FringeReview UK

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FringeReview UK 2024

1979

Political history told in Mamet-fast satire, imagined conversations and accurate stats. What could be more thrilling? 82 minutes later you won’t ask why this three-hander is like curing New Year’s hangover with Red Bull, ice, something illegal and a vodka chaser.


A Chat With Adonai

Jacob Kay and Helen Baird are both exemplary and funny – there’s explosions of laughter. At 40 minutes there’s much matter hurled at the speed of dark. See it if you can, and check out the other Bitesize plays at Riverside.


After Sex

Deservedly hugely popular. With uber-smart dialogue, Dromgoole ensures that under the brittle wrap, there’s an ache and overriding desire for connection.


Afterglow

It’s conquered both sides of the pond. Stunning, heartwarming, heartbreaking. We need this.


Banging Denmark

This production’s 100 minutes are so absorbing you’re not quite sure if the time’s stopped, or just your preconceptions. Stunning, a must see.


Before After

A pristine, heartwarming Valentine of a musical, it fully deserves its revival


Bindweed

Laura Hanna is outstanding in a play that ought to establish itself and playwright Martha Loader; and should enjoy a much longer run.


Blonde Poison

An outstanding production.


Blood On Your Hands

A potentially terrific play


Boy In Da Korma

A necessary, engaging, original variation on finding your voice: and a theatrical coup. Acting, writing, directing, video, lighting and tech support, indeed singing are first class. A gem.


Boys on the Verge of Tears

It’s an exciting, fragile world Sam Grabiner’s promised us in the future.


Captain Amazing

Simon Stephens commented “If I could get all your numbers I would ring you all up individually and urge you to see Captain Amazing.” That can’t be improved on. It’s a must-see.


Casserole

One of the finest small-scale plays to come out of Arcola’s Studio 2 recently. Do see this.


Cold Water

Still in her twenties but vastly experienced, it’s going to be exciting to see where Lawford breaks out to next.


Dream of a Ridiculous Man

A definitive telling of that rarest thing, an uplifting Dostoevsky tale. It’s unlikely to be rendered better than this.


Dugsi Dayz

Thrillingly promising, and ground-breaking work.


F**king Men

A must-see.


G

Exactly what the Royal Court is for.


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.


Heart’s Desire/L’Amore Del Cuore

Anyone admiring Churchill, ferocious comedy or excited by a rare UK foray into Italian theatre must see this.


Here in America

A must-see.


Hide and Seek

An absorbing two-hander with as unexpected an ending as Lauren Gunderson’s I and You


Jab

Highly recommended, it’s also essential.


Janie Dee’s Beautiful World Cabaret

Who could object to its urgency, or its starry messenger? A gem.


Kafka

It’s Klaff’s improvisatory edge, founded on absolute technique and clear-headed text, that finds an exit where none was signposted. Magnificent.


Kunstler

An outstanding production persuading us such a self-narrating show can enthral as well as inform. A hidden gem.


Laughing Boy

Stephen Unwin directs his own play as a sweep of storytelling, laughter and devastation.


Leaves of Glass

This is possibly Ridley’s masterpiece. Always exercised by the spectral presence of something just out of eyeshot, he never lets that intrude. Scorching and necessary, Leaves of Glass delves into family toxicity, ceaselessly dragging us back into the past.


Lie Low

An outstanding production.


Life With Oscar

Nick Cohen’s exceptional powers as writer and performer are mesmerising


London Zoo

A masterly play in the making. It goes where very few dare, and in an environment we think we know. Very highly recommended.


Machinal

This triumphant revival by Ustinov Studios and the Old Vic might finally encourage exploration. You must see this.


Meet Me at Dawn

An aching, unflinching look at what we might face. Yet few seek to live through such a pact as bestowed here. A Greek gift. Unmissable in the south east.


Rock, Paper, Scissors

A joyous revival. Though working in TV production, Hayden’s writing is too good, too well-shaped not to develop in theatre instead.


Sappho

A bit of theatrical democracy invoking pre-democracy crafts an exquisite irony for a rainy afternoon. Do see it.


Sniff

Riveting.


Stitches

The end’s both poignant and visionary. A show to remember long after the Bear’s imagined batteries run down.


Suite in Three Keys

A once-in-a-generation masterpiece of revival. This is what we’ve been missing.


Surrender

The writing will snare you, Phoebe Ladenburg will hold you, and you’ll lean over the fourth wall.


The Beautiful Future is Coming

Beautiful Future engages throughout though the near future is where it beats quickest. Flora Wilson Brown’s play makes you wonder what life, not just the playwright, might do with her characters. Urgently recommended.


The Beckett Trilogy

It’s reading Beckett in flashes of lightning and laughter. Conor Lovett stuns in this cut-down stand-up Beckett-novels-for-beginners-and-enders three-hour whistlestop. A tour de force as well as a tour de farce of Beckett’s genius.


The Bleeding Tree

A blood-dark gem.


The Bounds

As it stands, this is a play with greatness seeded in it.


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.


The Comeuppance

Might prove the most lasting American drama about. emerging to a different world.


The Constituent

This extremely fine play is even more prescient than Penhall and Warchus intended, with an earlier election. The Constituent though, will survive it till August.


The English Moor

Richard Brome’s 1637 The English Moor marks a new departure for Read Not Dead. You might say with this play it’s Read to be Dead.


The EU Killed My Dad

Do see this, preferably alongside its sometime co-runner The Beautiful Future is Coming. A dizzying theatrical gem.


The Good John Proctor

A valuable corrective to anticipate both real events and Arthur Miller’s take on Abigail Williams


The Lonely Londoners

An outstanding production.


The Promise

With a first-rate cast and team it’s a groundbreaking work.


The Pursuit of Joy

A playful, slight but absolutely authentic slice of travel living.


The Tailor of Inverness

A gem of a piece, that only brightens.


The Trumpeter

Verging on expressionism it’s extraordinary.


Turning the Screw

This six-hander is a 90-minute announcement of a major talent. An almost flawless play.


Utoya

Compelling, and an important UK premiere.


Vanya

This is the greatest one-man performance I’ve seen, said a Chekhov-immersed director of 45 years’ experience next to me. Yes.