Katie Kirkpatrick - Page 5

Katie Arnstein’s new show The Long Run manages to make a tricky topic into something heartfelt, warm, and even, at times, funny. Much of this is due to Arnstein’s welcoming, accessible style of storytelling – as an audience member, it feels like she’s speaking to you directly, with the perfect balance of confidence and vulnerability. Her distinct writing style features plenty of quips, puns, and self-aware nods, making it feel real as opposed to hidden behind theatrical artifice.

Ugly Sisters is one of those shows that leave you wondering what on earth you just watched – and then stays stuck in the back of your mind for days to follow. This follow-up to 52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals features a leafblower, a ballgown, nudity, dirt, and controversial feminist Germaine Greer. It’s a lot, sure, but in this bold, ambitious production, the result is a piece of theatre like no other.

Penthesilea is the queen of the Amazons, a race of warrior women who can only sleep with men they’ve defeated in battle. When she falls for the Greek warrior Achilles, an inevitable tragedy is set in motion. Arbo and the ITA Ensemble bring their version of the myth to the Edinburgh International Festival for its premiere, following her hit EIF production of The End of Eddy in 2022.  

Australian smash hit Fangirls encapsulates everything it is to be a mega fan of something. A sequin-embellished crusade of obsession and desperation, Yve Blake’s musical stretches from euphoric highs to gutting lows, without ever losing its sense of fun.

Intricately weaving together a tapestry of different times and places, Nassim Soleimanpour’s ECHO is a feat of creative technology. Performed by a different celebrated actor each night, the performance offers a sharply intelligent take on immigration and national identity. 

Sarah Power’s Grud is a show about space – in more ways than one. When Bo joins an after school club mission to send a model robot into the stars, it causes the space between her home life and the rest of the world to narrow until it disappears completely. Grud follows sixth form student Bo (Catherine Ashdown), who’s whip-smart but something of a loner.

Ever wanted to experience a sugar rush for nearly two hours straight? Samantha Hurley’s campy dark comedy I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire feels like exactly that. Complete with lipgloss, butterfly clips, and Cosmo mag, it’s a noughties teen fever dream.

Gunter is a messy play. Literally. There’s sand, dirt, blood, confetti, and ink all over the actors and the floor. Fringe company Dirty Hare throw absolutely everything at their canvas, in a piece that includes music to projections to microphones, shadow puppetry, and masks. In this rare gem of a show, however, it all sticks. Usually, when critics refer to a show as ‘messy’, it’s a bad thing. When I call Gunter messy, I mean it with the utmost praise. 

'Why do you want to be a parent?' This expansive, almost unanswerable question is one of many asked to gay couple Zeb and Eoin when they decide they want to adopt. In Breeding, writer Barry McStay unpacks the ‘new normal’ of queer parenthood in a crowd-pleasing narrative that doesn’t shy away from the darker moments.

To say Cable Street has been highly anticipated would be a gross understatement: it’s basically unheard of for a new, Off West End musical to completely sell out its run before a single review has been published. Nevertheless, this little show that could is absolutely deserving of its success, and seems to be destined for great things.

In its basic premise and form, Hir is a very traditional piece of theatre. It follows a typical two-act structure and the whole play takes place in one room with the same four characters. Within this familiar form, however, Mac wreaks havoc on the notion of the nuclear family, exploring what takes place in a family unit without a patriarch.

The Beautiful Future is Coming is a play that’s at once expansive and intimate. In the hidden little underground space of Jermyn Street Theatre, the cast of four lead us on a journey from the past to the future, in a story made up of three separate but connected narratives.

Exhibitionists is, regrettably, not a good play. That’s not to say, however, that it isn’t occasionally a lot of fun. Teetering on the edge of pure camp and exaggerated satire, this bewildering new comedy puts a gay and non-monogamous spin on the classic farce, as fiery exes come face to face at an art gallery.

I’ve often described the kind of work the Hampstead Downstairs produces as ‘academic’ - This Much I Know takes this a step further by transforming the stage into a lecture theatre. Framed through a college lecture, Eureka Day playwright Jonathan Spector’s play spans multiple continents and multiple centuries in search of an answer to its central question: are we responsible for the things that we cause by accident?

2023 has been a big year for theatre. It’s easy to say that every year, but in the past twelve months we have seen a real shakeup of artistic directors, as well as a whole series of new smash hits, from revivals to new musicals to cutting-edge plays. With the pandemic era of closed buildings and Zoom plays fading into memory, theatre is well and truly back and thriving.

There are nine countries in the world with nuclear weapons. And at any second, any one of them could press a button that would put an immediate and catastrophic end to life as we know it. Armed with just a laptop, a projector, a kettle, and some biscuits, Fringe veteran Chris Thorpe faces this reality head-on, and takes us along for the ride.

A solo show that knows what it’s doing, it’s no wonder Feeling Afraid went down so well at the Edinburgh Fringe. Dos Santos’ script takes us in and out of a stand-up set as The Comedian (Samuel Barnett) walks us through his dating mishaps, family relationships, career woes, and thoughts about death.

From the moment the lights go up, Lizzie is a full throttle onslaught of female rage. There's heavy guitars, some serious belting, strobing lights, and plenty of fake blood. Unfortunately, though, the storytelling feels disjointed - it’s not always easy to figure out what exactly is going on, as more and more plot points are loosely alluded to or presented as already known. 

Ghosts of the Near Future is a show about the end of the world, about death, about Las Vegas, about pet cats, and about disappearing. It’s a show about magic acts, and it is one in itself. Performance duo emma + pj turn the Barbican’s Pit Theatre into a post-nuclear Nevada desert, a faded postcard of America. On this stage, the pair tell the story of a magician travelling to Las Vegas, before the show expands into an abstract exploration of both global apocalypse, and the everyday tragedies we experience as little apocalypses of their own. 

Trompe L’Oeil is a French phrase meaning trick of the eye, or optical illusion. Coincidentally, when said out loud it sounds rather a lot like ‘Trump loyal’. Most people who notice this similarity would likely shrug it off and move on with their day. Henry Parkman Biggs, however, decided it would be the perfect title for a musical bewilderingly combining a satire of Trump’s presidency with visuals of Surrealist art, and also, according to the show description, a queer love story.