Review: The Hot Wing King
Hall, following Nottage in particular, emerges as one of the most exciting US dramatists.
Genre: Comedy
Review: All’s Well That Ends Well
Don’t go expecting searing insights, but do go for a crack ensemble who will surely turn many to Shakespeare. An endearing and uplifting enterprise.
Review: 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.
Review: As You Like It
A first-rate outdoor revival, and easily rivalling what the Globe have to offer.
Review: Suite in Three Keys
A once-in-a-generation masterpiece of revival. This is what we’ve been missing.
Review: 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.
Review: Sappho
A bit of theatrical democracy invoking pre-democracy crafts an exquisite irony for a rainy afternoon. Do see it.
Review: Much Ado About Nothing
A triumph of tone, of textual intercourse and tight-reined spirits. Beatrice’s star is dancing. It’ll stay fresh as the feelgood Shakespeare this summer.
Review: Six Characters In Search Of Pirandello
"There is someone in my life, and I know nothing about him" (Pirandello)
Review: Steve Parry: The Last of the Famous International Amateurs
A man in the middle of a mid-life crisis
Review: Dawn Again: A Rap Opera
Elliot has a problem: two girlfriends, both giving birth on the same day in the same hospital
Review: 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.
Review: Muswell Hill
Cook and team have shown commendable disregard for comfortable options, sharing a rediscovery.
Review: In and Out of Chekhov’s Shorts
Outstanding. After this, there’s no other way to tell Chekhov dramatically that he’s not already nailed down in a play himself. Chekhov would have loved it.
Review: Cluedo 2
The last ten minutes in particular are the silliest stuff: which is why it works. Soon more of the show will tighten and we’ll see that quality retro-fit.
Review: Sister Act
In short, a fabulous example of British talent, now endangered, bringing quadruple threat to a magnificent production. Not all such mainstream shows on tour even approach outstanding, but this truly is.
Review: Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening
This is as fresh as an AI paint set, and far more transgressive than the original. The fizziest, most outrageous assault on common decency since – I’ll leave it to the gibbons. A must-see.
Review: Dear Octopus
Two hours 45 starts slowly but you feel Smith’s arc move with its casual, supremely naturalist conversation to moments where time stands still. Outstanding revival.
Review: For Entertainment Purposes Only
Philip Ayckbourn’s songs are the heart of this collection. It’d be thrilling to see a full musical here; and staged in London. Enthusiastically recommended, there’s gems, with more of Ayckbourn’s elegiac sensibility than I’ve ever seen. More of this please.
Review: 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.
Review: Cowbois
Cranford’s gone Wild West, via the Court and RSC. Cowbois is of course daft. But it’s magnificent in its silliness, contains wonderful – and truthful – moments. Deadly serious can have you rolling in the aisles and still jump up for the revolution.
Review: Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol
Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol triumphs as easily the best junior take on this classic I’ve ever seen.
Review: Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz
Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz is neither complex or fiendishly plotted. But it’s very witty, linguistically inventive and light-hearted: so its downside is highlighted.
Review: Refilwe
At just 45 minutes, a delightfully adapted fairy-tale, adapted in its turn. Bisola Aalbi’s rewrite is a lively, timely take on a silent culture war to make people of all ages think again.
Review: Odyssey: A Heroic Pantomime
This compact one hour 45 show must run again. The most inventive, best-written and possibly best-sung panto in Town.
Review: She Stoops to Conquer
Tom Littler’s team reveal rare mettle and sincerity in a classic that can take some (if not all) updating. The 1930s must prove the very limits of belief in such class confusion, but this triumphs with the snap of a cracker, or (as here) the smash of Wedgwood. Outstanding.
Review: Mates in Chelsea
Mates in Chelsea is definitely worth seeing, and apart from adaptations surely the best thing this writer’s produced in a decade. Royal Court Theatre
Review: Passing
A mesmerising play, one that won’t fade and whose topicality will only reverberate more. The dialogue’s consummate and touching, the gradual reveals of blindness – and blandness - to racism on a memory-trip with a disastrous family album, releases a slow detonation of all that’s wrong still. One of my comedies of the year. Pretty outstanding.
Review: The Proposal/The Bear translated by Stephen Mulrine
Elaine Larkin’s production is all of a piece and like all original readings asks of Chekhov what he wants. Larkin also makes demands on her actors they mostly cope very well with, and two excel in: though some of Chekhov’s subtleties – they exist even here – are bleached out. Firmly recommended though.
Review: Educating Rita
Even if you’ve seen this play, know the film, get a fresh education in masterly acting and see this.
Review: Dead Dad Dog
McKay is even-handed, and very funny. And don’t you just love a ghost in 1985 who’s never heard of Margaret Thatcher?
Review: Imposter 22
A joyous, riotously funny, wholly untypical experience. A play to shift boundaries and ourselves.
Review: Pygmalion
What this production gives, in its hovering over periods, is a technocratic gloss on Shaw’s optimism and female agency. That optimism and agency though is why this play continually fascinates. Not because of the mechanics of accent, or even social mobility, but sheer release of human potential. In Patsy Ferran’s Eliza that transformation’s palpable.
Review: As You Like It
It’s the trio of cousins and lover who ensure this production enjoys its fathoms-deep in love. An As You Like It with an inviting new prologue by Travis Alabanza, underscoring the forest’s healing as well as magical inversions; but shorn of its Epilogue. When you see how that Epilogue’s so rich in queerness and transgression it seems an own goal to the fluffier part of this production’s vibes.
Review: Accidental Death of an Anarchist
The adage that farce is tragedy speeded up met its greatest progenitor in Dario Fo. In a ferocious new version by Tom Basden of Franca Rame’s and Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist, directed by Daniel Raggett in a stunning production now at the Haymarket, the target here is squarely the London Met. And if you slowed down Basden’s brilliant, no-holds-unbludgeoned telling, details prove tragic enough.
Review: Billy and The Situation
The show portrays Billy 'Fyre Festival' McFarland and Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino's time as cellmates when they were locked up for fraud in a New York state penitentiary.
Review: Life With Oscar
Cohen plays an impressive array of characters, from his own parents to the Mexican model of the Oscar statuette Emilio Fernandez.
Review: The Impresario
A light Opera which touches upon big ambitions in a perfect and evocative rendering of a long forgotten time.
Review: Plague, Poo n Punishment
A brilliantly gruesome encounter that runs through the worst but the best of Edinburgh’s history.
Review: Kieran Hodgson: Big In Scotland
Through skilful storytelling we are immersed in a tale that brings to life character after character with sharp cutting whit
Review: Shortlist
Shortlist really must be experienced by anyone who appreciates excellent theatre, brilliant writing or those who simply want a good laugh.
Review: Janitor/Manager & How to Have an Affair Without Really Trying
Well worth seeing now as they are, especially so you can say you caught them before they took the Fringe by storm.
Review: Colleen Lavin: Do The Robots Think I’m Funny
“ Murderbot is going to asses my performance,” says Lavin at the top of the show, “And then you’re going to decide if you care.” At least in this case, the robot did find Colleen Lavin to be very funny. I have to say I agree.
Review: Shakespeare in Love
You’ll forget the film; you might even forget any staged version of Lee Hall’s in the West End. The mystery’s in the ensemble, the production, its bewitching leads Lewis Todhunter and Melissa Paris. With Claire Lewis’ direction, Michael James’ music, and Graham Brown’s movement direction to the fore, it’s a mighty reckoning in a little room – seamlessly transferred to an ampitheatre.
Review: Gerry Carroll-Young
At age 70, Gerry Carroll-Young is bringing his clown comedy to entertain Fringe audiences.
Review: Furious
Daly is the Pied Piper of Edinburgh – Enchanting, witty, interactive and relatable. A one woman show that pokes fun at satirical characters from her past!
Review: How to Find a Husband in 37 Years or Longer
One woman's coming of age story about failed relationships
Review: Lights Up! The Improvised Musical
The sheer energy and fun that the performers are clearly having cannot help but transfer to the audience’s mood.
Review: Arc: Amy Rosenthal Birth, Alexis Zegerman Marriage, Craig Ryan Death
This 65 minutes takes you on a traversal of human, not simply Jewish experience, out of all proportion to its length. One of the highlights of the latter dog-days, or as here, the long night of the hamster. Three leading playwrights showcased by Emanate, which in just two years has shown how essential it already is, how indispensable it can become.
Review: Emmanuel Sonubi: Curriculum Vitae
Original and relatable stories that do not fail to get a laugh from the audience every single time
Review: For Better, For Worse
A decent family drama in the shadow of momentous national decision making.
Review: Rosie Holt – That’s Politainment
Contemporary political satire that invites people to laugh less and think more.
Review: Burning Down the Horse
The audience - very nearly completely full - was in stitches throughout the entire piece.
Review: Indoor Kids
An interesting story of two next door neighbours who became the very best of friends.
Review: Nicola Macri: Single Entendre
Macri’s performance is warm and inviting, and although her arguments are made intelligently and with plenty of back-up, it never feels like a lecture as much as a chat with a pal who occasionally dances around as the Spectre of Sex, here to ruin every conversation with its ubiquity.
Review: The Ruffian on the Stair and Funeral Games
Joe Orton’s The Ruffian on the Stair and Funeral Games come to the Lantern Theatre for four performances. This in-house double bill of one-acters is directed by Daniel Finlay and Mark Burgess respectively. A fitting end to the Lantern’s extraordinary week
Review: Bowjangles: Dracula in Space
The stakes are high, as a talented string quartet encounter Dracula, with tremendously entertaining shenanigans aplenty
Review: A Good Panto Die Hard
The alchemy required to create this panto/action/comedy/musical, and get away with it, should not be underestimated.
Review: Love, Monty
A one man show of original writing from an exceptional actor playing to the strengths of yesteryear.
