Genre: New Writing 0
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!
Review: Perfect Dead Girls
Tight, taught and very funny exploration of being stuck where you don't want to be, and you're dead.
Review: ADHD? WTF is ADHD!
Emma Wilkinson-Wright is unnervingly close to the pulse of how real this is. A hidden gem.
Review: The Quiet Earth Beneath
A rich and magical journey into memory, loss, ritual and hidden worlds beyond our reach
Review: Shake Rag Hollow
Deft writing, powerful performances. Theatre magic in an unassuming container on George St!
Review: 1 King, 2 Princes and Shakespeare’s Lie
A commanding, Ricardian, retelling challenging the myths surrounding Richard III
Review: The Scold’s Bridle
A short, fascinating drama which demonstrates the injustice to women of punishment from times gone past.
Review: All In
A sparky relationship drama with the intrigue of a crime thriller by a promising new writer
Review: Edie
An acting master class creates a vibrant staging of this true life story of political activism
Review: God, the Devil and Me
It is great to see a young company come to Edinburgh with a team of five actors, taking on the risk and having an adventure.
Review: Picking Up Stones: An American Jew Wakes to a Nightmare
Powerful, difficult, and desperately important.
Review: Flick
Razor sharp writing and an impeccable performance. Gritty, witty, and quietly devastating.
Review: I Dream in Colour
A celebratory show from a young blind performer about the right to make one’s own decisions however tough the choices
Review: Troubled
A pacy, emotionally rich, disarmingly funny, and sometimes surreal piece of animated storytelling
Review: UnTethered
UnTethered could be outstanding and groundbreaking. What Tara Sirois does next could, and should, unnerve everyone; including herself.
Review: Extraordinary Women
For a bijou summer in a bottle, this can’t be beaten. Exquisite, painfully funny, and hinting at the depths Mackenzie found to his own chagrin. A gem.
Review: Chiara Atik Poor Clare
Sassy yet profound, probing yet exuberant, it asks all of us: No, don’t look at me. Look at you. A quiet must-see this summer.
Review: Claire Dowie See Primark and Die Finborough
There’s more than a touch of Ken (even more, Daisy) Campbell about the way Dowie structures her circular storytelling. Here it’s at its most consummate, most artful and repays re-reading to catch Dowie at your throat.
Review: Sheridan The Rivals
This company re-thinks Sheridan in his spirit: clear and steady as lead-crystal struck through with sun. The inventiveness of filleting the text to guy the fact of a five-strong cast is part of their distinction. It’s a must-see.
Review: Tolstoy/Phillip Breen Anna Karenina
Potentially a revelation, perhaps a classic: a fully-articulated world around Anna, and not just her ghost.
Review: Mario Banushi Taverna Miresia
Not even the world theatre powerhouse of the Coronet has hosted anything like this. Mario Banushi must be seen.
