Genre: New Writing 0
Review: Tender
With such terrific performances you root for this not-yet-couple right to the blackout.
Review: -320°F
If you’ve not seen a Noda production, see it. If you have, see it. It’s still the most intelligent spectacular I’ve seen in recent times.
Review: 45 Years
Acting and often dialogue still compel in long bursts. It sets a seal on one of the swiftest slow-burn productions I’ve seen.
Review: Under the Shadow
Far richer than any ghost play haunting the tour circuit, it’s a blistering, scary must-see.
Review: Are You Watching?
Georgie Dettmer’s voice should be one of the leading dramatists of resistance. Yet more, Dettmer has already much to say about how to live now and next.
Review: Teeth ‘n’ Smiles
As Teeth ‘n’ Smiles ends, we’re left to feel the long withdrawing roar of the 1960s, and the bleaker horizons and disillusion Hare saw by 1975. A must-see.
Review: Do Not Attempt This Conversation
Mo Maka’s play though brief is superbly constructed and taut. I can hardly wait for Maka’s next play.
Review: Learning to CELEBRATE! When Life Hands You a Dysfunctional Family
An interactive party and one-person show through which Scoggins demonstrates the power inherent in choosing what, when, and how we celebrate.
Review: Quartet in Autumn
Absorbing, a must-see for anyone asking questions of where we begin our endings.
Review: The Dasslers
The Dasslers wields a potential beyond its current limitations – both in this brief production and in its current form. And Radford, clearly setting out his dramatic stall in history’s cross-currents, is a voice to watch.
Review: The Love We Think We Deserve
It could grow into something both exceptional and even more necessary.
Review: Godot’s To-Do List, Krapp’s Last Tape
A performance of lessness writ large: a man shrinking from his environment, the memories taking over and kicking Krapp’s mere organic matter out.
Review: The Dance of Time: A New Black Comedy
Here’s hoping it returns, clearly a play with a future as long as Tom’s is apparently short.
Review: Foal
The Finborough have form with five-star solo shows. This is clearly another flued and sanded with the ferocity of pursuit. Outstanding.
Review: Allegra
As an example of a Peter Quilter soufflé, this is the best of his I’ve come across; and Maureen Lipman gleams with a supreme gravity-defying performance. Irresistible.
Review: Teatro dei Gordi: Visite
As ever, the Coronet and its guests have scored something unique in the British theatre-world.
Review: When Gary Left Annie (Almost)
A beautifully written romantic comedy with a slightly neurotic, awkward energy that makes ordinary people feel strangely lovable.
Review: Neddy Goes to Glasto
Corrina O’Beirne masters the demotic, the lyrical, the witty and metaphorical, all at once. A must-see.
Review: Ashes and Diamonds
Exceptionally humane, humanly absorbing. It’s always 11.15. Till it isn’t
Review: Flush
Timely, timeless and as real as a selfie you might wish you’d never taken when you look again. 80 minutes blink by, but you won’t miss it. Stunning.
Review: Evangeline
First-rate Fringe music-theatre. Artistic content, particularly songs and verse, as well as direction and acting ensures this will clearly travel. Do see it.
Review: Magic
Brave, timeless, and troubled, Magic sometimes refuses to give up its secrets too. Absorbing.
Review: Mind and Breathe
Brecht meets Beckett in this sharp combination of existential exploration and jet black humour
Review: The Final Episode
Two original twists, a fine, fresh writer/performer/director and something I certainly look forward to seeing developed.
Review: Uccelini
A rich, suggestive and above all probing work about how we live with our ghosts so we can live with each other.
Review: Two Halves of Guinness
As a gentle voyage around the frothy half of Guinness we know, and the dark we don’t, it deserves awards, and another tour.
Review: Between the River and the Sea
Recognizing humanity is a mingled yarn mightn’t sound revelatory. Nor what we want to take away. But it’s what we need.
Review: The Waves
A mostly outstanding – and theatrical - adaptation of an almost impossible-to-adapt novel.
Review: Iphigenia
Pacing is fleet, inexorable, even with those frozen minutes of contemporary video. Unmissable.
Review: Heart Wall
One of the most remarkable reveals in recent theatre, and makes this play an absolutely compelling must-see.
Review: John Proctor is the Villain
The apotheosis is both thrilling and more than timely. At a moment where feminism is being closed down, this needs screaming
Review: A Doll’s House
The end, a question-mark, leaves a silence where you might hear a door banging three streets away.
Review: The Authenticator
Absorbing, playfully swerving from where it might travel, The Authenticator mildly frustrates, mostly digs you in the ribs with questions. And thoroughly entertains.
Review: Summerfolk
We need Summerfolk. Sided and slant, this version is a must-see. And almost as much as Chekhov, we need more Gorky.
Review: The BFG
Evans and his team have transported the magic so completely it’s taken up residence. Both outstanding and a delight
Review: The Legend of Davie Mackenzie
A hilarious romp through the lives of two neir dae weels who try their best to survive.
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
