Genre: New Writing 0
Review: The Constant Wife
An outstanding revival and adaptation, a faultless cast, an award-winning set too. Brighton has been lucky in its last three productions. This though is the gem. Outstanding.
Review: The Shitheads
Aa a blazing new voice though The Shitheads packs a flinty punch; and paradoxically heralds a vivid poetic talent. A must-see.
Review: 1.17am, or until the words run out
A cracking debut that picks you up and never lets go. Like any play that gifts us believable characters, it leaves you wondering what life, not just Hunter Gordon, will do with them. Highly recommended.
Review: Dance of Death
Strindberg to live with? Who’d have thought of that? An outstanding must-see. If you can’t get there, tune in to the livestream. This demands a wider audience.
Review: The Gambler
Chiten Theatre intensifies to a point of light here something barbarous, atavistic, and goes to the heart of nihilism. Still outstanding.
Review: Midsomer Murders
Don’t miss this. You’ll be surprised. Particularly if you think you know the badgers.
Review: Mrs President
Mrs President will continue to haunt and I suspect, develop. Be haunted though.
Review: The Prince of the Underground
An impressive piece of solo performance which encapsulates the courage and nervousness of someone facing authority
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: David Copperfield
An outstanding production, a seasonal offering more satisfying than most pantos.
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: Óran
A powerful immersive reworking of the descent of Orpheus into the underworld for the digital age
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: 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: 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: Common Tongue
This is a funny, warm, and energetic play about home, ultimately - and the seemingly perpetually impossible subject of speaking Scots
Review: Inter Alia
After 15 years away from the stage, Pike returns in a blaze of morals versus the law. Her triumph though is unequivocal.
Review: Keep Your Sunny Side Up
In nearly every way exceptional. Hampshire is consummate and sets off Rouselle as worthy to inhabit Fields.
Review: Who Do They Think They Are?
A finely-written show, with tensions wrought individually to a satisfying whole.
Review: David Lan The Land of the Living
The most moving and theatrically gripping new play I’ve seen for a long time, it’s also the most layered and completely realised. A world that invites ours to ask where on earth we come from.
Review: Cow/Deer
Emphatically theatre worth doing, worth attending, worth fighting to clarify and worth being changed for.
Review: Benny Ainsworth Vermin
The most riveting two-hander you’ll see this year; it’s not for the faint-hearted. Writing, acting and burned-off minimal staging draw us into hell, and its epiphanies. Outstanding.
Review: Natasha Cottriall (God Save My) Northern Soul
Time will deepen the shadows and writer/actor Natasha Cottriall shows this in the very last moment
Review: Natasha Cotriall (God Save My) Northern Soul
Time will deepen the shadows and writer/actor Natasha Cotriall shows this in the very last moment.
Review: The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return
It’s hard not to love this exuberant 75-minute romp through Luton’s urban sprawl. It’s both exuberant and serious, warm and yet with a chill undercurrent of deprivation
Review: The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return
It’s hard not to love this exuberant 75-minute romp through Luton’s urban sprawl. It’s both exuberant and serious, warm and yet with a chill undercurrent of deprivation
Review: Deaf Republic
Its claustrophobia overwhelms and moves, whilst leaving Dead Centre room for yet another slant on Ilya Kaminsky’s imaginary.
Review: Death Comes to Pemberley
Stylishness in the fixtures, truth in the lower orders, some superb acting by the likes of Berger, Boyce, and Faulkner, as well as two couples with chemistry.
Review: Do Astronauts Masturbate in Space?
A mature and hilarious dystopian fantasy that entertains and enrages in equal measure.
Review: King
A high-octane solo show about a Singaporean woman discovering freedom and masculinity through her drag king alter ego.
Review: 1, 2, 3. Shit. That’s my OCD.
Rhythmical, immediate, and cleverly structured, it’s gorgeous work on a strong mind trying to make sense of its landscape past and present.
Review: Ha
"leaves a lasting impression of skill, bravery, and thoughtful, disciplined theatrical craft"
Review: CADEL: Lungs on Legs
An inside look at cycling race Tour de France with a vibrant, dramatic story of cyclist Cadel Evans brought to life by Connor Delves, riding his bicycle for one hour!
Review: Seating Plan
Impressive performances by both Radford and Airey in this neat little two-hander.
Review: The Wild Washerwomen, Brighton Open Air Theatre
Ella Turk-Thompson has scored something special here.
Review: Kaddish (How to Be a Sanctuary)
A bold, multi-voiced meditation on grief, justice, and Jewish identity, staged with striking theatricality.
Review: I’m Autistic – A New Musical
"I’m Autistic strikes the perfect balance between education, emotion, and experience, leaving us with an equally thought-provoking and entertaining production."
Review: Her Raving Mind
An exploration of childhood emotional abuse and its long-lasting consequences
Review: AETHER
A show about knowing nothing... and it's jam packed. Lightning-quick, clever, feminist, and always entertaining show about discovery
Review: Dear Annie, I Hate You
Fantastic performances and quality script in this riveting true life tale
Review: The Uncrackable Case
How do you like your eggs in the morning? Presumably not pushed off the castle parapet!
