coogan and the show.
Review: Pam Cragg and Maggie Grimsdell Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
What a difference this recital makes. It would be very good indeed to see this duo here again.
Review: Double Act
Death & Co. The Laurel and Hardy of Suicide, the Little and Large of it Do see this timely, painfully funny, and absorbing new play.
Review: Dear England
With its nimbus of inevitability as national storytelling, it’s still groundbreaking.
Review: Playhouse Creatures
When Doll Common claims “Life’s like a storm. Don’t get in its way” one thinks of the stoicism of those in the eye of it, and their audience. A consummate revival.
Review: Men’s Business
A quietly phenomenal, ground-breaking play, blistering in sumps of silence. See it.
Review: Chef
Brim full of ingredients, this is a one-woman show that tends to leave a confused memory upon the metaphorical palette.
Review: The Testament of Gideon Mack
A rollicking good ride, which holds onto the big questions while offering plenty of laughs along the way
Review: Flutter-Bye
Since this play and Allison Ferns have a lot of legs, it’ll be worth coming back to see it run.
Review: Cry-Baby
Easily the most joyous musical we’ll see this side midsummer, Cry-Baby in this production blazes fit to set another fire in Dalston
Review: Jane Upton (the) Woman
A ground-breaking play, fully deserving of its London run. Catch it there.
Review: Perfect Arrangement
There’s never been a more urgent time for this gem of a work: a small hybrid classic that’s never been produced in the UK before. See it now.
Review: Sussex Musicians SMC Chapel Royal March 8th 2025
Teeming variety and accomplishment. A superb evening.
Review: Macbeth
ETT’s gallimaufry stimulates, frustrates, occasionally fascinates. A more selective through-line would have revealed a mineral gleam, a new earth of tyranny.
Review: Alterations
We must be grateful for this compelling revival, and wait for more from the National’s Black archive.
Review: Peter James Picture You Dead
Twists are delicious. If you enjoy Peter James, or thrillers with a light touch, don’t hesitate. Solidly recommended.
Review: One Day When We Were Young
This grips anyone who can’t let first love go, anyone who stares homeward even now, wild with all regret. Unmissable.
Review: Teatro dei Gordi: Pandora
It begs questions: what couldn’t we do, if placed outside our own comfort station in life? Essential theatre. essential questions. A gem.
Review: Son of a Bitch
Anna Morris heightens tragedy and misogyny with gags, humour and farcical horror. Do catch this fleeting gem, running for just two more weeks before it touches down
Review: Khawla Ibraheem A Knock on the Roof
What and who can you choose is something more people are forced to decide as the century rolls. But Mariam’s plight is specific, ongoing, now far worse and essential viewing.
Review: Ronojit Bhuyan Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
A superbly probing recital. Bhuyan has immense promise. Very highly recommended.
Review: Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey
An astonishing theatrical vision blended with a fascinating story that combines into an exceptional evening of theatre.
Review: Chekhov Three Sisters
There’s a rapt self-communing in this production of Three Sisters. A must-see, it glows long after you’ve left it.
Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Brighton Theatre Group is a chocolate factory all on its own. Nothing in Wonka is as magical as the vision, reach and grasp of this company. It’s perhaps their finest production yet.
Review: Vaughan Williams, J.M. Synge Riders to the Sea
Betteridge’s prologue is certainly worth seeing even if you know the work, and won’t need persuading. And after the opera, the rest is surf, and silence.
Review: Outlying Islands
A first rate-revival of a small classic. Do seek out this rare, dream-like play.
Review: The Last Laugh
This is a must-see. Never outstaying its welcome, you can leave this show after 85 minutes, but stay for that Q&A. I envy everyone the night I won’t be there for it.
Review: Sussex Musicians Club SMC Chapel Royal
A very brief night, lasting under 40 minutes, but an invigorating snapshot of tomorrow’s musicians
Review: Goner
A radical vision of horror which challenges from the beginning right through to the end.
Review: Birdsong
If you think on peace in these distracted times, love theatre, can absorb it at its most epic, then this will thrill and overwhelm you. A must-see.
Review: World’s Evolution
A vibrant piece of dance theatre which enthrals asking fundamental questions in a theatrically fascinating manner.
Review: Dan O’Brien The Voyage of the Carcass; Emily Jenkins Bobby & Amy
Dan O’Brien’s piece is for dedicated farceurs. By itself outstanding, it’s hoped by several Emily Jenkins’ Bobby & Amy have a postlude of its own, with this team and these two young actors pitched at this moment in their careers.
Review: The Gift
How far you’d go to pursue either vengeance or to resolve one, asks just such questions of how we choose to box up our lives. The Gift is for all of us.
Review: Mark Tournoff: A Word With the Bird
Mark Tournoff’s an engaging and modest MC. The talent he promotes remains and makes visits worthwhile.
Review: We Will Hear The Angels
A hauntingly beautiful reflection on melancholy and the healing power of sad music
Review: Macbeth
A bold imagining of the Scottish play in a Scottish venue deep in the heart of theatricality.
Review: Macbeth
It’s still a phenomenal feat and even if you know Macbeth, it’s still a must-see for how a quintessence can be dusted off.
Review: Cymbeline
One of the most uneven of late plays, its heights have to be seen; and though there’s pitfalls, this absorbing production surmounts most. A feat.
Review: James Pusey and Marc Clayton Sitar/Tabla Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
The brevity of this review, which can’t translate the subtle shifts of Indian classical music in the way classical music is transmitted, certainly doesn’t reflect its quality. Highly recommended.
Review: A Good House
A play deeper than the satire which propels it. And subtly layered enough to brush the epic. A stunning smack between the eyes and a must-see.
Review: Hotel Otori Skin-Okubo
A highly innovative and enticing piece of theatre which examines our relationship not only to our families, but to the way in which the emergence of new ideas and dawns should be embraced.
Review: Good Grief
A contemplation upon the ideal of grief and whether it benefits you in the long run.
Review: Short Film Triple Bill – Upcycled, Composting, Night Shift.
A divergent mixture of cinematic pleasure with the first two of the trio linked and the final being a science fiction geek fest.
Review: St Nicholas Yohei Nakajima, Miho Sanou Viola/Piano Recital
A terrific, indeed unique opener to 2025 concerts here.
Review: The Devil May Care
Do see this particularly for an outstanding performance from Burrows and an exceptionally fine one from Woodhouse. This adaptation remains an exhilarating reminder of what a difference a century makes.
Review: The Devil’s Mark: The Story of the Scottish Witch Trials
A devilishly good response and retort to the trauma and significantly ill-use of women of the past by an emerging theatre company who are using their community in the best way possible.
Review: Belly of the Beast
Belly of the Beast should be a set text in schools. And should definitely tour there.
Review: Relief Camp
A play that vividly portrays the clashes between ethnic communities in Manipur as the tragic culmination of a long history of subjugation by colonial and state powers.
Review: Pinocchio
A traditional panto which may lack in personnel, makes up for in huge personalities that delights and gives gallus gusto.
Review: Treasure Island
First-rate youth theatre, creatives and cast excel: detailed, funny, not to be taken over-seriously, then quite a bit more so.
Review: Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
Frecknall has re-thought and refreshed one of the great, and classically-framed American dramas. And made it classic.
Review: Zinnie Harris, Douglas Hodge, Johnny McKnight 101 Dalmatians The Musical
A perennial tale in essence makes this a Christmas must and New Year resolution: for all of us under ten in the holidays.
Review: Glitch in the Myth
A timeless archetype reimagined through a woman's perspective, capable of resonating with audiences everywhere
Review: Sussex Musicians Club Chapel Royal
To cap it all members gave an impromptu carol service too: flashcarol. Fine and rather affecting.
Review: Sussex Musicians Club Chapel Royal
A revelatory concert of wind players, fine Beethoven and Bach too.
Review: Helen Edmundson (adaptor) Anna Karenina
With Diane Robinson’s team there’s a vibrant retelling, superbly produced
Review: Goodbye Erdogan
A deeply engaging show about a small man overwhelmed by the seismic changes in modern Turkish society.
Review: Rumpelstiltskin
A high voltage, thoroughly entertaining version of Rumpelstiltskin without a Grimm face in the house.
Review: Ballet Shoes
A paean to wonder and possibility, dreaming to some purpose. Like other winter growths, this should prove a hardy perennial, evergreen as the book.
Review: Happy Days
I’ve never seen a Winnie more ordinary, one without those strange transcendental inflections. Catherine Humphreys isn’t flat: she rises to anguish, though it’s one of realism. I’m still not quite sure what’s been removed. But I’m very glad I’ve seen it.
Review: Agleyum Cliyopatrayum
An original blend of physical theatre and Indian ritualistic elements conveys the unconscious emotional worlds of two archetypal female characters.
Review: Sara Farrington A Trojan Woman
An acclaimed pocket tragedy which yet carries Euripides’ weight in Farrington’s framing, it more than touches the heart: it snatches it and hands it back as a sad and angry consolation.
Review: The Box of Delights
The finest Christmas box imaginable, and the go-to for a seasonal show. If you can get in.
Review: Shakespeare in Love
The mystery’s in the ensemble, the production, its bewitching leads. It’s a mighty reckoning in a little room.
Review: Sam Holcroft Rules for Living
Season’s Greetings for robots. It interrogates a therapy many believe works. More than worth seeing in this first-class NVT cast and production.
